Poems by John Keats, illustrated by Robert Anning Bell (1897)
A study of contrasts and harmony in black and white
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty, – that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
— Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats
Robert Anning Bell (1863-1933) is one of my favourite English book illustrators from the turn of the century. He initially trained as an architect for two years before finding success as a book designer and illustrator. Alongside illustrating and painting he also did mosaic work, sculpting and taught at the Liverpool University and Glasgow School of Art.
I wanted to highlight this particular book, Poems by John Keats, as his linework and floral forms go so well with Keats’ poems like Endymion, Lamia and Hyperion. Areas of detail are contrasted with blank swaths, straight lines are offset by a swooping curve, and there’s so much life to the costumes his characters are wearing.
I particularly love some of the head-pieces (illustrations placed before a title/heading). Because they’re much smaller areas to illustrate, and usually forced into a rectangle area, he gets particularly creative with the compositions: they’re a lot more flattened in terms of perspective and characters/nature/elements contort themselves to fit within the constraints of the rectangle (see last image).
Unrelated to the book but if you’re in Sydney one of his paintings is on display at the Art Gallery of NSW.
Selected illustrations
Download the book
See the full book here
More books illustrated by Robert Anning Bell
The Tempest by William Shakespeare
Shakespeare’s Heroines by Anna Jameson