{ feuilleton }

And back again

Well that took a lot longer than it should have done but as I mentioned earlier, the break has enabled me to catch up with some pressing deadlines. Despite the delay the server move seems to have gone better than in the past, and should have the advantage of making this part of the site run a lot more efficiently than it has done when a horde of vistors turn up looking for gay erotica.

I’ve lots of news to post about recent work but for now here’s a picture of Baron Munchhausen on his aquatic horse, a rendering from 1896 by Gottfried Franz (1846–1905) which can be seen at very large size at Wikimedia Commons. Onward!

Hiatus

The server swap is still ongoing here so, for technical reasons I won’t bore anyone with, I’m taking a short break until things are sorted out. Yesterday’s post and a couple of recent comments may vanish for a while but if they do they should be restored soon after. A break would be useful this week in any case since I have a number of competing deadlines to attend to. See you on the other side!

Fascinating tentacula

Histioteuthis ruppellii.

Suckered pseudopods flex and writhe again this week with simultaneous postings at BibliOdyssey and Sci-Fi-O-Rama. Coincidence or some cephalopodic zeitgeist thing? You decide. BibliOdyssey has a fine set of natural history plates showing various squid and octopuses while Sci-Fi-O-Rama presents a small collection of illustrations by Barnaby Ward. If it’s boys and tentacles you want (and who doesn’t?), then there’s always the art of NoBeast.

Untitled drawing by Barnaby Ward.

Ernst Haeckel remains my favourite tentacle illustrator, and the octopus below is one of his examples from Kunstformen der Natur (1899–1904). Somewhere (although Cthulhu knows where) I have a drawing by Hal Foster from one of his Prince Valiant strips showing a sinister octopus in a pit which is almost a match for Haeckel’s, and may even have been based on it. If I ever find it again I’ll post it here. Meanwhile, China Miéville’s Kraken is currently lurking on bookshelves, and let me remind you again that he discusses that novel and other works over at Salon Futura. While we’re on the subject, let’s not forget the Octopulps.

Octopus by Ernst Haeckel.

Finally, a note to say that my webhost is moving this site to a new server which may cause some disruption to these pages for the next few days. As always, your patience is appreciated.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Jewelled butterflies and cephalopods
• Haeckel fractals
• Ernst Haeckel, Christmas card artist
• The art of Rune Olsen
• Octopulps
• The art of NoBeast

The art of Ignacio Goitia

Pasión por Canaletto (2005).

Ignacio Goitia is a Spanish artist whose depictions of opulent aristocracy manage to be subversively homoerotic thanks to the addition of figures we can interpret as boyfriends, sex slaves or wish-fulfilling phantasms; Ludwig II would no doubt approve of the sentiment even if he disagreed with some of the decor. Goitia’s art increases the Surrealist incongruity in other paintings with a preponderance of giraffes, although none of them appear to be burning à la Dalí. You’ll have to browse his galleries to see how he uses them.

Another Thombeau tip—thanks Tom!

Royal couple (2010).

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The gay artists archive

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Schloss Neuschwanstein

Combinaisons Ornementales

After writing about Charles J Strong’s Book of Designs a couple of days ago, it seems pertinent to point the way to a far more essential Art Nouveau design book which can also be found at the Internet Archive. Combinaisons Ornementales was a collaboration between Maurice Verneuil, George Auriol and Alphonse Mucha published in 1901, and comprises 60 plates of beautifully elegant designs (“multipliable to infinity with the aid of a mirror”) which range from Mucha’s abstractions to Verneuil’s flower motifs. The examples shown here are all by Mucha; I borrowed one of the flourishes and the peacock feather for the Dodgem Logic cover design earlier this year.

For a quick look at all the plates, the NYPL Digital Gallery has scans. Mucha produced another design book the following year, Documents Decoratifs, although I’ve yet to see an edition of that online.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Charles J Strong’s Book of Designs
• Mucha’s Zodiac
• Dodgem Logic #4
• Peacocks