‘In the Garden of Eros’- on book illustration and art in the early 20th century

Paul Albert Laurens, Le Jardin d’amour

In my recent post on the work of painter and illustrator Paul Albert Laurens, I mentioned his painting The Garden of Eros, which is imitative of the eighteenth century galante style of art made popular and fashionable by Watteau, Fragonard, Greuze, Boucher and others.

Having just completed my book on this period, Voyage to the Isle of Venus, and being in the process of completing the editing and expansion of my book on early twentieth century art, I decided to borrow and adapt the title of the painting as the title of the book (which, in any case, features a discussion of the work of Laurens). Now published, In the Garden of Eros is my updated survey of the interactions and interconnections between book illustration and fine art during the first half of the last century. It focusses upon the art of Franz von Bayros, the many illustrators of the numerous editions of works by Pierre Louys and key figures in early twentieth century art, such as the German expressionist group Die Brucke, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Balthus, Egon Schiele, Hans Bellmer, surrealists Dorothea Tanning and Leonor Fini, Marc Gertler and many, many others. In its second part, the text examines the persistent ‘orientalist’ trend in twentieth century painting and literature, identifying how one influenced the other and how many illustrators were also orientalist painters.

The book clearly ties in with my many posts on the illustrated editions of Pierre Louys’ novels and poetry collections; in a very real sense, this blog provides the illustrations to the text of the new book. In addition it is complemented by my numerous essays about the writing of Louys that may be found on my Academia page. See, as well, my Louys bibliography and my books page for additional information.