commonplace book : december 2024
6 hours ago
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Who Is This Artist?
That is a real question. Here is a selection of some art (second generation photocopies, courtesy of Ned Brooks), that was offered for sale nearly thirty years ago as by Donald Corley. Yet the art itself does not resemble any of Corley's that I have seen (in his books, in inscriptions, and in a portfolio issued in 1921), nor does the handwriting look like Corley's. (This art has a finer line, and a different kind of humor than Corley's art has.) Yet it does seem to date from the 1920s. Does anyone recognize the art or artist? (Click to enlarge.)
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These are supposed to be done by the same artist? The first two seem very different from the other three.
ReplyDeleteThe first is composed of tracings of other artists' work. I recognize very famous cartoonists like E.C. Segar, Max Fleischer, Bill DeBeck and Walter Berndt. Reminds me of what Henry Darger did but he traced from coloring books and newspaper ads not comic strips.
The lot is composed of more than two dozen images, and I selected five to represent them. They do seem to be of a whole, looked at overall (some are definitely related to others---the Van Gogh piece has companion pieces on Cezanne and Gauguin). But it's primarily that they were all collected and saved together that leads to the conclusion that they are by one artist.
DeleteThey sort of remind me of John R. Neill's work He illustrated some of L. Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz books back around 1904. The child in the first picture looks like his work, but then, all those faces around the kid look like something from Snuffy Smith or Popeye.
ReplyDeleteThe first artist that comes to me is Henry Darger. I’m pretty much certain it’s not his work. This guy is all over the map with his influences and references. Michelangelo to Van Gogh; Felix the Cat to Sherazade are all juxtaposed together. He does show a vivid imagination and possess a certain talent. I’m stumped but I’ll keep my eyes open to anything that might lead to solving this mystery man’s identity.
DeleteI do see some elements similar to Darger (e.g., the crowded composition), but agree that it's pretty certainly not Darger (who, for one, was Chicago based while this art apparently came from New York). Also there is a vein of wickedness to this art.
DeleteCould it be someone who, in addition to illustrations, also did stage flats or mural design? I notice that on the Van Gogh piece, at the bottom there is notation that could be interpreted as "-3'-" or in other words 3 feet across the base of the piece? And on the "Three Gray Sisters" piece there is notation that appears to read "In front of last s...[broken off/indecipherable]" Just grasping at straws here. The work looks really familiar and it's kind of driving me crazy.
ReplyDeleteSome of these could indeed be for the stage. Good observation!
DeleteI notice on the "Three Gray Sisters" piece that there is also notation of the German, which may indicate it was associated with Goethe's Faust (which the male character certainly hearkens towards). Less likely is an allusion to Wagner's work where he adapts the Norns (Fates) into his musical dramas. Either way, it indicates the artist's familiarity with or influence by a German adaptation of the sisters, and a familiarity with the German language, even if casual and literature-based.
ReplyDeleteDarn. Although I now notice in Faust it is customarily FOUR gray sisters. Hmmm.
ReplyDeleteThe "Three Gray Sisters" are in the Perseus legend. For whatever that's worth!
DeleteIt looks kind of like the work of Gilette Burgess to me.
ReplyDeleteDoug, they remind me of Mahlon Blaine.
ReplyDeleteSean, that sounds (looks?) like the best guess I've seen yet! And he did participate in the range of material that these samples suggest, according to this quote: "Within a short time his work was published in everything ranging from children's books and mainstream magazines to erotic portfolios." http://www.mahlonblaine.com/ Oddly, there isn't a Wikipedia page for him.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sean and Michelle. Blaine usually has a more intricate shading, but I've just looked through two books of his artwork, THE OUTLANDISH ART OF MAHLON BLAINE (2009), ed. by Brian J. Hunt, and Roland Trenary's fine MAHLON BLAINE: ONE-EYED VISIONARY (2013), and I see similarities in the (regrettably few) instances when Blaine did simple line drawings. Particularly his use of the profile, and the staging of the figures is similar. No definitive touches, but so far Blaine seems the best possibility.
DeleteYou're welcome, Doug. I was introduced to Blaine's work years ago at a book fair by a creepy dealer who literally took me aside like a pornographer to show me a portfolio of Blaine's erotic art. Erotic is probably too tame a word to use, though, because some of those works are very sexually explicit, rendered in an incongruous cartoon style. I have to admit I've never been a big fan. His work is a little too grotesque for me, and that picture of Van Gogh's head on a platter with blood dripping on Salome (?) seems just the sort of thing he'd draw. I think the explicit sexuality and not-always-successful mix of humor with horror (which Gahan Wilson and Charles Addams and Edward Gorey figured out how to do successfully) limited his audience and led to his obscurity. Also, the fact that he worked in too many fields, as the quote Michelle found points out. It's strange that he was hired late in life to illustrate several E.R.B. books!
DeleteHello there. Fun images. Not Blaine, though. Looks kind of like Nino Carbe in his faux-Blaine mode. Any other Blaine questions, I'm here to ask. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThanks for writing in, Roland. Nino Carbe is the best guess yet. There are resemblances with Carbe's book illustrations for Frankenstein (New York: Illustrated Editions Company, 1932), particularly in the macabre faces.
DeleteLooking again through the images I had from Harold Mott, I still don't know who the artist is. Mott thought it was Corley. I don't think it was Corley or Carbe or Blaine. There is an armorial shield with the initials "RF" and multiple examples of art-promotion images marked "SF _ art". Could this have been an artist with initials RF in San Francisco c.1930?
ReplyDelete