James Ensor





















Lithograph from 1898 found here. Over 200 works from Ensor can be seen in this Flemish Art Collection.

Frans Floris





















The Fall of the Rebel Angels, 1554.

There's an excellent collection of engravings with works by Floris in this article at Giornale Nuovo.

I'll be posting more of the engravings by Cornelis Cort copied from lost paintings by Frans Floris's series of the Labours of Hercules. A previously posted example can be seen here.

Federico Zuccaro - The Punishments

"The punishment of the proud, study for Florence Cathedral; naked men and women descending into hell, with a three-headed winged monster devouring naked bodies, surrounded by other demonic figures, with a skeletal figure to l Pen and brown ink with brown wash and watercolour, over black chalk, with a strip of paper conjoined."


"The punishment of the Lustful, study for Florence Cathedral; naked men and women descending into hell, having their genitalia tortured by demonic figures with flaming pokers Pen and brown ink with brown wash and watercolour, with a strip of paper conjoined."



"The punishment of the Avaricious , study for Florence Cathedral; naked men and women descending into hell, being tortured by demonic figures, including a man pinned down with a pitchfork, and a woman with a money-bag tied around her neck Pen and brown ink with brown wash and watercolour, over black chalk, with a strip of paper conjoined."


"The Punishment of the Furious, study for a fresco; nude figures being tortured, serpents between and a many-headed serpent at r, two winged figures above supporting a book, a devilish figure with a pitchfork at left and a skeletal figure seated beside him Pen and brown ink, with grey-brown wash and watercolour, over red chalk and graphite, on three sheets conjoined."

All works are dated between 1557 - 1609. Descriptions were quoted from the British Museum online gallery. I noticed the following description for another work from this series to which there isn't any imagery available for..."The Punishment of the Slothful, study for a fresco; with tumbling male figures being forced down into the inferno with pitchforks, a bear attacking a figure at left and two horned figures supporting a book above Pen and brown ink, with grey-brown wash and red chalk, over graphite, on three sheets conjoined."

Arnold Bocklin - The Plague (1898)

Rex Whistler








"Rex Whistler is perhaps best remembered for his witty representations of two faces in a single picture, although these were not seen by him to reflect his most important work. His upside-down drawings hardly feature in his brother's account of his life and drawings. For example, there is a Whistler restraunt in the Tate Britain art gallery, London, which contains a large mural he painted when only a young man. He also illustrated books, designed stage sets and was noted for his trompe l'oeil paintings. Nonetheless, it is his upright/inverted faces that have proved most intriguing to students of perception. The two faces typically share eyes but the inverted one is generally unrecognizable until the design is itself inverted. " - quoted from a pdf file titled "The Two Faces of Rex Whistler" with a small article and interesting artworks related to inverted faces available for download from perceptionweb.com here.

"When war broke out, though he was 35, he was eager to join the army. He was commissioned into the Welsh Guards as Lieutenant 131651. His artistic talent, far from being a stumbling block to his military career, was greatly appreciated and he was able to find time to continue some of his work, including a notable self portrait in uniform now in the National Army Museum. In 1944 he was sent to France following the D-Day Landings. In July he was with the 2nd (Armoured) Battalion in Normandy as the invasion force was poised to break out of the salient east of Caen. On the hot and stuffy 18th July his tank, after crossing a railway line, drove over some felled telegraph wires beside the railway, which became entangled in its tracks. He and the crew got out to free the tank from the wire when a German machine gunner opened fire on them, preventing them from getting back into their tank. Whistler dashed across an open space of 60 yards to instruct its commander, a Sergeant Lewis Sherlock, to return the fire. As he climbed down from Sherlock's tank a mortar bomb exploded beside him and killed him instantly, throwing him into the air. He was the first fatality suffered by the Battalion in the Normandy Campaign." - quote source

Check out more illustrations by Rex Whistler here.

More of the weird face drawings can be found here.

Article at Wikipedia

Kawanabe Kyosai

















"Kawanabe Kyosai was born with the original name of Shusaburo as the son of a samurai. When he was only 6 years old, he joined the school of the great ukiyo-e master Utagawa Kuniyoshi. Later he studied traditional Japanese painting at the Kano school.

Kyosai was an eccentric guy who exaggerated everything he did - from his consumption of sake wine to his painting and printmaking style. With his fellow artists Kunichika and Kobayashi Kiyochika, Kyosai frequently went on drinking binges. Like Kunichika he was great in inventing great stories.

The output of Kawanabe Kyosai's creativity was enormous. At the end of his life, he had produced hundreds of paintings, prints and illustrated books.

The paintings and print subjects of Kyosai are from traditional to bizarre and fantastic. He was incredibly imaginative and created designs that have no relations to any known art works of any other Japanese or Western artists. His drawing style was unique and at the same time he was capable of painting in the finest traditional style of a 18th century painter." - quote source.

The above works, all dated in the late 19th century were found at the British Museum online gallery. Type in Kawanabe Kyosai in the search engine here to see many more of his prints.

Check out the following links for more on Kyosai..

Gallery of Kyosai's prints at Wikimedia Commons.

Kawanabe Kyosai's Cluttered Genius

Article on Kyosai at Wikipedia with more art.

Kyosai article at Art of the print website, scroll down to see more artworks.

Another gallery with 6 prints on display.