Edmund Dulac, 1911, Illustration from Hans Christian Andersen: The Little Mermaid
“Dashed overboard and fell, her body dissolving into foam…’
(via taxi-x31)
From 1919, A Haunting Take on Edgar Allen Poe
Somewhere between Henry Holiday’s weird paintings for Lewis Carroll and Edward Gorey’s delightfully grim alphabet fall Harry Clarke’s hauntingly beautiful and beautifully haunting 1919 illustrations for Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination—a collection of 29 of Poe’s tales of the magical and the macabre.
So lavish was the artwork that a copy of the “deluxe” Clarke-illustrated edition went for 5 guineas in 1919, or about $300 in today’s money. The book, an epic volume of 480 pages, was eventually reprinted by Calla Editions in 2008, and is now available for the much more reasonable $27, or free with a trip to your local public library.
Eerie and erotic, Clarke’s illustrations bring his Edwardian-era aesthetic and early Art Nouveau influences to the post-Victorian liberated fascination with sensuality.
See more. [Images: Calla Editions] (via Brain Pickings)
(via theredshoes)
Freaks (Tod Browning - 1932)
We accept you, one of us! Gooble Gobble!
(via octupusjam)
Claude Monet
Woman with a Parasol (Madame Monet and their son Jean)
1875
“In many ways we are all sons and daughters of ancient Greece.”
-Nia Vardalos
(via hellenistic-beauty)
(via neoclassic)
Apollo and Daphne by Antonio del Pollaiolo, late 15th century.
(via neoclassic)
Baku
Originating in Chinese folklore, the Baku was a supernatural dream-devourer, eater of nightmares. This being was usually portrayed as a chimera-like creature with elephant trunk and tusks, rhinoceros eyes, tiger paws, and an ox tail. Unlike many yokai, the baku was a helpful spirit, able to ward off nightmares if called upon to do so. A distressed sleeper, upon waking (or even while still asleep) was advised to cry out, “Baku, devour this dream!” The baku would not only remove unpleasant dreams and assure a restful sleep, but could also convert said nightmares into luck.
first image: source needed
second image: Gōjin Ishihara. Baku (dream-eating chimera), Illustrated Book of Japanese Monsters, 1972
third image: Christine Martin
fourth image: Mathew Meyer http://www.matthewmeyer.net/blog/2010/10/04/a-yokai-a-day-baku
