Home
Up

The Art of Edward Julius Detmold

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 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

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