{"id":2626,"date":"2007-12-12T02:09:17","date_gmt":"2007-12-12T02:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/?p=2626"},"modified":"2008-07-19T20:16:27","modified_gmt":"2008-07-19T19:16:27","slug":"the-art-of-stella-langdale-1880-1976","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/2007\/12\/12\/the-art-of-stella-langdale-1880-1976\/","title":{"rendered":"The art of Stella Langdale, 1880\u20131976"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"langdale1.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Nocturne (aquatint; no date).<\/em><\/p>\n

One of Callum<\/a>‘s recent<\/a> book<\/a> postings<\/a> alerted me to the work of Stella Langdale, an artist and illustrator I hadn’t come across before. Judging from online listings her obscurity would seem to be a result of not having being as productive as some of her contemporaries, and her drawings are a deal more gloomier than the delicate pen-and-ink style that was common in book illustration at the time. But it’s her brooding charcoal masses which I find appealing. As with the better Gustave Dor\u00e9 illustrations, they adumbrate more than they depict by the use of careful composition. Some of her other works are aquatints, a form of etching which allows for similar effects to the graded atmospheres of charcoal.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Three of Langdale’s illustrated books have religious themes, The Dream of Gerontius<\/em> (1916) by Cardinal Newman, Christ in Hades<\/em> (1917) by Stephen Phillips and The Hound of Heaven<\/em> (1922) by Francis Thompson. There’s nothing insipid about these renderings, however, some of her views of Hell give Dor\u00e9 a run for his money while the jagged lightning in one of the pictures below looks like a nod back to the apocalyptic visions of John Martin<\/a>. Other illustrated works included The Little House<\/em> (1920) by Coningsby Dawson and illustrations for the legend of King Arthur.<\/p>\n

\"langdale7.jpg\"<\/p>\n

The Dream of Gerontius: “I went to sleep”.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"langdale2.jpg\"<\/p>\n

The Dream of Gerontius: “Then I was sent from Heaven”. <\/em><\/p>\n

\"langdale3.jpg\"<\/p>\n

The Dream of Gerontius: “Take me away . . .”.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"langdale4.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Christ in Hades:<\/em><\/p>\n

“Dreadful suspended business, and vast life
\nPausing, dismantled piers, and naked frames.
\nAnd further, shapes from obscure troubles loosed,
\nLike mist descended.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"langdale5.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Christ in Hades:<\/em><\/p>\n

“To see these nations burning run through Hell,
\nMagnificently anguished, by the grave
\nUntired; and this last March against the Powers.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"langdale6.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Christ in Hades:<\/em><\/p>\n

“Half in the shining sun upright, and half
\nReposing in the shadow.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2022 A Stella Langdale biography<\/a>
\n(Note: the 1880\u20131976 dates for the artist are given in a list of works on the site above. There’s some confusion about this, however, since the biography page says she died in the 1950s.)
\n\u2022 The Dream of Gerontius at The Victorian Web<\/a>
\n\u2022 A PDF version of Christ in Hades which includes the illustrations<\/a><\/p>\n

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
\n\u2022 The etching and engraving archive<\/a>
\n\u2022 The illustrators archive<\/a><\/p>\n

Previously on { feuilleton }
\n\u2022 Death from above<\/a>
\n\u2022 The apocalyptic art of Francis Danby<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nocturne (aquatint; no date). One of Callum‘s recent book postings alerted me to the work of Stella Langdale, an artist and illustrator I hadn’t come across before. Judging from online listings her obscurity would seem to be a result of not having being as productive as some of her contemporaries, and her drawings are a … Continue reading “The art of Stella Langdale, 1880\u20131976”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,30,42,48,31],"tags":[2343,593,2342],"class_list":["post-2626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-black-white","category-books","category-illustrators","category-religion","tag-francis-danby","tag-gustave-dore","tag-john-martin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pq7rV-Gm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2626","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=2626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2626\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}