The Venture: An Annual of Art and Literature
Arthur Rackham Giants The Venture Arts Annual
While Arthur Rackham provided the standout fantasy illustration for 1905 literary anthology The Venture, the annual featured an array of prominent British creatives. The edition containing Rackham’s sole piece has no known involvement from prior editors like W. Somerset Maugham or Laurence Housman. Nevertheless, literature selections included James Joyce’s early poem “Two Songs” marking an obscure outpost for the modernist pioneer.
Catch this nexus glimpse before cultural dusts scatter and memories fade!
Buy The Venture: An Annual of Art and Literature
The overlooked 1905 arts annual The Venture featuring fantasy icon Arthur Rackham.
- Includes a Rackham full page plate alongside James Joyce poem and art by John Singer Sargent
- Showcases the British aesthetic scene’s rising and established luminaries
- A rare creative time capsule as both fantasy and modernism gestate transformations
- For devotees of Rackham, Joyce, or turn-of-the-century fine printing
Additional writings came from respected poets like Edmund Gosse, who contributed verse despite previous slights toward The Venture’s editorial leader Maugham. On the visual arts front, painters such as John Singer Sargent and Augustus John supplied examples of their esteemed portraiture and landscapes. John himself appeared in a full page advertisement touting his studio.
While the annual hoped to catalyze a new cross-disciplinary creative anthology, the series ceased after this 1905 iteration indicating fading investment in ornamented gift books as Rackham’s rippling fame began redirecting tastes for high quality illustration toward standalone volumes over compilation spreads. Nevertheless, The Venture’s scattering of notables from the British aesthetic scene provides intriguing snapshot into figures propelling movements soon to transform culture as Victoria’s long-held tastes accelerated into dramatic upheaval.
Format: Tan cloth binding with color pictorial stamping (187 pages)
Size: 7 1⁄2 x 10 inches
Text: The Venture: An Annual of Art and Literature
1905
John Baillie
One Princes Terrace
Hereford Road
London, W.
Rackham Contribution: Full page halftone plate entitled “The Giant” mounted on white paper
Other Illustrators: Unnamed various artists
Publisher: John Baillie (London)
Publication Date: 1905
As the prime visual voice propelling fantasy’s ascent into wider popular consciousness, Arthur Rackham saw his atmospheric style in high demand across publisher portfolios around 1905. This annual literary anthology entitled The Venture solicited Britain’s leading imagists to elevate the volume’s literature with corresponding images. Rackham himself provided a full page black and white drawing titled “The Giant” spotlighting his command over scale dynamics through a colossal figure towering over woods and waterways.
While the book failed to meet sales expectations indicative of a short-lived Edwardian craze for gift annual iterations, Rackham’s dramatic lone giant endures as an alluring artifact from the prolific master’s wider 1905 output including career-defining works like Rip Van Winkle. As that captivating limited edition also depicted tiny and massive figures, this overlooked annual giant snatch previews creative obsessions percolating across wider Rackham pieces marking his ascension from jobbing illustrator into enduring fame’s pinnacle orbit through size-defying fantasy.
