H. G. Fell’s cover design for ‘The Song of Solomon’

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Cloth binding for ‘The Song of Solomon’

Herbert Granville Fell (1872–1951)

1897

Cloth binding gilt

Signed

This imposing design exemplifies Fell’s intermingling of Arts and Crafts, Pre-Raphaelite and Art Nouveau styles. The paired figures are typical of the artist’s otherworldly treatment of female beauty, an approach that recalls the Pre-Raphaelite ‘stunners’ painted by D. G. Rossetti and Edward Burne-Jones. [Commentary continues below.]

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Fell’s compositions are often crowded and claustrophobic, with the surfaces worked in a variety of ornamental devices and dynamic lines. The book is one of many of the end of the nineteenth century in which the artists set out to raise standards of taste by offering the avant-garde for the consumption of large audiences.

Bibliography

The Song of Solomon. London: Chapman & Hall, 1897.

Created 15 January 2022