When the World Was a Garden

I think Roy Krenkel was a man who felt out of time and place (as many of us do) and used his art to transport himself. That he ended up transporting us with his work was a bonus, but much of his work was created as a personal vision, imagining worlds far more dangerous and far more interesting than ours. Selling his work was a nuisance that came with the territory.

Below is a print of Krenkel's that I think was published by the legendary Middle Earth Publishers back when they published Frazetta. Roy imagines when the world was a garden. I want to live in the worlds he created.

Grafin Mariza

More vintage sheet music.

Rose of Stamboul

Music sheets are wonderful sources of period graphics. This art by Rebel Stanton, an artist whose work is not easy to find.

Prophetess

The Prophetess Libuse by Karel Vítězslav Mašek, painted in 1893.

Fly to Rio

I'm such a sucker for exotic travel posters.

Artist: von Arenburg

Who Can Save You Now?

Ah, if only the movie was as good as the poster. A Richard Amsel beauty.

30's Chicago

Whatever one might think of Disney's 1990 Dick Tracy movie, there is no doubt of the quality of the production art. Very evocative of 30's Chicago.

Old Days

Another great print from my trove of prints and posters from the old days of Chicago. Another one of my favorites. This has a label on the back stating John Richard Flanagan as the artist/illustrator.

Aphrodite

Another Herbert Draper painting for your scrapbook, Pearls of Aphrodite. If you look down in the shadows of the foreground you'll see a figure, whose drawing study is also included below.

Lovely is Lovely

From a photography magazine of the 50s, a lovely pin-up of Anita Ekberg by photographer Jack Strager evidently won the Pygmalion Award. Lovely is lovely, no matter the decade or century.

Just for the Art

This paperback book cover was pretty effective in getting my attention. Bought the book just for the art by Joe DeVito.

Speak to Me, Chicken-Foot! Speak to Me!

Here we are, another Kelly Sunday. From forty-five years ago, to the day:

Sargent's Murals

John Singer Sargent created some very fine murals in the 1920s. These first 5 images are from L'illustration Magazine, showcasing Sargent's powerful imagery and design.

The Danaides—1925

Apollo with the Hours—1925

Classical and Romantic Art—1921

The Sphinx and the Chimera—1921

Apollo and the Muses—1921

Sargent's Murals

Some of Sargent's finished mural work:

Not Rubbish

A Collier's cover by Lawson Wood, rescued (barely) from a rubbish pile.

Old Pages

It's so much fun to come across old pages that have been hidden away for over a hundred years.

Stream of Consciousness

Only in the interest of a stream of consciousness, the last two posts reminded me of this wonderful Michael Whelan painting for the cover of Burroughs' John Carter of Mars.

Similarity to A Peri

The previous post of Moreau's Peri reminded me of John Duncan's painting of Heptu Bidding Farewell to the City of Obb, painted in 1909, shown below. Sure enough, there is plenty of similarity. Heptu is riding a hippogriff, with the body of a horse, head and wings of an eagle and the tail of a serpent. It was about this time that Duncan visited Paris galleries, seeking out the work of Moreau. They were both symbolists and had similar interests.

'Duncan wished he could find a way whereby he could express the sense of wonder and naturalness he saw in Moreau's work. He wanted to paint in a way similar to the way Moreau worked . . .'   

— John Kemplay

Peri

You're undoubtedly tired of my touting the print/poster/book store that I frequented in late 60s Chicago, but oh I got a lot of great things there. Below is a small print of A Peri by Gustave Moreau (one of my favorites, as I'm sure you're tired of reading), and below that a large postcard of a beautiful Peri fan. And bottom below is an internet grab of the Moreau painting.

A Peri is supposed to have been descended from fallen angels, which is also a version of lore about the Faerie race.

Faerie Queen

It's kinda cool that nudity was cool with the Victorians, as long as its title was mythological or part of faerie lore, as here, entitled Faerie Queen, by Fernand Khnopff, 1892.

Those Were the Days

Frank Godwin was a really good book and advertising illustrator and comic strip artist, as well as my favorite golden age Wonder Woman fill in artist. Here is a lovely set of ads using the same pose motif that was used on the talcum tin. If advertising art was this good now, I'd buy the talcum just for the design. Boy, those were the days.

Look at one of Godwin's Wonder Woman stories here.

The Artist Was There First

Way back in the primitive days when men were walking on the moon, the space shuttle was still a bit of science fiction, with a lot of technology still to be realized. But, as with many dreams, the artist was there first. Here Robert McCall, space artist supreme, successor to Chesley Bonestell, visualized the space shuttle on missions very close to future reality, for a July, 1970 Popular Science magazine article.

Ming a Ding Ding

Another front page of a 1940 Sunday section I've been keeping safe since the 1950s, rescued from my Grandma's basement. This isn't the best of Alex Raymond, but it's certainly not a bad assemblage of panels.

Some panels might be better than others . . .

Les Amours de Pierrot

Raphael Kirchner created a series of paintings for Flo Ziegfeld's Century Theatre lobby called Les Amours de Pierrot, depicting Ziegfeld showgirls as the various loves of Pierrot. Pierrot's dream follows a series of temptresses representing the Deadly Sins and a final one called Expiation, where he pays for his dalliances with his head on Salome's platter.

Pierrot's Dream

Pride

Envy

Sloth

Anger

Les Amours de Pierrot

Temptation, above. Expiation below.

Mythology

Herbert Draper, The Water Nixie. 

This ain't the mythology they taught us in school.

Saturday Nite Kelly Special

I'm going to bed early because I'll be out all day Sunday (to the Renaissance Festival—yay), so I'm posting the Pogo that I'd otherwise put up in the wee hours of  Sunday—the one that was published 45 years ago to the day. This is for the bunch of you people that have gotten in the habit of looking for it first thing Sunday morn.

Clip and Save

Hey kids! Another Herbert Draper image to clip and save! More to come! Collect them all!

"In the Studio"