Jean de Bosschère’s Folk Tales of Flanders
The illustrations of Belgian artist Jean de Bosschère (1878–1953) aren’t as easy to find as those of his British and American contemporaries so it’s a shame there isn’t more of his idiosyncratic work at the Internet Archive. Folk Tales of Flanders is there, however, an edition from 1918 featuring a number of colour plates and many black-and-white illustrations. For once I prefer the paintings over the line drawings, de Bosschère’s colour work perhaps owes something to Edmund Dulac’s style but it’s a lot more eccentric, especially here where he’s required to depict the activities of a host of anthropomorphic animals. The eccentricities extended to the artist’s life and the books he wrote, one of which is an autobiography entitled Satan l’Obscure (1933). A lighter work, Weird Islands (1921), was featured at BibliOdyssey a couple of years ago.
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4 comments or trackbacks
#1 posted by Nathalie (@spacedlaw)
Apr 12th, 2012
Wonderful.
#2 posted by michelangelo
Apr 12th, 2012
Somewhat in a Dulac vein, but with its own fresh flavour. Nice!
#3 posted by Mr.Bluehaunt
Apr 14th, 2012
Love.
I own a copy of Weird Islands, but I was unaware of these.
Thank you for posting.