Above: Detail

Above: The artist’s signature lower left

Above: Detail

A large and decorative gouache and graphite illustration by Willy Pogany titled on verso in the artists hand “Love’s Labour’s Lost.” Likely used in a William Shakespeare adaptation or perhaps a cover for the American Weekly. A large courting scene and a grand depiction by this very important artist from “The Golden Age of Illustration.” Work is beautifully silk matted and framed behind glass and ready to hang.

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.

Above: Frame detail with silk matting

Above: Framed and silk matted in fine gallery frame

Above: Verso notation title