Discover historical illustrations by subject, artist and book.
Creation and rebellion in Blake’s illuminated plates.
Norwegian fairy tales illustrated by Kay Nielsen.
Four colour drawings from a 1908 Gnostic text.
From the dark wood to Paradise with Gustave Doré.
Ethelwynne Quail’s visions of the spirit world.
Art Deco studies of fear by John Vassos.
20 illustrations
A foreground warrior plunges headlong among falling bodies, spread wings and diagonal weapons.
The upright rebel dominates a landscape of flame and broken rock, while a second figure remains lower beside him.
The leader’s raised gesture gathers a dispersed company into an answering host.
Overlapping wings and small bodies fill the air, so that the individual figures become the texture of a vast ascent.
The throne and the converging architecture establish a centre of authority inside an enormous hall.
The standing traveller and the two guardians form a tense group at the threshold.
The figure’s limbs and wings work against a landscape that offers no stable road.
The dark wings cut across a luminous atmosphere, directing the eye towards the world beneath them.
The standing body leans back against the rock, one hand braced beside it and the other lifted behind the head.
The winged observer stands at the right beneath spreading branches, looking towards the garden below.
The two bodies rest within a landscape of water and foliage, making the garden a lived place rather than an empty emblem.
The visitor appears as a bright figure beyond the shaded foreground, while the human pair turn towards the approaching shape.
The raised hand of the winged teacher gives the small group a clear direction of attention.
The central warrior lifts his weapon over an opponent who has dropped low on the clouds.
The foreground reptiles lie close to the water, their heavy bodies contrasting with the small birds in the sky.
The creature’s body stretches across the sea like a ridge of land, with its spout rising against the cloudy sky.
The serpent’s dark coil lies directly beneath the bent figure, creating a quiet meeting between two sharply different bodies.
The two figures are separated by posture: one stands with arms raised towards his head, while the other leans back beside the roots.
Coiling bodies occupy the foreground and gather towards the throne, replacing the organised ranks seen in the earlier council with a tangled mass.
The human figures remain close to the great roots, while the angel waits farther along the dark route through the trees.
27 plates
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10 plates
