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| Exquisite Illustration - “the heart beat on with a muffled sound”
from "The Tell-Tale Heart"A stunning image of one of Harry Clarke's superb illustrations for Edgar Allan Poe's macabre "Tales of Mystery and Imagination". The collection includes some of the most well-known and loved mystery tales of all time, including "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", "The Pit and the Pendulum", "The Premature Burial", "The Masque of the Red Death", "The Fall of the House of Usher", "Ligeia", "A Descent into the Maelstrom", "The Raven" among others. In the tradition of the House of Hammer films of the 1960s and 1970s, Roger Corman immortalised many of Poe's tales of madness and premature burial in film in the early sixties, featuring such actors as the magnificent Vincent Price, Ray Milland, Basil Rathbone and Peter Lorre.
Irish illustrator, Harry Clarke's (1889-1931) work was heavily influenced by the Art Nouveau movement, and together with Rackham, Neilsen and Dulac, he was one of the finest illustrators of his time. As with Aubrey Beardsley, with whom he is often compared, some of Clarke's finest work was in black and white. A vivid and often macabre imagination informs his work, and his illustrations from Poe are superb.But even yet I refrained and kept still. I scarcely breathed. I held the lantern motionless. I tried how steadily I could maintain the ray upon the eye. Meantime the hellish tattoo of the heart increased. It grew quicker and quicker, and louder and louder every instant. The old man's terror must have been extreme! It grew louder, I say, louder every moment! - do you mark me well I have told you that I am nervous: so I am. And now at the dead hour of the night, amid the dreadful silence of that old house, so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror. Yet, for some minutes longer I refrained and stood still. But the beating grew louder, louder! I thought the heart must burst. And now a new anxiety seized me - the sound would be heard by a neighbour! The old man's hour had come! With a loud yell, I threw open the lantern and leaped into the room. He shrieked once - once only. In an instant I dragged him to the floor, and pulled the heavy bed over him. I then smiled gaily, to find the deed so far done. But, for many minutes, the heart beat on with a muffled sound. This, however, did not vex me; it would not be heard through the wall. At length it ceased. The old man was dead. I removed the bed and examined the corpse. Yes, he was stone, stone dead. I placed my hand upon the heart and held it there many minutes. There was no pulsation. He was stone dead. His eve would trouble me no more. A stunning illustration from “The Tell-Tale Heart” absolutely exquisite detail.
Clarke's fantastical, macabre, and often disturbing illustrations for Poe's work, never shy away from the morbid side of the tales, and if any images of death, decay, madness and obsession, can be said to be exquisite, then these are they - some of the best to be found and they made his reputation as a book illustrator during the golden age of gift-book illustration in the early twentieth century.
Clarke's work has been compared to that of Aubrey Beardsley, Kay Nielsen, and Edmund Dulac but his images are unique and darkly powerful, suiting the tone of the tales perfectly.Mounted on a stunning jet black mount with a slight sheen. |
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