Fore-edge painting is the term used for pictures that are painted on the edge of a book's pages. However, the picture will not be visible unless someone fan out the pages of the book. It is a clever way of hiding the image. Even better, some books have double fore-edge paintings. This means, if you fan out the pages in the opposite direction (from the back cover to the cover), a different image will be formed.
The earliest fore-edge paintings date back as early as the 1650s. The pictures shown here are the book collections from the University of Iowa. They are made by Robert Mudie in the early 19th century. There are four books named after the seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. I am very amazed since not only are all the pictures beautiful, the four books have double fore-edge paintings! I'm sure a lot of creativity, time, patience and skill must be put n each of these books. My personal favorite is Autumn, which is the first picture above.
Winter:
No comments:
Post a Comment