Introduction
The Kennesaw State University (KSU) Department of Museums, Archives and Rare Books presents exhibitions, public programs, archival collections, and educational services supporting KSU’s mission and encouraging dialogue about the past and its significance today.
This module presents a survey of materials from the Bentley Rare Book Museum that demonstrate the history of illustration from the thirteenth century to the present day. Contextual information accompanies each item along with critical-thinking questions and links to relevant external resources. All items featured in this module are held by the Bentley Rare Book Museum and are available for research.
Background Image: Bentley Rare Book Museum, 2020. Courtesy of the Bentley Rare Book Museum.
Illuminated Manuscripts
During the Middle Ages, European monks and scribes wrote texts by hand and compiled them into books. These handwritten texts are known as manuscripts and were generally written on parchment, or animal skin. Many of these manuscripts were beautifully decorated or "illuminated" with colors, also by hand. The colors were generally made from mineral and vegetable dyes mixed with egg whites. Manuscript leaves are the most abundant of all surviving materials from the medieval era.
Background Image: Manuscript leaf on vellum, circa thirteenth century. Courtesy of the Bentley Rare Book Museum
Decorated Books of Hours
Books of Hours were prayer and devotional books created for the public during the late Middle Ages. In Europe, many wealthy people had their Books of Hours illuminated with illustrations and decorative letters and borders.
Featured artistic technique: manuscript illumination
Questions to consider
- Closely observe the three leaves above. Describe the illuminations and the details you notice. What tools do you think the scribe and illuminator used?
- What colors and styles are present in these leaves? Why do you think the illuminator chose these colors?
- What can we infer about the structure or content of the text by examining these illuminations?
Early Relief Printing
Relief printing originated in China. A woodcut or woodblock illustration is one of the oldest forms of relief printing and was invented circa 700. To make a woodcut, an artist draws images or characters, in reverse, onto a block of wood and carves them out with a gouge. The design is then inked and impressed onto paper.
Background image: Woodcut illustration from Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, Printed by Johann Grüninger, 1501, Courtesy of the Bentley Rare Book Museum.
Illustrations and Early Printed Books
Featured artistic technique: Woodcuts
Questions to Consider:
- Carefully observe the leaves and woodcuts above from a 1501 printing of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy and the 1542 printing of Chaucer's works. Describe the structure of each leaf, making notes about the placement of illustrations and text.
- Take a closer look at the woodcut featured in the Consolation of Philosophy leaf. What do you notice about the continuity of the illustration?
Eighteenth-Century Highlights
Engraving is an intaglio printmaking process in which lines are cut into a metal plate in order to hold the ink. In engraving, the plate can be made of copper or zinc.
-The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Etching is an intaglio process where the copper plate is covered with a wax ground; the design is then scratched into the wax and bitten into the metal using nitric acid. Etching allows more freedom and variety of line than engraving.
-Rare Book School, University of Virginia
Background Image: Frontispiece from volume I of The works of Shakespear [sic] in six volumes, 1744. Courtesy of the Bentley Rare Book Museum.
Shakespearean Illustrations by Sir Francis Hayman (1708-1776) and Hubert-Francois Gravelot (1699-1773)
Featured artistic technique: drawing--etching
Questions to consider:
- How do the appearances of these illustrations differ from the woodcuts featured earlier in this module?
- Based on what you know about dress and style during Shakespeare's day (1564 - 1616), how did the artists reinterpret the scenes for eighteenth-century audiences?
Nineteenth-Century Highlights: Gillray, Cruikshank, and Doré
The Bentley Rare Book Museum houses a vast number of nineteenth-century prints and illustrated books. Some pieces are religious or educational in nature while others reinterpret and enrich literary works. Others are wildly satirical. Artists highlighted in this section of the module include James Gillray, George Cruikshank, and Gustave Doré.
Background Image: Illustration from Milton's Paradise Lost, Illustrated by Gustave Doré, 1882. Courtesy of the Bentley Rare Book Museum.
James Gillray (1756-1815), Caricaturist and Printmaker
James Gillray was a British artist extremely well-known for his social and political caricatures, particularly those mocking the royal family in England. These funny and often derisive illustrations influenced many later satirists and political cartoonists.
Featured artistic technique: Hand-colored etching--printing
Questions to consider:
- Describe the elements of life that Gillray exaggerates in this print.
- How do the colors, lines, and overall style add to the scene?
- How does Gillray use the room as an extension of the women's imagination?
George Cruikshank (1792-1878)
George Cruikshank was a well-known British caricaturist and book illustrator during the early and mid-nineteenth century. He began his career as a political cartoonist and satirist, at one point becoming a rival of James Gillray. Cruikshank later became wildly popular for illustrating Sketches by Boz and Oliver Twist, both written by Charles Dickens.
Featured artistic technique: drawing--engraving--printing--hand-coloring
Questions to Consider:
- How do the Cruikshanks portray life in nineteenth-century London?
- Who are the people depicted in this illustration, and what are they doing? (The line below the illustration can provide a hint). How do the colors highlight certain aspects of the scene?
Gustave Doré (1832 - 1883)
Gustave Doré was a French artist and illustrator best known for his wood engravings. He often illustrated scenes in nature and fantasy. Doré illustrated many classic works including The Holy Bible and works by John Milton, Miguel de Cervantes, Dante Alighieri, Edgar Allan Poe, and others.
Featured artistic techniques: drawing--wood engraving--printing
Questions to consider
- How do Doré's illustrations dramatize elements of nature?
- Describe Doré's use of light and darkness and discuss how this element impacts the scene as a whole.
- How might these illustrations impact how readers interpret stories in the Christian Bible?
Early Comics: The Work of Rodolphe Töpffer
Rodolphe Töpffer (1799-1846) was a Swiss artist known as the father of the modern comic. Töpffer's work utilizes a sequential format that humorously illustrates an individual's futile attempt to overcome nonsensical situations and unrelenting forces of nature. Töpffer's characters are reminiscent of the "Dr. Syntax" character created by Thomas Rowlandson and William Combe.
The first printed American comic book, The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck (1849), is essentially a plagiarized version of Töpffer's Histoire de Monsieur Vieux Bois (1837).
Background Image: Illustration from Monsieur Pencil, Rodolphe Töpffer, 1861. Courtesy of the Bentley Rare Book Museum.
Featured artistic techniques: hand-drawn sketching--ink--lithography
Questions to consider:
- How does the structure of Töpffer's work compare to modern-day comic strips?
- What might audiences have found humorous in these scenes?
Illustrated Classics of the Late Nineteenth Century and Early Twentieth Century
By the early nineteenth-century, books published specifically for children began to emerge. Many of these books were illustrated. In the latter half of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century, titles like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906) achieved legendary status in the cannon of children's literature not only because of their stories but also for their captivating illustrations.
Background image: Illustration from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Written by Lewis Carroll and Illustrated by John Tenniel, 1869. Courtesy of the Bentley Rare Book Museum.
John Tenniel's Illustrations from "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (1865)
Featured artistic techniques: drawing--wood engraving--electrotope copies
Questions to consider:
- John Tenniel (1820-1914) was the chief cartoonist for Punch magazine in the 1860s, which was one of the reasons Carroll asked him to illustrate his new book. How does Tenniel's cartoonist background emerge through his illustrations in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland?
- How do Tenniel's illustrations featured in the Bentley Museum's 1869 copy compare to or differ from the imagery in film adaptations of the novel (see below)?
Arthur Rackham's Illustrations in Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906)
Featured artistic techniques: pen and ink drawings--watercolor--photographic reproduction
Questions to consider:
- In this book, Rackham's illustrations are found in the back of the book and are "tipped in," meaning they are not fully attached to the pages on which they are mounted (see photo grid for an example). Why might the publisher have chosen this method for presenting the illustrations?
- Rackham was know for illustrating gift books, which were finely illustrated editions of popular books often presented as gifts during the holiday season. Have you ever received or given a book as a holiday gift? What was it, and what made it special?
Edmund Dulac's Illustrations in Stories from The Arabian Nights (1907)
Featured artistic technique: drawing--watercolor -- photographic reproduction
Questions to consider:
- How does Dulac's style compare to Rackham's style? How does it differ?
- Dulac was known for demonstrating an Oriental influence in his art. How does this influence come through in this reinterpretation of popular Persian tales?
Wordless Novels
The concept of wordless novels was born out of German Expressionism and influenced by black and white cinemas. Wordless novels utilize woodcut illustrations and do not contain text. Early wordless novels were created by artists including Frans Masereel (1889 - 1972), Otto Nückel (1888 - 1955), and Lynd Ward (1905 - 1985). Wordless novels examine themes such as labor, wealth, war, and political corruption, where the fate of the individual remains vulnerable to the greedy and nefarious machine culture of post-World War I society. Despite their brief period of popularity during the early twentieth century, wordless novels served as predecessors to modern-day graphic novels.
Background Image: Illustration from Madman's Drum. Illustrated by Lynd Ward, 1930. Courtesy of the Bentley Rare Book Museum.
Frans Masereel's Die Passion eines Menschen 25 Holzschnitte"(1918) and Die Sonne (1919)
Featured artistic technique: woodcuts
Lynd Ward's "Madman's Drum" (1930)
Featured artistic techniques: woodcuts--offset printing
Questions to consider:
- What are some scenes and themes you see present in both Masereel's and Ward's work?
- Why do you think woodcuts are particularly suitable for wordless novels?
- Choose one or two woodcut illustrations from the texts above and provide your interpretation of it.
From the Harlem Renaissance to the 1990s: The Legacy of Lois Mailou Jones
Lois Mailou Jones (1905-1998) was an African American woman who enjoyed a seventy-year career as an artist and an educator. Jones's talents were multifaceted, as she was a creator of costumes, textile designs, paintings, book illustrations, and collages. She blended African, European, and American cultural themes while also highlighting nature and landscapes. Jones's career spanned the Harlem Renaissance to the late 1990s, making her one of the most influential Black artists in America. Learn more about Lois Mailou Jones by watching the interview below.
Background image: Illustration from The Picture-Poetry Book, Written by Gertrude Parthenia McBrown and illustrated by Lois Mailou Jones, 1935. Courtesy of the Bentley Rare Book Museum.
Featured artistic techniques: pen + ink--photomechanical printing (most likely)
Questions to Consider:
- Describe the elements in these illustrations that would appeal to children.
- These illustrations accompany a book of poems. Try your hand at writing a short poem to accompany one of these illustrations.
Graphic Novels of the Twenty-First Century
The term "graphic novel" was coined by comic artist Will Eisner in the 1970s. Graphic novels are published books presented through sequential art or comic-strip formats. In recent years, many artists have reinterpreted classic works of fiction and nonfiction into graphic novels. Graphic adaptations reach new audiences and can revive the popularity of a work.
Background Image: Cover of Kindred written by Octavia Butler and adapted by Damian Duffy and John Jennings, 2019. Courtesy of the Bentley Rare Book Museum.
Graphic Adaptations: The Handmaid's Tale, The Diary of Anne Frank, and Kindred
Featured artistic techniques: sketching--digital drawing and coloring
Questions to consider:
- What can a book gain and lose through a graphic reinterpretation?
- Are you a fan of graphic novels and adaptations? Why or why not?
- Are there certain books that you do not think should be graphically reinterpreted? Explain.
