Beauty looks pensive clutching
flowers in her hand, her dress and hair billowing in the wind. At her side
looms the magical Beast as a dark green hedge. On the left a stone sculpture
with a head of pink roses appears uncannily lifelike. Nothing is as it seems.
The dreamy palette of greens evokes a landscape and atmosphere of quietude yet
there is tension as if on the cusp of danger. It is a tale as old as time, and
Angela Barrett’s rendering of Beauty and the Beast is enchanting. Ethereal. Her
delicate brushstrokes of light and shade lend elegance and her pictures
poignancy, to a story about love and loss. Richly allusive Beauty Runs Across the Garden is the front cover artwork of a
classic fairy-tale retold by Max Eilenberg, whose moving prose touched my
heart. I am thrilled it resides in my home.
At the top end of Bury Street
in St James’s, lies Illustrationcupboard
Gallery, an art gallery devoted to pictures of the most fantastic kind. Even
before you step in you can sense something wonderful is about to happen. It is
like walking into a storybook - a place full of colour and imagination. Nestled
among private gentlemen clubs and posh clothiers, it is unlike the numerous
haughty and hardened galleries found in this gentrified area of London. It is
an intimate, inviting space. The glass exterior allows daylight to illuminate
the tiers of storied artwork that glitter and glide effortlessly along the
walls. Your eyes cannot help but dart from one picture to another, greedily
absorbing the visual sensations contained within each golden frame. The
pictures weave a sort of magic that engages both the heart and mind, and the
welcoming staff ensures a pleasurable experience for every visitor.
My encounter with contemporary
book illustrations began a year ago at this delightful emporium, a stone’s
throw away from Christie’s where I
work. With a passion for reading since childhood, combined with a love for
beautiful things, this genre of art appealed to my sensibilities. Drawn from
narrative, illustrations bring the written word to life. It is collaboration
between text and image. They elucidate a story, enriching the reader’s
experience giving rise to a wealth of meaning. And so began a love affair with
Illustration Art, which, over the course of a year resulted in me collecting
ten works by some of the most distinguished English artists.
As a jewellery specialist it
was inevitable that the lapis blue in The
Children Read by Jane Ray from the book of The Lost Happy Endings first caught my eye. It is a celestial
colour. In the picture the nightscape is dotted with gold stars just as the
lapis stone is found with gold flecks on its surface. That ultramarine blue reminds
me so much of my time as a student in the History of Art. Nostalgia. It became
my first purchase. The work is a compact composition of rooftops and houses lit
under a night sky and bright moon, and in a contemplative moment I can almost
hear the children by the windows.
Another jewel-like
illustration I love is Playing Cards
Painting Roses Red by John Vernon Lord for Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. It is a small image
– a miniature, which makes it all the more exquisite. There is something about
Lord’s accurate drawing which appeals to my methodical side. The roses
delineated in black ink are like the sharp facets of a diamond. Their luscious
Pigeon’s Blood hue and drops of ruby-red paint appear to spill over the
picture’s threshold. There is a mathematical precision in the artist’s
treatment of this subject, yet the world he depicts is a dizzy one. It is
contradictory yet beguiling. Dimensions are warped and realities
interchangeable. In Alice’s world the cards speak, the croquet balls are
hedgehogs and I can walk Through the
Looking Glass.
I was lucky to have met some
of these award-winning illustrators. Among them David McKee, whose creation of Mr Benn stole my heart. Mr Benn is a
well-dressed bowler-hat Englishman - a respectable old-fashioned character whom
I find so endearing. Each day he ambles into a fancy dress shop and changes
into a different costume to embark on marvellous adventures. The stories are
simple and charming. But it is Mr Benn’s sense of morality which resonates having
parents who instilled deep values in me from a young age. 007 Benn is Mr Benn dressed in a smart suit as the world’s
best-loved spy - James Bond. He is seen in the changing room of the costume
shop in all his bravado, holding a gun. I especially love the artist’s
depiction of Mr Benn’s multiple reflections in the mirrors. They are like the
innumerable prisms of an immense and exquisitely chiselled diamond. It is
swagger, a type of cool only an artist like McKee can portray without coming
across too cocksure.
John Vernon Lord, a giant in
this field, tells us that the purpose of illustration, “... is to enlighten”. From my first picture to this personal
reflection the journey has been one of wonder and discovery. If you know John
Huddy, proprietor of Illustrationcupboard
Gallery, then access to the gallery’s lower ground may be granted, where a
rich reservoir of pictures is kept. I am privileged to have had the opportunity
to view some of the most exquisite original illustration artwork in this secret
chamber. John’s unerring instinct, aesthetic sense and free-flowing thoughts
have guided me through this exciting area of collecting. But at the heart of
his business is a deep appreciation and conviction for the art he handles.
Illustrations illuminate. They offer clarity, allowing us to grasp their
stories with heightened awareness and pleasure. Like Giotto’s biblical frescoes
in the Arena Chapel it is the art of story-telling in pictures. They elevate
our thoughts and fuel our dreams, for the most valuable things in life are
those which you cannot see. In their stillness they capture that single moment
for eternity. And that is enchanting.
-- Words by Mei Y Giam.
