Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe 1923

This image is an illustration by Harry Clarke for Edgar Allan Poe’s “Tales of Mystery and Imagination.” Look at the way he’s created this shadowy world with such fine lines. It’s like he’s carving the image out of darkness, revealing just enough to make your imagination run wild. I can almost feel Clarke hunched over his drawing board, meticulously crafting each detail. It feels like he’s trying to conjure up the same kind of atmosphere Poe was so good at creating with words. The figure seems to be teetering on the edge of sanity, or maybe he's already fallen off, who knows? Those spidery hands and wild eyes, it’s pure gothic horror. I think about Goya and the way he looked into the abyss of human nature, or maybe even some of the weirder Symbolists who were trying to paint the invisible. There’s a conversation going on between artists across time.