Howard Simon - 500 Years of Illustration: From Albrecht Durer to Rockwell Kent

500 YEARS
OF
Illustration

F ROM A LBRECHT D RER
TO R OCKWELL K ENT

HOWARD SIMON

D OVER P UBLICATIONS , I NC .
M INEOLA , N EW Y ORK

Bibliographical Note

This Dover edition, first published in 2011, is an unabridged republication of the work originally published by The World Publishing Company, Cleveland and New York, in 1942 under the title 500 Years of Art & Illustration . The original foldout plates from the 1942 edition, located between pages 36 and 37, appear here as an eight-page section in its original position in the book.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Simon, Howard, 19031979.

[500 years of art & illustration]

500 years of illustration : from Albrecht Drer to Rockwell Kent / Howard Simon. Dover ed.

p. cm.

Originally published: 500 years of art & illustration. Cleveland [Ohio] : World Pub. Co., 1942.

Includes index.

ISBN-13: 978-0-486-48465-5

ISBN-10: 0-486-48465-3

1. Illustration of books. 2. Illustrators. I. Title. II. Title: Five hundred years of illustration : from Albrecht Drer to Rockwell Kent.

NC960.S5 2011

741.64dc23

2011022648

Manufactured in the United States by Courier Corporation
48465301
www.doverpublications.com

To Mina

A NOTE OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I AM GRATEFUL to artists, authors and publishers who have graciously and generously cooperated in the making of this book. Special acknowledgment is made here to The Macmillan Company of New York and London for permission to reproduce the illustrations of Boris Artzybasheff from Behind Moroccan Walls by Henriette Celaire; for permission to reproduce the illustrations of Wilfred Jones from The Rise of American Civilization by Charles A. and Mary R. Beard; for permission to reproduce the illustrations of Agnes Miller Parker from Through the Woods by H. E. Bates and for permission to use the illustrations of Gwen Raverat from The Runaway. Special acknowledgment is likewise made to Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, for permission to use illustrations by John Farleigh from Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God by George Bernard Shaw. To Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York, acknowledgment is made for permission to use the illustrations of Henry C. Pitz from Lumberjack by Stephen C. Meador and for permission to use the illustrations of James Reid from The Lapp Mystery by S. S. Smith.

Acknowledgment is made to Longmans Green and Company, for permission to use the illustrations of James H. Daugherty from Courageous Companions by Charles J. Finger and illustrations from The Farmers Year, written and engraved by Clare Leighton. Acknowledgment is also made to Harper and Brothers, New York, for permission to use the work of Howard Pyle from Howard Pyles Book of Pirates; and to Henry Holt and Company of New York for permission to use the illustrations of J. J. Lankes from A Woodcut Manual; to The Viking Press, New York, for permission to use the illustrations of Ilse Bischoff from In Calico and Crinoline by Eleanor Sickels; to Covici-Friede, for permission to use the work of Leopoldo Mendez and Jos Guadalupe Posada from Contemporary Mexican Artists by Agustn Velzquez Chvez; to Faber and Faber of London for permission to use Rex Whistlers illustrations from The Lord Fish by Walter de la Mare; and to William Jackson (Books) Ltd., London, for permission to reproduce the decorations of Shakespeares As You Like It. Acknowledgment is also made to Random House, New York, for permission to reproduce the work of Lynd Ward from Vertigo, A Novel in Woodcuts and for permission to use the illustrations from N by E, written and illustrated by Rockwell Kent; to Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York, for permission to use the illustrations of Gordon Grant from his book Sail Ho!

Acknowledgment is likewise made to Constable and Company, London, for the use of Arthur Rackhams illustrations from Little Brother and Little Sister and Other Tales by the Brothers Grimm; to Coward McCann, Inc., New York, for the use of illustrations from Millions of Cats, written and illustrated by Wanda Gg; to Oxford University Press, New York and London, for permission to use the illustrations of Helen Sewell from A First Bible; to the John C. Winston Company of Philadelphia for permission to use the illustrations of Kurt Wiese from Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Foreman Lewis. Acknowledgment is also made to Tosspo, Warsaw, for illustrations by St. O. Chrostowski, T. Cieslewski, T. Kulisiewcs, W. Skoczylas, L. Tyrowicz from Polish Art by Mieczyslaw Treter; to Blue Ribbon Books, New York, for permission to use the illustrations of John Austen from Don Juan by Lord Byron; to Rarity Press, New York, for permission to use the illustrations of Robert Gibbings from Gustave Flauberts Salammbo; to the magazine Story Parade, New York, for permission to use the illustrations of Grace Paull from Mr. Bumps in Volume II, Nos. 3, 4, and 5 and of Boris Artzybasheff from The Seven Simeons, Volume II, Nos. 3, 4 and 5; to E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc. for the use of Eric Gills decorations from The Temple Shakespeare; to Modern Age Books, Inc., New York, for permission to use illustrations by Howard Simon from Old Hell by Emmett Gowan. Acknowledgment is also due to The American Russian Institute for permission to use the illustrations on pages 292-297.

Reproductions of De Claris Mulieribus, Hans Holbeins The Dance of Death and the Portrait of Erasmus; the works of William Hogarth, Goya, Thomas Rowlandson, Thomas Bewick, John Leech, William Morris, Auguste le Pre, and Kathe Kllwitz, were made by courtesy of The New York Public Library from originals in the Print Room of the Library, and the author gratefully acknowledges the friendly cooperation of Dr. Frank Weitenkampf, Director, and Henry Meier, his assistant. He also wishes to thank Herbert Williams, Orrick Johns, who gave his time generously to the preparation of the manuscripts, and finally the great debt he owes to his wife, Mina Lewiton, who edited and revised the entire manuscript.

H. S.

The valuable recommendations and suggestions of Mr. Jerome Darwin Engel, in connection with the preparation and organization of this book, are cordially acknowledged.

T HE P UBLISHERS .

CONTENTS

HENRI TOULOUSE-LAUTREC

INTRODUCTION

O NE OF the distinguishing marks of a great book is the persistence with which it is illustrated. The Bible, Cervantes Don Quixote, the works of Shakespeare and Rabelais, Pilgrims Progress, Aesops Fables are all among the much illustrated books. Almost every generation demands the classics in modern dress, set forth pictorially by a favorite modern hand. There scarcely has been a generation without its interpreter of the worlds great books.

On the subject of fine bookmaking there have always been two different schools of thought. There are those who would decorate a book with clear, beautiful type, print it on good paper and allow, at most, a printers flower to decorate the page. And there are the others to whom an illustrated book is an enriched one. This present work is intended primarily for those of the second group. Its purpose is to treat of illustration apart from its type surroundings, not forgetting, however, the limitations that type imposes upon it.

An exhaustive work on the subject of book illustration would, of necessity, run to many volumes and include many more illustrators than are represented in the following chapters. If this book, however, will serve as an introduction and as an impetus to further study in the fascinating field of book illustration, then at least, the main purpose of the author will have been accomplished.