Harry Clarke Revisited

Works by the great Irish illustrator Harry Clarke, circa 1910–1930 1913, for "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" ("The souls did from their bodies fly") I put this post together in October 2012 and for some reason never unleashed it—better late than never. If I remember correctly most of these scans come from Nicola Bowe's The Life and Work of Harry Clarke. From James White's preface to the Bowe book, here is Clarke's eldest son Michael discussing his father:"...the priests did make an indelible mark on every sensitive child who listened with care: he would have a grim understanding of the quality of hell and an idealised version of an improbable Paradise. Thus Harry Clarke would carry into the world a comforting picture of the glories of salvation joined inevitably to a fascination with the terror of damnation which had particular bearing on those matters of sensual indulgence which his masters constantly trumpeted as a major road to eternal fire. He would never be a devout Catholic, but would never decry it in others. Much of religion in which he did not believe he found aesthetically pleasing. The peripheral rules he found an irritation. The deeper mysteries filled him with awe." Also: "Michael has described how his father loved swimming with them, organizing games of all sorts, and would write them amusing letters enclosing illustrations and altered photographs signed with the melancholy nom-de-plume J. Sick..." See all Harry Clarke posts on 50 Watts 1915, for "Rime of the Ancient Mariner"1913, for De Profundis (Wilde)1920, "Out on the wind of Time, shining and streaming," illustration to Rupert Brooke's "The Great Lover"1925, Faust and Mephistopheles, end-piece to Faustdetail1914, Hibernia, calendar design for an insurance company1923, Christmas card1917, cover for fifth exhibition of Arts and Crafts Society1925, unpublished illus. of Garden scene in Faust1928, design for panel, Geneva Window, based on Yeats' "Countess Cathleen"1924, illus. for Clemence Dane, Women Voters and the Death Penalty, Good Housekeeping1924, The Devil's Wife and her Eldest1925, Dublin Drama Leaguedetail1913, Silver Apples of the Moon1925, Ophelia (or Lobster), after Hokusai1913, The Dream, Pope, The Rape of Lock, 19131925, Mephistopheles, for Faust (misshapen bodies with wormlike heads)1925, The Street, from Faust1925, The Two Distilleries on the Same Hill, for Warren, Elixir of Lifec. 1920, untitled1917, The Mad Mulrannies, Synge's Playboy of the Western World1922, The Last Hour of the Night, illus. to Dublin of the Future1923, cover for Lennox Robinson's playsPoe's Tales of Mystery and Imagination illustration, mixed media on paperdetail1923, from dustjacket for Poe's Tales of Mystery and Imagination1923, first US edition of Poe's Tales of Mystery and Imaginationcaricature self portrait in medieval garret See all Harry Clarke posts on 50 Watts This post first appeared on October 30, 2013 on 50 Watts.