One of the more obscure artists from the Golden Age of the illustrated book, finding this volume by René Bull (1872–1942) makes up for my earlier dismissal of his Arabian Nights where the illustrations tend towards the comical. This volume dates from 1913, and shows Bull to be a fine exponent of Edwardian Orientalism. Browse the rest of it here or download it here.
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The illustrators archive
Previously on { feuilleton }
• René Bull’s Salomé
• Ronald Balfour’s Rubáiyát
That’s great. Thanks, John.
So serious! The Dover Calla Edition has the Rene Bull illustrations which I’m okay with…however that edition also replaces “sex” with “treason” and whatnot. I bought it for my daughter so I guess that it serves it’s purpose.
These are beautiful. This may just be my amateur eye but I think some of his illustrations are similar to Edmund Dulac.
The Dulac similarity is probably more the setting than the style per se. Dulac was the master of the Orientalist illustration that was so popular then, with a style derived from Persian miniatures. Bull’s painting and figure style is the common type of the period, albeit with some Art Nouveau flourishes here and there.
To my eyes, what the two share most tellingly is the black outlines.