The Art of Edward Julius Detmold

Edward Julius Detmold (1883-1957) was twin brother to Charles Maurice Detmold (1883-1908). The pair were among

the artists associated with the Golden Age of Illustration.

The Edward Julius Detmold Collection at Spirit of the Ages includes art images from some of Detmold's seminal work.

As a valuable reference resource, options are also provided for purchasing a range of gifts, including reproduction prints,

posters and greeting cards.

The Detmold brothers were raised in London by their maternal uncle, Dr E B Shuldham, and were exposed to exotic art

from an early age through their guardian's extensive interest in Eastern art, including a collection of Japanese woodblocks

of fauna and flora. The brothers also benefited from time spent with another uncle, the artist Henry E Detmold, who is

believed to have encouraged the brothers' artistic interests. In such a supportive environment, the twins artistic skills were

highly developed by their early teenage years and their debut is known to have occurred when they were 13 with a

showing at the Royal Academy and the Royal Institute of Watercolour Painters.

The reputation of the brothers developed strongly following their debut and the limited edition prints they produced in

small numbers through private pressings were highly regarded. The Jungle Book (1908) was to be the last substantial

commission that the brothers worked on - due to the death of Charles in that same year. The extraordinary success of their

illustrations to accompany Kipling's classic tale, however, firmly established the reputation for Edward and the following

year, a suite of illustrations prepared to Aesop's tales were published in The Fables of Aesop (1909).

For more than a decade following the death of his brother, Edward focused on illustrations from nature that proved to

marginalise his popularity, but his art continued to be published in a variety of books, including Birds and Beasts (1911),

The Life of the Bee (1911), Hours of Gladness (1912), The Book of Baby Pets (1913), The Book of Baby Birds (1915), Birds in

Town and Village (1919) and Fabre's Book of Insects (1921), Our Little Neighbours (1921) and Rainbow Houses (1923).

In 1924, however, Edward Detmold enjoyed a return to widespread critical acclaim as a book illustrator due to his

stunning suite of illustrations published in The Arabian Nights (1924). Appearing to be satisfied with this achievement,

Detmold retired and withdrew to Montgomeryshire where he lived for the rest of his life.

The Jungle Book 16 colour images	The Fables of Aesop 25 colour images	The Arabian Nights 12 colour images	The Voyages of Sinbad 5 colour images