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Grapefruit Moon Gallery

Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration

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Sorry, It's Sold

Like Wind I Go

Artist:Willy Pogany
Date:1942
Medium:Gouache on Illustration Board
Dimensions:Sight Size 8" X 11 1/2" Framed 16" X 19 1/2"
Condition:Excellent
Original Use:Likely created for the 1930 edition of Rubaiyat
Full view
Full view
The artist's signature lower left
The artist’s signature lower left

Pogany_Nude-3

“I came like water and like wind I go,” reads the verse which inspired this wonderful signed gouache illustration by Willy Pogany, one of our favorite Golden age artists. The image shows a nude maiden on a serene ledge in contemplation of the leaves blowing in the breeze. This appearedas an illustration for the 1942 Crowell edition of Rubaiyat Of Omar Khayyam. Painting is handsomely silk matted and framed under glass and remains in a pristine state of conservation.

 

Framed view
Framed view

Willy Pogany was one of the most important book illustrators and designers of the first half of the 20th century. His Rime of the Ancient Mariner and books based on Wagnerian opera are masterpieces, to say nothing of his editions of Mother Goose, Alice in Wonderland, and Faust. While other illustrators were confining themselves to an occasional tipped in plate buried among page after page of identical text blocks, Pogany broke the mold, designing elaborate pen and ink illustrations that surrounded the text, ornate capitals for the beginning of each page and calligraphy that turned the words into art. He is probably the artist most responsible for establishing what we think of as modern children’s book illustration.

Like Wind I Go

Artist: Willy Pogany

Filed Under: Illustration & Advertising Art, Sorry, It's Sold
Tagged With: 1930s, art deco, Golden Age, illustration, original illustration art, risque, Rubaiyat Of Omar Khayyam, Willy Pogany
Added to Gallery: June 1, 2018

 

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