Page 80 - Gullivers

of the novels of Irish writer, L.T. Meade. The influence of Japonisme and oriental art may be seen to excellent effect in the illustrations of French artistV.A.Poirson. The costumes of his Lilliputians and their buildings and artefacts are Japanese in style; his palette is predominately yellow and orange; watercolour is applied lightly to his delicately drawn figures, some of whom almost dance across the pages, emphasising the energy and intensity of movement he imparts to the characters and their air of busyness as little figures occupy themselves attending to Gulliver, as in a scene where they prepare his food. Like many other artists, he has lavished most effort on the scenes where dozens of minute people almost buzz around the giant in their midst. Looking at a variety
of editions of Gulliver’s Travels the impression comes across that overall, artists have most enjoyed illustrating a giant in a small world rather than episodes from later in the book. If you can call a giant discreet, Poirson’s Gulliver is a little more discreetly shown than in some other editions. Just his head is visible as he pulls the Blefuscu boats to shore, and his face
is concealed by his large-brimmed hat in some earlier scenes. Poirson also shows
some of the less-dramatic moments, like the Lilliputians pulling Gulliver’s hat along as he is carried on a platform on wheels. Poirson’s Brobdingnagians are Abyssinian warriors, with moustaches and turbans, and a magnificently bearded king, and his sense of costume has imaginative reign when it comes to the magically-cloaked Laputians. Nevertheless, his ability to
draw what a garment conceals is evident where we view brawling naked Yahoos, and the delicacy of his line does not mask the physical power of his kindly-disposed Houyhnhnms. Poirson uses the somewhat elongated pages of this edition to advantage too; some illustrations are full page, but others sprawl diagonally between blocks of print with an artless air, while emphasising whatever action is pictured.
Like Poirson, and other artists of
the fin-de siècle, Arthur Rackham was attracted to Japanese art, and while his costumes and artefacts are less definitively oriental than Poirson’s, throughout the travels Japanese fans, dress and other artefacts and touches of eastern style
are evident. Rackham’s first approach to Gulliver was in a volume of black and white drawings published in 1899, and subsequently another edition containing
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