Heinrich Vogeler – Page 4

Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration #10: Turin and Vienna

Turin exposition poster by Leonardo Bistolfi.

Part two of a two-part skate through the contents of volume 10 of Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration, the German periodical of art and decoration. In addition to the Heinrich Vogeler feature which was the subject of yesterday’s post, this edition includes articles on the Prima Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte Decorativa Moderna in Turin—another international showcase for the Art Nouveau style—and a feature on the Viennese Secession exhibition of the same year. This latter piece was especially fascinating when seeing such a notable event reported for the first time. There’s more about that below. This volume also includes a piece on the Glasgow Arts and Crafts movement but the photos for that piece are poor quality. As before, 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.

A feature on dress design shows some rare examples of Art Nouveau style being applied to clothing.

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Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration #10: Heinrich Vogeler

Continuing the delve into back numbers of Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration, the German periodical of art and decoration. Volume 10 covers the period from April to September 1902. There’s so much of interest in this edition I thought it worth making a two-part post. The number opens with a substantial piece devoted to artist and illustrator Heinrich Vogeler (1872–1942) whose edition of Oscar Wilde stories was featured here a while ago. One of the pleasures of this journal is the attention they devote to overlooked artists. Vogeler has an unusual and distinctive style, playful and florid, and with the same enthusiasm for filling the paper with tiny details as later illustrators such as Harry Clarke. Some of these illustrations are for fairy stories, others for more adult fare; peacocks abound. The article also has examples of his painted work although I find his line drawing to be of greater interest. As before, anyone wishing to see these samples in greater detail is advised to download the entire volume at the Internet Archive. Part two follows tomorrow.

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Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration #4

Continuing the delve into back numbers of Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration, the German periodical of art and decoration. There isn’t a volume 3 in the Internet Archive collection, hence the jump in the series to volume 4 which covers the period from April–September 1899. This edition features a few more familiar names beginning with artist and illustrator Heinrich Vogeler whose illustrated edition of Oscar Wilde stories was featured here last year. Vogeler’s work isn’t always to my taste although I liked his Wilde drawings; the Tod und Alte piece above is an exception to his usual work of this period rather than the rule. Elsewhere there’s a feature on the graphic designs of Paul Bürck, a profile of Dutch Symbolist Jan Toorop and a report on the Dresden art exhibition of 1899 which includes an array of beautiful Art Nouveau interiors. As with all such idealised exhibition displays, they point the way to a future that was never to be.

More DK&D next week.

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Wildeana 4

I could make these posts a lot more often since there’s seldom a week goes by when Oscar Wilde’s work or something from his life isn’t making the news somewhere. I forget now how I came across the Robert Hichens book but the Beardsley-derived cover design is the best I’ve seen for this title. The Green Carnation was first published in 1894 and is the notorious roman à clef whose lead characters, Esmé Amarinth and Lord Reginald Hastings, are based on Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas. Hichens paints the pair as very obvious inverts with none of the “is he or isn’t he?” subtlety that Wilde managed to sustain in public. For a scandalised London the book seemed to confirm what was already suspected about Wilde and Bosie’s relationship.

The cover art is credited to one John Parsons, an illustrator whose other work, if there is any, eludes the world’s search engines. This edition was published in 1949 by Unicorn Press and it’s something I’m tempted to buy as a companion for my Unicorn Press edition of Dorian Gray.

The following links are to recent articles spotted whilst looking for other things:

• Oscar Wilde, Classics Scholar. A review of The Women of Homer by Oscar Wilde, edited by Thomas Wright and Donald Mead.
• A new Broadway production of The Importance of Being Earnest has actor Brian Bedford playing Lady Bracknell.
• Buyers go Wilde for Oscar as short note to his friend sells for €1,500.
• Outsmarted: What Oscar Wilde could teach us about art criticism.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The Oscar Wilde archive
• The book covers archive

Wildeana 3

Some recent pieces of Wilde news. The cover above is for a new edition of Teleny and Camille, Jon Macy‘s comic strip adaptation of the erotic novel attributed to Oscar Wilde and members of his Uranian circle:

Teleny is the haunted musical genius that everyone desires but no one has truly touched… until the fateful night that he senses Camille’s presence in the audience. The wealthy young man is instantly seduced by Teleny’s dark beauty and smoldering melancholy. This groundbreaking and powerful early gay novel, written in secret by Oscar Wilde and his anonymous circle of writers, is now re-interpreted as a graphic novel, in all its lush, pansexual excess.

I wrote something about the novel last year. I’m not convinced that Wilde penned the whole thing but I can see places where he may have contributed. There’s a marvellous scene in an all-white room, for example, which seems inspired by the obsessive decor in Des Esseintes’ house from À rebours, the novel which had a great influence on Dorian Gray (both book and character). I’d been intending on writing something substantial about Macy’s adaptation all summer but failed dismally due to a deluge of deadlines. Suffice to say it’s a very accomplished and (most important) erotic work, doing full justice to a story that makes many later erotic novels seem timid and evasive. The drawings are black-and-white throughout which gives a Beardsley-like quality in places, and Macy conveys a period feel without fretting over details as I’m afraid I’d be tempted to do. Northwest Press have published the new edition and have a selection of reviews here.

For the other Wildeana, Lambda Literary had a review of a new book by Matthew Hofer and Gary Scharnhorst, Oscar Wilde in America: The Interviews which sounds like another essential purchase. And the Independent had this story about a sale of Wilde letters which included one to a magazine editor that may be read as a proposition. Readers of Neil McKenna’s The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde will be familiar with the form and know that there’s no “maybe” about it; Priapus was calling.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The gay artists archive
• The Oscar Wilde archive