Clarke, Harry

Untitled [study for illustration to Scott-Hopper's "Very Nearly" in d'Oyly Walters' THE YEAR'S AT THE SPRING]

Graphite sketch on laid paper, inscribed at lower right margin, in another hand, "The Year [sic] at the Spring (Very Nearly) p 109). Image: approx. 5-1/2 x 7-1/2, [Dublin: c. May, 1920]. Matted; fine.

Study for the full page black and white drawing illustrating the third stanza of "Very Nearly" by Queenie Scott-Hopper and published on p. 109 of THE YEAR'S AT THE SPRING (1920) with the caption "But all alone, those rocks amid--one day I very nearly did!": "I never quite saw mermaids rise Above the twilight sea. When sands, left wet, 'neath sunset skies, Are blushing rosily: But all alone, those rocks amid One day I very nearly did!" Clarke accepted the commission to illustrate d'Oyly Walters' anthology of poetry in January of 1920 and he had to work rapidly to complete the twenty-four drawings and twenty head and tail ornaments in time for a September publication. This sketch blocks some of the main figures of the scene--the three mermaids in the foreground, the river and cliff in the mid-ground, and the poem's speaker, a young girl, in the background Bowe, HARRY CLARKE, p. 120; cf. Steenson, A3.a. Provenance: Clarke estate.

Item #53903       Price: $650.00