With all the fascinating character work-up stuff populating the blogs at the moment, I thought I'd showcase the work of 'Alastair' - otherwise known as Baron Hans Henning Voigt. It's quirky, macabre, sinuous and a bit menacing somehow...
"An artist, composer, dancer, mime, poet,
singer and translator, Alastair was a fascinating and elusive personality, and
perhaps best known as a gifted illustrator of the fin-de-siecle period.
Officially born of German nobility in 1887
to the family of Von Voigt, and later mysteriously acquiring the title of
Baron, Hans Henning Voigt was an enigma. He claimed to be a changeling…the
spawn of an illegitimate union between a hot headed Bavarian prince and a
pretty Irish lass…
Although clearly influenced by the
sinister, serpentine style of Aubrey Beardsley, with echoes of the deliciously
unhinged work of Harry Clarke, and a bit of the occult grotesquery of Austin Osman Spare’s art – Alastair’s perversely decadent illustrations are wholly,
unmistakably, his own. His strangely attractive beings, with alternately
tortured, anguished or menacing countenances, ornately and elegantly attired,
skulked and cavorted amongst all manner of plays, novels and short stories...."
From coilhouse.net
Ohh it reminds me of the patterns on Russian dolls :)
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