Harry Clarke Colouring Book

Irish artist Harry Clarke (1889–1931) brought to life many characters and scenes of classic literature in the early twentieth century, during the golden age of book illustration. Clarke’s first published book illustrations (Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen, 1916) garnered high praise and prompted further commissions. His often darkly theatrical interpretations of the art nouveau style—on paper and in stained glass—feature elongated figures fashioned with intricate patterns, fine detail, and refined line work.

Clarke learned the stained-glass trade in his youth, working at his father’s decorating business and studying at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. He was praised as a genius—“Ireland’s only great Symbolist,” according to one critic. Although he struggled with poor health for much of his brief life and died from tuberculosis at age forty-one, Clarke was prolific and left behind a legacy of artistic excellence; his oeuvre continues to fascinate audiences to this day. This colouring book features a selection of fifty black-and-white illustrations published in early twentieth-century books in the collection of the British Library: Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe, Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen, The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault, and The Year’s at the Spring: An Anthology of Recent Poetry compiled by Lettice D’Oyly Walters.