Master of the mysterious
Sidney Herbert Sime (1865-1941)
English artist who was quite famous a century ago, but now almost forgotten. However, the best of his production deserves better. Here's a few examples of the work of Sidney Sime - master of the mysterious, the grotesque, the fantastic...
"No-one has ever captured the spirit of fantasy more perfectly than Sime"
Sir Arthur C. Clarke
"There's something those fellows catch - beyond life - that they're able to make us catch for a second. Doré had it. Sime has it."
H. P. Lovecraft
Galleri
Introduction
When we had hunted...
The bird of the difficult eye
The City of Never
The lean high house of the gnoles
I wish I knew more of the ways of queens
Bird of the River
A herd of black creatures
The flight of the Gods of Valhalla
Wild Beast Wood
Hish - Lord of Silence
The dirge of Shimono Kani
Departure of Hothrun Dath
Links
When we had hunted the moon enough we came back through the wood
1936. Frontpage to "My talks with Dean Spanley" of Lord Dunsany
The bird of the difficult eye
1916. Illustration to "Tales of wonder" of Lord Dunsany.
"And there on a lower branch within easy reach he clearly saw
the Bird of the Difficult Eye sitting upon the nest for which she is famous.
Her face was towards those three inscrutable mountains,
far-off on the other side of the risky seas,
whose hidden valleys are fairyland."
The City of Never
1912. Illustration to "The book of Wonder" of Lord Dunsany
"But when they came to the heights that ventorous rider saw huge and fair
to the left of him the destined City of Never, and he beheld the towers
of Lel and Lek Necrib and Akathooma, and the cliffs Toldenarba aglistnening
in the twilight like an alabaster statue of the Evening"
Departure of Hothrun Dath
1906. Illustration to "Time and The Gods" of Lord Dunsany
"So about the dawn, Hothrun Dath crept away,
fearing still to hear behind him the breathing of the Famine,
and set out upon his journey whither pointed the graves of men."
The dirge of Shimono Kani
1906. Illustration to "Time and the Gods" of Lord Dunsany
"Only Shimono Kani, the youngest of the gods, made him a harp
out of the haert strings of all the elder gods, and,
sitting upon the Path of Stars all in the Midst of Things
played upon the harp a dirge for the gods of old."
The flight of the Gods of Valhalla
1920. Illustration to "The Illustrated London News."
A herd of black creatures
1908. Illustration to "The sword of Welleran" of Lord Dunsany
"Suddenly a herd of black creatures larger than bloodhounds came galloping in;
they had large pendulous ears, their noses were to the ground sniffing,
they went up to the lords and ladies of long ago and fawned about them disgustingly."
Hish.
1905. Illustration til "The Gods of Pegana" of Lord Dunsany
"And when it is dark, all in the hour of Triboogie, Hish creepeth from the forest,
the Lord of Silence, whose children are the bats, that have broken the command of their father,
but in a voice that is ever so low Hish husheth the mouse and all the whispers in the night;
he maketh all noises still."
The lean high house of the gnoles
1912. Illustration to "The book of Wonder" of Lord Dunsany
"But the gnoles had watched him through knavish holes that they bore in trunks of the trees
and the unearthly silence gave way, as it were with a grace, to the rapid screams of Tonker
as they picked him up from behind - screams that came faster and faster until they were incoherent.
And where they took him it is not good to ask, and what they did with him I shall not say."
Ränoräda.
1905. Illustration to "The Gods of Pegana" of Lord Dunsany
"In the midst of the last of the deserts that are beyond Bodrahahn
in the centre of the Desert of Deserts, standeth the image
that hath been hewn of old out of the living hill whose name is
Ränoräda - the eye in the waste."
Wild Beast Wood.
Oilpainting, 1926
I wish I knew more of the ways of queens
1912. Illustration to "The book of Wonder" of Lord Dunsany
"And almost Captain Shard and the Queen of the South lived happily ever after,
though still at evening those on watch in the trees would see their captain
sit with a puzzled air or hear him muttering now and again in a discontented way,
"I wish I knew more of the ways of Queens."