To my knowledge, four artists are represented: Gervasio Gallardo, Robert LoGrippo, David Johnston, and Bob Pepper. (The two Eddison volumes give no credit to the cover artist; one website claims the great Keith Henderson, who did do the interior ornaments.)
In Gallardo, I see a lot of influence from weird/surreal art old and new: Hieronymus Bosch, Odilon Redon, Henri Rousseau, Rene Magritte. As a matter of fact, the Internet informs me that Gallardo (b. 1934) is himself a Spanish surrealist. You can see some of his work here and here. I wonder what became of his Ballantine paintings?
I haven't been able to find much about the other artists, but I love Johnston's covers for their spontaneous appearance and glowing, flowing colors.
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| Great Short Novels of Adult Fantasy: Volume II, 1973. Cover art by Gervasio Gallardo. Inspired by Henri Rousseau? |
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| Poseidonis, Clark Ashton Smith, 1973. Cover art by Gervasio Gallardo. |
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| Evenor, George MacDonald, 1972. Cover art by Gervasio Gallardo. |
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| The Night Land (Vol. II), William Hope Hodgson, 1972. Cover art by Robert LoGrippo. This one calls to mind Bosch's depiction of hell in The Garden of Earthly Delights. |
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| The Song of Rhiannon, Evangeline Walton, 1972. Cover art by David Johnston. |
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| The Water of the Wondrous Isles, William Morris, 1971. Cover art by Gervasio Gallardo. |
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| The Children of Llyr, Evangeline Walton, 1971. Cover art by David Johnston. |
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| Xiccarph, Clark Ashton Smith, 1972. Cover art by Gervasio Gallardo. Another one that reminds me of Bosch. |
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| The Wood Beyond the World, William Morris, 1969. Cover art by (?) Gervasio Gallardo. |
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| The Boats of the "Glen Carrig", William Hope Hodgson, 1971. Cover art by Robert LoGrippo. |
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| The Island of the Mighty, Evangeline Walton, 1970. Cover art by Bob Pepper. |
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| New Worlds for Old, 1971. Cover art by David Johnston. The cover of my novel Dragonfly is an unabashed homage to this lovely piece of work, as well as other images in our festival. |
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| The King of Elfland's Daughter, Lord Dunsany, 1969. Cover art by Bob Pepper. |
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| Prince of Annwn, Evangeline Walton, 1974. Cover art by David Johnston. |
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| Red Moon and Black Mountain, Joy Chant, 1971. Cover art by Bob Pepper. |
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| The Lost Continent: The Story of Atlantis, C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne, 1972. Cover art by Dean Ellis. |
Some of the Ballantine covers have only a single panel, generally repeated on front and back. As I said before, I've read that the Eddison volumes feature cover paintings by Keith Henderson, but he's credited only for the interior "decorations."
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| Mistress of Mistresses, E. R. Eddison, 1967. |
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| A Fish Dinner in Memison, E. R. Eddison, 1968. |
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| Imaginary Worlds, Lin Carter, 1973. Cover art by Gervasio Gallardo. I find this one slightly unsettling, like a Rene Magritte painting. |
Last but not least, the cover art for the Gormenghast books is by Bob Pepper, e.g.,
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| Titus Groan, Mervyn Peake, 1968. Cover art by Bob Pepper. |
The images don't wrap around, but seem to be clipped from a single large image.
They're all beautiful. Maybe Ballantine sprang for such wonderful art was because half the books were public-domain.
ReplyDeleteOne of the few fantasist of spanish and catalan literature, Joan Perucho, wrote an essay about Gallardo in the sixties.
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