While browsing some of the many posts and tweets and other social media mentions of Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday, I realized something I didn’t mention in the earlier post. He has inspired a mountain of visual art. Illustrations of scenes from his stories, of course. Images inspired by his poems. But also a lot of portraits of the man himself. Most of the ones I have seen are reinterpretations of a few iconic portraits of Poe. I thought it would be fun to post a few here that caught my eye.
Can’t read the signature and the work was not attributed where I found the image. I like the stark simplicity of it. A raven perched on his head is a common addition.
By Francesco Francavilla. Love the creative overload, bursting at the seams approach. I imagine that might well be how he felt much of the time.
By Abigail Larson. I missed the chapter in The Graveyard Book where Poe talks to Bod. Wrong side of the pond, of course. Like the visual style here and the…something reaching around Lenore’s marker.
By Chad Savage. Whew. Love the color, the distortions of his features, the eyes….
By Connie Cann. An imagining of his last words, which went unrecorded due to the odd and tragic circumstances of his death.
By Devon Devereaux. Similar to the Francavilla one in approach, but a much heavier handed, darker visual style. I like it.
By Devon Devereaux. Poe strangles his cat. Well…probably not. We hope….
By Marilyn Manson. Another take on distorting his features, this time including the use of bold colors and heavy contrast.
By David Gough. Lots of fun little details in this one.
And, finally, we move from the sublime to the somewhat absurd.
Flawed Creations 