posted on 22 Oct 2015

Faust by Goethe : illustrated by Willy Pogany

This edition of Goethe's Faust, which has been translated by Abraham Hayward, is not  particularly interesting in terms of the text and although the publisher, Hutchinson, call it  'a fine art edition', the book isn't a dazzling piece of binding. What makes this book a delight are the colour plate illustrations which were undertaken by Willy Pogany.

Pogany was a fairly prolific illustrator of children's books and he specialised in a form of dense art nouveaux decoration and a colour palette that make his work immediately recognisable. Pogany, born Vilmos Andreas Pogány, was originally from Hungary but spent time in Berlin and Paris before moving to England, where he lived for ten years. 

Many people hold the view that his work on Coleridge's Ancient Mariner is his best achievement but he also produced stunning illustrations for Wagner's Lohengrin, Parsifel and Tannhauser which also have that same claim. Given the extraordinary quality of Pogeny's eye for design and colour, it's not surprising that he was tempted across to Hollywood to work in the movies as an art director. He was also not above doing work for the burgeoning advertsing business and he drew some of the most gorgeous illustrations for the most mudane things - talcum powder, soap, toilet water, rugs. You name it, he'd illustrate an advertisement and it was always beautiful. His magazine cover work is also highly collectible and in this medium his work really comes to the fore and he clearly has an eye for the attention-grabbing image.

Faust is not necessarily the very best of Pogany's work but it is representative of his style and quality. Pogeny was in many ways a jobbing illustrator but his work demonstrated how it is possible to retain an eye for design and beauty despite the commercial pressures of earning a living.

The edition I have was published by Hutchinson some time before 1927 (there is dated dedication in the front of the book) and cost 7/6. The red cloth and gold stamping on the front are a little faded but my copy has retained it's paper jacket in good condition and this tends to be unusual. I love the fact that the jacket is clearly something that straddles the gap between the time when the paper cover was designed to be ripped off and thrown away and the new book age when jackets became objects of desire in their own right. This is a moderately expensive book to get in this condition - you might pay anything between £25 - £40 for a similar one - but to get 16 full page coloured plates by Pogany you might well decide its well worth it.

 

Terry Potter

October 2015