Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration #16

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Continuing the delve into back numbers of Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration, the German periodical of art and decoration. Volume 16 covers the period from April 1905 to September 1905, and includes further rectilinear interior design from the Wiener Werkstätte. There’s a lot of architecture in this edition, not all of it very distinctive. Of more interest for me is another feature on the peacock-haunted illustrations of Heinrich Vogeler, and an article about the work of Edward Gordon Craig, an English theatre designer who we’re told was the son of Ellen Terry and, later on, one of the numerous lovers of Isadora Duncan.

As usual, anyone wishing to see these samples in greater detail is advised to download the entire volume at the Internet Archive. There’ll be more DK&D next week.

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Pamela Colman Smith’s Russian Ballet

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Another chance find at the Internet Archive. This small book from 1913 is an appraisal of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes written by noted actress Ellen Terry and with illustrations—which Archive.org doesn’t mention—by Pamela Colman Smith, an artist whose Tarot designs are some of the most successful ever created yet who received little credit for her work while she was alive. It’s a shame that the Internet Archive perpetuates this state of affairs despite her name on the book’s title page. This is a fascinating set of ink sketches all of which are marked by the distinctive monogram familiar from her Tarot cards. One of the drawings in the book is also marked by an obscene doodle; I’ll leave it to the curious to discover which one.

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