Picturing that which is not, again.

[baleanoptera]

At the risk of repeating myself, I love fairytale illustrations. So here are some more – this time with an art nouveau and jugend style.

So if you wish- step right up, for this time there will be trolls. Mossy, green and strange trolls that seem to blend in and be a part of the forest around them. There will be luminescent princesses and lost boys wandering the woods. And there will be forests, lots and lots of forests.







These paintings are made by John Bauer (1888-1918). He was a Swedish illustrator and painter. He painted trolls and fairytale motives until the outbreak of World War I, but the horrors reported from the war made him feel that trolls were too trivial, and so he stopped. It gets sadder – he drowned in 1918, along with his wife and their little son.




The paintings were made to illustrate stories written for and published in a children’s magazine called “Bland Tomter och Troll” – which can be translated to “Among Gnomes and trolls”.



Here the troll-mother, the smallest troll, is trying to convince the princess to marry one of her three sons. The princess is not amused.

Comments

[semyaza.livejournal.com]

I made some Bauer icons last winter, including one of the last picture to which a friend added animated snow. I adore his illustrations.

[baleanoptera.livejournal.com]

I adore his illustrations.

Me too, he is just wonderful. He manages to create such a sense of mood, such a sense of 'the other' that his images gets a timeless quality.

And I hope I'm not prying - but are those Bauer icons available for taking? For I would really like having a Bauer icon.

[semyaza.livejournal.com]

Yes, they are. Except for the animated one and another with text that I'll be using at Christmas, they weren't made for anyone and were never posted. Take all of them, if you like. The first is the best. :)

1. 2. 3. 4.

[baleanoptera.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! They are lovely! And I'm taking them all - oh yes indeed. :)

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

Those were wonderful! But I followed your link to the other post and then the link to the plague pictures, and I confess those are my favorites. I love creepy, eerie stuff, and I can absolutely see why you and your fellow students found them scary.

[baleanoptera.livejournal.com]

I so glad you liked them! They have their own sense of mood which I really like.

the plague pictures, and I confess those are my favorites

They are my favorites as well. There is something so scary and haunting about them that just gets to me, each and every time. The odd thing is that they never stop being frightening - at least not to me. I've now grown up with the plague pictures, but the one with the Old Woman Plague on the staircase, looking up? Gives me the shivers every time.

The only thing that annoys me a little now is that I posted so few of the pictures - because the cycle comprises around twenty images. I might have to do something about that. That said - the last picture in the cycle is here (http://baleanoptera.livejournal.com/4879.html#cutid1/) at the bottom of the post

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I love his art. Thank you so much! Can I make some icons from these ones too?

[baleanoptera.livejournal.com]

Please - icon away! :) And I love this art as well. Especially the fact that everything is so green and mossy. It's almost as if you can smell the deep pine forest.

[sunnyskywalker]

These are great! I'm thinking the people who made The Dark Crystal must have used these as inspiration, too.

[baleanoptera.livejournal.com]

Ooh - I hadn't thought about The Dark Crystal connection - but I think you're right in that there are some similarities. If anything Brian Froud probably knew about the pictures. *g* I love possible connections like that.

And so great you like them. :)