Illustrations Art Gallery

Harry Clarke – Illustrations for Faust 1925

Harry Clarke (March 17, 1889 – January 6, 1931) was an Irish stained-glass artist and book illustrator. Born in Dublin, he was a leading figure in the Irish Arts and Crafts Movement.

Harry Clarke the younger was exposed to art (and in particular Art Nouveau) at an early age. He went to school in Belvedere College in Dublin. By his late teens, he was studying stained glass at the Dublin Art School. While there his The Consecration of St. Mel, Bishop of Longford, by St. Patrick won the gold medal for stained glass work in the 1910 Board of Education National Competition.

Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend, based on the historical Johann Georg Faust (c. 1480–1540).

The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroads, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. The Faust legend has been the basis for many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical works that have reinterpreted it through the ages. “Faust” and the adjective “Faustian” imply a situation in which an ambitious person surrenders moral integrity in order to achieve power and success for a limited term.

Presenting the illustrations by Harry Clarke for the Limited edition of Faust. Published by George G. Harrap, London, 1925.

Other books illustrated by the great Harry Clarke are also available for perusal in our gallery: The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault, Selected Poems of Charles Swinburne, Tales of Mystery and Imagination, Andersen’s Fairy Tales, Year’s at the Spring.

Art Gallery: Harry Clarke – Faust 1925

BOOKSTORE: Rare, Antiquarian, First editions, Illustrated Children's Books

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