This was a magnificent exhibition – although, oddly, these comments are not going to be particularly lengthy I think. It was a very comprehensive one, fully covering his career with a stunning range of material available. It brought home to me what an extraordinary miniaturist he was – particularly with much of his later publications. It was particularly interesting to see to what extent he was a professional engraver which allowed him the necessary degree of economic freedom although given his considerable output, he must have been a very hard worker. Seemed rather over-anxious though to have the warnings about some of the illustrations that showed appalling slave trade events – and ones about sexuality etc. seemed odd – was not aware of anything extreme in that area. But that may just be my level of tolerance and/or the fact that I and JC did get ‘galleried out’ after a couple of hours and so towards the end were a little rushed and tired. Still a good situation to be in.
I did have doubts about the words/contents of some of his latter prophetic books and am not sure I could manage to wholly come to terms with their idiosyncrasies. I rather prefer to marvel and wonder at the illustrations – and I am not at all sure as to how necessary all the words are.
His style, particularly with the flowing and flexible draped human form was apparent from his earliest work – although often when drawing the nude body, the proportions seemed odd and each part often looked like a separate element rather than coming together e.g. mid-stomach/calves/upper and lower arms. Not sure explained this clearly but many figures reminded me of the poseable artists models with their distinct body/muscle groups clearly shown.
Anyway very glad to have seen this.