STANFIELD and TURNER
Feliks Topolski (1907-1989)
- Illustrations for "War and Peace"
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Illustrations for "War and Peace" 1 (Page 319 of Folio Society edition)
Three irregularly-shaped drawings arranged within 44.7 x 28 cm window of mount, longest/shortest width 21.5 cm/8 cm, pen and black ink on paper. The drawings have been mounted on a new conservation-standard lay-out sheet, while retaining the old lay-out board beneath and allowing the original signature in pencil to show through the new mount. In an ebonized reeded wood frame. Price: £450
Illustrations for "War and Peace" 2 (Page 842 of Folio Society edition)
Five irregularly-shaped drawings arranged on 50 x 31.5 cm mount, longest/shortest width 27.3 cm/7.3 cm, pen and black and sepia ink on paper. The drawings have been mounted on a new conservation-standard lay-out sheet, while retaining the old lay-out board beneath and allowing the original signature in pencil to show through the new mount. Unframed. Price: £430
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These two sets of drawings formed part of Feliks Topolski's illustrations for the 1978 Folio Society edition of War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.
Both feature in the printed book as full-page groups of drawings - arranged in the same way as on these signed lay-out sheets (except for a reversal of the top and bottom drawings in Illustrations for "War and Peace" 1).
Illustrations for "War and Peace" 1 (Page 319 of Folio Society edition).
Shown in frame.
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The drawings offer an insight into the artist's working methods because the source material which served as the starting point for the compositions can to a certain extent be traced.
All three drawings on the first sheet (Page 319 of the Folio Society edition) appear to have been inspired by images in an illustrated album devoted to Napoleon published in Warsaw in 1911. The book, by Ernest Łuniński, is crammed with monochrome reproductions of paintings, drawings, portraits and memorabilia relating to Napoleon and his commanders, with particular emphasis on the Polish officers and generals who fought on the French side in the key battles of the period.
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How Topolski transformed 19th century Napoleonic imagery into modern illustrations for Tolstoy's novel
Topolski was not, of course, "copying" in the conventional sense of the word because in all of the drawings the source images are freely reinterpreted and metamorphosed by his expressive wiry line. And it is because his drawings are rooted in authentic historical imagery that they form a convincing and accurate visual accompaniment to Tolstoy's narrative.