A complete suite of 30 watercolor illustrations for The Pilgrim's Progress by one of the most significant illustrators from the Golden Age of Illustration.
The present suite of works were created by John Byam Liston Shaw (1872–1919) to illustrate John Bunyan's immortal tale for a fine edition of the work to be published by Jack in Edinburgh and Caxton, 1904. Cheap editions, often omitting about half the illustrations, were produced regularly during the succeeding 25 years.
The object of the original publication was ambitious. With the arrival and popularization of the photograph, artistic movements had been forced to become something more than representational in function; and they had. A range of new artistic expressions and styles in the late 19th century provided creative languages for illustrators to engage in work that was more symbolic, metaphorical, better suited to evoke spiritual and emotional realities. And this made them perfectly suited to illustrate a sweeping allegorical narrative like Bunyan.
And Byam Shaw, as he was known, was the perfect choice. A significant representative of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, he had been deeply influenced by John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Indeed, his painting The Queen of Hearts is considered one of the the true masterpieces of the movement. If there had been any doubt, his place in the core Pre-Raphaelite canon was cemented with its over $1,000,000 sale at Christies in 2020.
It was his allegorical approach to illustrations that so perfectly suited him for the Pilgrim. For over two centuries, Bunyan's text had been illustrated primarily via traditional woodcuts or stark moralistic engravings, such as those by William Blake or David Scott. Rather than rendering Bunyan's characters as plain, austere 17th-century Puritans, Shaw infused them with an intense psychological and symbolic presence. Shaw modernized the visual language of the book for an early 20th-century audience, blending formal clarity with the decorative and symbolic language of the new art movements.
His is a true tour de force, demonstrating the powers of the Pre-Raphaelite's symbolist approach to art when brought into the service of the Christian story. This inimitable suite of illustrations sits comfortably and equitably alongside contemporaries like Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac.
A truly breathtaking artifact reflecting the ongoing significance of John Bunyan's immortal tale from its original authorship in 1678 through to the early 20th century.
All 30 watercolors housed in a custom clamshell with each neatly mounted in an archival sleeve and protected by a loose archival sheet. The clamshell and mounts measure approximately 14.25 x 16.5 inches. The works themselves measure approximately 7 x 9 inches each. The images are visually pristine. The clamshell with some light rubbing and bumping.
