{"id":22872,"date":"2023-06-05T16:30:28","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T15:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/?p=22872"},"modified":"2024-01-19T19:54:37","modified_gmt":"2024-01-19T19:54:37","slug":"covering-maldoror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/2023\/06\/05\/covering-maldoror\/","title":{"rendered":"Covering Maldoror"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"roy.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This illustration by Jos\u00e9 Roy is a frontispiece created for a rare edition of Les Chants de Maldoror<\/em> published by Genonceaux in 1890. Roy (1860\u20131924) was a French artist whose work receives little attention today but his Maldoror<\/em> illustration happens to be the first of its kind, and a picture that serves the text better than some of those being produced a few years later. The detail of a flayed man stepping out of his skin prefigures Clive Barker by almost a century, a further example of the ways in which Lautr\u00e9amont’s baleful masterpiece was ahead of his time.<\/p>\n

\"maldoror01.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Netherlands, 1917. Cover art by WF Gouwe.<\/em><\/p>\n

Previous posts here have concerned illustrated editions of Maldoror<\/em> but this one is all about the covers. Literary classics aren’t always very rewarding in this respect but Maldoror<\/em>\u2019s textual and imaginative wildness has prompted an assortment of illustrative choices that range from the appropriate to the bewilderingly arbitrary. The following covers are a selection of the more notable examples, avoiding those without pictures or ones that use photographs of the book’s enigmatic author, Isidore Ducasse.<\/p>\n

\"maldoror02.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Italy, 1944. Cover art by Mario De Luigi.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"maldoror26.jpg\"<\/p>\n

France, 1947. Cover and interior illustrations by Jacques Houplain<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Salvador Dal\u00ed was the first well-known artist to illustrate Maldoror<\/em> but his 1934 edition was published with plain black boards. Houplain’s illustrations follow the text more closely than do those by Dal\u00ed, Magritte or Bellmer, all of whom remain preoccupied with their own obsessions.<\/p>\n

\"maldoror03.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Belgium, 1948. Cover and interior illustrations by Ren\u00e9 Magritte<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"maldoror04.jpg\"<\/p>\n

France, 1963. Cover art by Paul Jamotte.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"maldoror05.jpg\"<\/p>\n

USA, 1965. Cover art by Marino Marini.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"maldoror06.jpg\"<\/p>\n

France, 1967. Cover and interior design by Pierre Faucheux<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"maldoror07.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Denmark, 1968. Cover art by Salvador Dal\u00ed.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"maldoror08.jpg\"<\/p>\n

France, 1969. Cover art: Ship and the Red Sun (1925) by Wassily Kandinsky.<\/em><\/p>\n

The first of two random covers from Flammarion. Why Kandinsky, and why this particular painting?<\/p>\n

\"maldoror27.jpg\"<\/p>\n

UK, 1970. Design by Clara Scremini. Cover art: Astaroth by Louis Le Breton from the Dictionnaire Infernal<\/a> (1863).<\/em><\/p>\n

One of my own copies, and the first publication of Alexis Lykiard’s translation. This edition includes several pages of notes which testify to the translation difficulties presented by Maldoror<\/em>\u2019s puns and allusions. The demon from Collin de Plancy’s infernal dictionary is an apt choice, especially when the illustrated edition of de Plancy’s book was published while Isidore Ducasse was still alive.<\/p>\n

\"maldoror09.jpg\"<\/p>\n

France, 1971. Cover art and interior illustrations by Hans Bellmer<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"maldoror10.jpg\"<\/p>\n

USA, 1972. Cover art: Eye (1946) by MC Escher.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"maldoror11.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Germany, 1976. Cover art and interior illustrations by Georg Baselitz.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"maldoror12.jpg\"<\/p>\n

France, 1976. Cover art: The Chariot of Apollo (c.1914) by Odilon Redon.<\/em><\/p>\n

Kandinsky was a strange choice but this one seems wilfully perverse when so many of Redon’s prints could be used as effective cover illustrations.<\/p>\n

\"maldoror13.jpg\"<\/p>\n

UK, 1978. Cover art: Detail from The Deluge towards its Close (c.1813) by Joshua Shaw.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"maldoror14.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Spain, 1982. Cover art: Letter M from Dream Alphabet (c.1683) by Giuseppe Maria Mitelli.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"maldoror23.jpg\"<\/p>\n

UK, 1988. Cover art: Detail from The Premature Burial (1854) by Antoine Wiertz.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"maldoror15.jpg\"<\/p>\n

UK, 1998. Cover art: The Salon of Baron Gros (1850\u201357) photographed by Jean-Baptiste Louis Gros.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"maldoror16.jpg\"<\/p>\n

France, 2001. Cover art: Niob\u00e9 (1947) by Andr\u00e9 Masson.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"maldoror17.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Germany, 2004. Cover art: Detail from The Sacred Wood (1882) by Arnold B\u00f6cklin.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"maldoror18.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Spain, 2009. Cover art: Detail from The Monk by the Sea (1808\u201310) by Caspar David Friedrich.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"maldoror19.jpg\"<\/p>\n

UK, 2011. Cover and interior illustrations by Salvador Dal\u00ed.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"maldoror24.jpg\"<\/p>\n

France, 2012. Cover and interior illustrations by TagliaMani.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"maldoror20.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Argentina, 2015. Cover art: The Enigma of Isidore Ducasse (1920) by Man Ray.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"maldoror21.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Spain, 2016. Cover and interior illustrations by Santiago Caruso<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"maldoror22.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Spain, 2017. Cover art: Henri Le Secq near the ‘Stryge’ chimera (1853) photographed by Charles N\u00e8gre.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"maldoror25.jpg\"<\/p>\n

UK, 2022. Cover and interior illustrations by Karolina Urbaniak<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
\n\u2022 The book covers archive<\/a>
\n\u2022 The Surrealism archive<\/a><\/p>\n

Previously on { feuilleton }
\n\u2022 Kenneth Anger’s Maldoror<\/a>
\n\u2022 Chance encounters on the dissecting table<\/a>
\n\u2022 Santiago Caruso\u2019s Maldoror<\/a>
\n\u2022 Jacques Houplain\u2019s Maldoror<\/a>
\n\u2022 Hans Bellmer\u2019s Maldoror<\/a>
\n\u2022 Les Chants de Maldoror by Shuji Terayama<\/a>
\n\u2022 Polypodes<\/a>
\n\u2022 Ulysses versus Maldoror<\/a>
\n\u2022 Maldoror<\/a>
\n\u2022 Books of blood<\/a>
\n\u2022 Magritte\u2019s Maldoror<\/a>
\n\u2022 Frans De Geetere\u2019s illustrated Maldoror<\/a>
\n\u2022 Maldoror illustrated<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This illustration by Jos\u00e9 Roy is a frontispiece created for a rare edition of Les Chants de Maldoror published by Genonceaux in 1890. Roy (1860\u20131924) was a French artist whose work receives little attention today but his Maldoror illustration happens to be the first of its kind, and a picture that serves the text better … Continue reading “Covering Maldoror”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,42,4,48,16,44,41,18,45],"tags":[5685,3102,4489,267,871,12883,12885,1215,5456,12880,12884,1337,10712,6455,12882,12875,12881,12874,6594,510,7745,4046,241,12879,12877,216,126,12878,3930,115,87,8902,3007,6225,12876],"class_list":["post-22872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-books","category-design","category-illustrators","category-occult","category-painting","category-sculpture","category-surrealism","category-symbolists","tag-alexis-lykiard","tag-andre-masson","tag-antoine-wiertz","tag-arnold-bocklin","tag-caspar-david-friedrich","tag-charles-negre","tag-clara-scremini","tag-clive-barker","tag-collin-de-plancy","tag-georg-baselitz","tag-giuseppe-maria-mitelli","tag-hans-bellmer","tag-isidore-ducasse","tag-jacques-houplain","tag-jean-baptiste-louis-gros","tag-jose-roy","tag-joshua-shaw","tag-kandinsky","tag-karolina-urbaniak","tag-lautreamont","tag-louis-le-breton","tag-maldoror","tag-man-ray","tag-marino-marini","tag-mario-de-luigi","tag-mc-escher","tag-odilon-redon","tag-paul-jamotte","tag-pierre-faucheux","tag-magritte","tag-salvador-dali","tag-santiago-caruso","tag-tagliamani","tag-wassily-kandinsky","tag-wf-gouwe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pq7rV-5WU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22872\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}