Harry Clarke Fairy Tale Illustrations

Check out these beauties! Not one but two fairy tale collections illustrated by the incredibly talented Harry Clarke - Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales and the Classic Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault. I've blogged about my love of Harry Clarke's fairy tale illustrations previously, but I thought I would indulge myself once more. It is almost Christmas, after all.



Harry Clarke was an Irish stained glass artist and book illustrator. His work has been linked to the Art Nouveau and the Irish Arts and Crafts movements. He died of tuberculosis in 1931 at the age of 41. 

Book Illustration

'Cinderella'

'The Tinder Box'

The edition of Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales was originally published in 1916. Andersen's  tales are illustrated by Clarke's 16 colour plates and 24 Art Nouveau inspired black-and-white line drawings. The Perrault commission came later; it was first published in 1922. For this collection, Clarke produced a range of illustrations, including 12 colour images, 12 monotone drawings and a series of chapter headings and end-pieces. As you can see from the pictures above, the draughtsmanship is impressive. The illustrations above demonstrate the influence of Edmund Dulac and Kay Nielson, while the black-and-white drawings are more frequently compared to Aubrey Beardsley.

'The Tell-Tale Heart'

Clarke's best known illustrations include his drawings for Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1919). His illustrations in both colour and black-an-white combine beauty and elegance with the grotesque and disturbing. 

These images were to cement his reputation as a master of his art and led to several subsequent literary commissions including Goethe's Faust and the Selected Poems of Algernon Charles Swinburne. The elongated figures of his illustrations are repeated in his stained glass work, which similarly depicts elaborately robed figures in languid poses.

Interestingly, Clarke's first illustrated work should have been  Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (my absolute favourite poem!). However, the book was never completed. After a number of delays and setbacks, history intervened, and most of Clarke's drawings and blocks were destroyed in the Easter 1916 Rising. The Rime was not to be.

Stained Glass

The Eve of St. Agnes

Although Clarke is better known for his book illustrations, his stained glass work was his career. His glasswork is unusually vivid, noted for its use of bold colours (especially dark blue) and his technique of integrating the leading into his overall designs. 

Though stained glass usually depicts religious figures and symbols, Clarke's work was distinguished for his interest in secular and literary themes. Some of his most celebrated windows include The Eve of St. Agnes (based on the poem by John Keats) at the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery and the nine windows he created for the Honan Chapel at Cork University. Visitors to Dublin can appreciate his mastery over a cup of coffee, as Bewley's café on Grafton Street in Dublin boasts a set of Clarke's decorative windows.

Clarke fell foul of conservatism when he was commissioned by the Irish government to create a window for the International Labour Court in Geneva. The window depicted scenes from literature by many of Ireland's finest authors. However, Clarke's depiction of the drunken Joxer from O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock, as well as material by 'disgraced' writers such as James Joyce, meant that the window was never exhibited by the state. The window is currently on permanent exhibition at the University of Florida in Miami.

The Eve of St. Agnes (detail)

I've yet to lay my hands on the Clarke-illustrated Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales and the Classic Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault, so I haven't provided a book review here. However, I am certain they would be an excellent gift to any child or adult who enjoys classic tales and exquisite illustration.