Picturing Poe: A Recommended Exhibit

Hello Ink Puddlers!  I have not been as diligent in my postings of late, but I hope to change that very soon.  My latest post is an outright recommendation for anyone in the Mid-Atlantic area to visit the Brandywine River Museum, especially before November 15 in order to see "Picturing Poe: Illustrations for Edgar Allan Poe's Stories and Poems."  I thoroughly enjoyed this exhibition, brought to my attention by my awesome girlfriend.  If you like Edgar Allan Poe, the macabre, or book illustration, you need to check this out.  And while you are at the Brandywine, you can also see their wonderful collection of three generations of the Wyeth family of artists.

Click on the image above to visit the Brandywine River Museum website

What I loved about this exhibit is that it combines original works of well known artists who have contributed to book illustration history, such as Arthur Rackham, Aubrey Beardsley, and Edmund Dulac, with some surprising contributions by even more well-known fine artists such as Édouard Manet and Paul Gauguin. Throw in some abstract, comic book, and digital art into the mix, and you've got yourself an awesome little exhibit just in time for Halloween.

An engraving for "The Raven" based on a work by Gustave Doré

One of my favorite works to view were the original ink wash compositions by famed book illustrator Gustave Doré.  You can see his layers of pencil and ink, and even some corrections and missteps in his wonderful gray tone ink works.  If you get a chance to look at his illustrations as printed, you can see how engravers would copy near perfectly the image and yet add fascinating detail and clarity to the work for it to be printed.

An Édouard Manet lithograph for Le Corbeau

You can also view Manet's contribution to modern book illustration with his lithographs for Le Corbeau, The Raven (1875).  In fact, you can view many works by prominent European artists and illustrators who were entranced by Poe's works.

An Arthur Rackham illustration for Poe's Tales of Mystery and Imagination 

And I know my girlfriend would agree that you can view multiple illustrations for the same work, sometimes even the same exact scene in one of Poe's stories, and you are not bored.  I think it is fascinating to see several artists' take on the narrative, mood, and visual imagery of a particular scene.  This exhibit gets high marks from me, and I encourage anyone interested in book illustration or Edgar Allan Poe to see it.