Page 85 - Gullivers

the deliberations of mathematicians and painters mixing colours by feeling and smelling offered Pogány glowing opportunities to show his talents as
a designer and colourist, in particular
the geometric designs surrounding the mathematicians resonate with all of the impact of a stage set. In contrast, some
of his pen and ink sketches are plain and restrained at first glance, but they are equally telling, for example, in showing the antagonism of the small- and big- endians, their conviction of their own rightness emphasised by the neck stocks worn by each, indicating the authority of church and state. The sad and depressed Struldbruggs are sympathetically captured in a few pen-strokes; these are not the grotesque creatures of Alexander King or more recently Riddell, rather they are more akin to Rackham’s aged creature, reflecting their despair at the prospect
of so much longevity.
The impact of art and fashions
from different parts of the world, and especially from what might broadly be termed ‘the east’, i.e. east of America and Western Europe, is noticeable in book illustration at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Lemuel
Gulliver’s travels to unknown lands and exotic eastern parts gave artists plenty
of scope to display their knowledge and interest. René Bull, who was born in Dublin in 1872, was influenced by oriental art, and was an expert in Arab customs and costumes, which he demonstrates
to full-advantage in his admired Arabian Nights (1912) and Rubáiyát of Omar Kyhhám (1913). His Lilliputians and Brobdingnagians have a Cossack air about them, and buildings have onion domes
and minarets. He is one of a few artists who show a bearded Gulliver. F. J. Harvey Darton who edited this edition notes
that Gulliver’s Travels may be seen ‘as a picture of the real sea-life of the day’, and Bull’s depiction of the travels is definitely realistic, unlike some of other twentieth- century artists who began to show a more stylised and fanciful backdrop and even depictions of Gulliver himself, possibly with a view to emphasising the appeal of the fantastic in a story for children. At this stage, Gulliver’s Travels was regarded largely as a children’s book, but what age children, and indeed what sort of children, were expected to read it shows in variations in the illustrations in different editions and their likely appeal to a young audience.
V. A. Poirson
IV. Picturing Gulliver
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