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Albrecht Dürer’s Apocalypse

https://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2025/07/16/albrecht-durers-apocalypse/

Published: July 16, 2025 15:30

Revelation of St. John. In Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson’s Illuminatus! trilogy, John of Patmos, the author of the Book of Revelation, is referred to as “Saint John the Mushroom-head”, the suggestion being that the bizarre and grotesque scenes listed…

Tom Keating on Painters

https://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2025/07/14/tom-keating-on-painters/

Published: July 14, 2025 15:30

Tom Keating (1917–1984) was a fascinating character who you don’t really hear about today, despite his brief flush of notoriety in the late 1970s. A versatile artist, Keating worked for many years as a restorer of old pictures, cleaning huge history…

Weekend links 786

https://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2025/07/12/weekend-links-786/

Published: July 12, 2025 18:00

The Skylark (1850) by Samuel Palmer. • The latest book from A Year In The Country is Other Worlds: “Searching for far off lands via witchcraft battles, spectral streets, faded visions of the future and the secrets of the stones”. • At Colossal: The…

British Book Illustration – Yesterday and To-day

https://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2025/07/09/british-book-illustration-yesterday-and-to-day/

Published: July 9, 2025 15:30

The “to-day” in the title is a sign that this volume dates from the years before the Second World War when the hyphenated “today” was still a common sight. British Book Illustration – Yesterday and To-day was published in 1923, one of many such books…

Back in Doré’s jungle

https://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2025/07/07/back-in-dores-jungle/

Published: July 7, 2025 15:30

This illustration by Gustave Doré (with engraving work by Louis Sargent) is a beautiful example of how to fill a scene with detail and texture without losing a sense of depth or control of the light and shade. Piranesi’s etchings, especially his views of…

Weekend links 785

https://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2025/07/05/weekend-links-785/

Published: July 5, 2025 18:00

A 1933 poster for the second of Fritz Lang’s Mabuse films. • Good news for those who missed the original run (from 2002–2013), Arthur Magazine is now available for the first time as a complete set of free PDFs. I was laterally involved with the magazine…

Chronicle: The Vase

https://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2025/07/02/chronicle-the-vase/

Published: July 2, 2025 15:30

The sound on this old VHS recording is terrible, as the uploader admits, but I’ll write about the programme as a placeholder in the hopes that a better copy turns up one day. The vase in question is the Portland Vase, a vessel believed to have been made in…

Cocteau’s effects

https://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2025/06/30/cocteaus-effects/

Published: June 30, 2025 15:30

Chez Cocteau. “Effects” in the sense of possessions rather than aesthetic or creative effects. I’ve been reading Jean Cocteau’s The Difficulty of Being, an essay collection in which the author muses on a variety of subjects, from his own life, his work,…

Weekend links 784

https://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2025/06/28/weekend-links-784/

Published: June 28, 2025 18:00

An illustration by HB Ford for The Violet Fairy Book (1906), edited by Andrew Lang. • New music: An Aesthetic – Experiments in Tape by Hawksmoor; Leylines (2025 remaster) by Aes Dana; A Fragile Geography (10th Anniversary Reissue) by Rafael Anton Irisarri.…

The art of Justin Todd

https://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2025/06/25/the-art-of-justin-todd/

Published: June 25, 2025 15:30

I was pleased to find a copy of this book recently, a slim volume published in 1978 which isn’t especially rare but which usually sells for much more than the £2 I paid for it. Justin Todd is a British illustrator whose work was a familiar sight on book…