The Year's at the Spring 1920

Harry Clarke pulled this image, *The Year's at the Spring,* out of thin air with ink. The whole thing feels like it’s blossoming out of a dream, doesn’t it? I can imagine Clarke hunched over a table, obsessively building up the image, element by element. Look at those lines, so precise, so deliberate! I wonder if he started with the central bunch of flowers and then let the tendrils and curlicues creep outwards. It reminds me a little of Aubrey Beardsley, but it’s got its own strange energy. There's a real sense of play, that Clarke's really just letting his imagination run wild and seeing what comes of it. Painters are always in conversation with each other, whether they know it or not. Clarke is definitely in conversation with all those fin-de-siècle illustrators, but he’s also doing his own thing, too. And that's the beauty of art, right? Each artist takes what they need and then makes something totally new.