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Katherine Cover Art

annis
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Post by annis » Fri July 31st, 2009, 7:59 pm

Sex, drugs and art! The Pre-Raphaelites were an interesting lot.
Here's a Rossetti painting using Lizzie Siddall as a model, "Beatrix Beata". As you can see, there are quite a few similarities in appearance between Jane Burden and Lizzie.

Image

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Margaret
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Post by Margaret » Fri July 31st, 2009, 8:30 pm

I love that painting. I'm a sucker for the Pre-Raphaelites.
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Libby
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Post by Libby » Fri July 31st, 2009, 9:00 pm

[quote=""Madeleine""]wonder if this portrait will make an appearance in "Desperate Romantics" currently on BBC2 about the Pre-Raphaelites. They're all going ga-ga over poor Lizzie Siddal at the moment.[/quote]

I'm enjoying the series.
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Post by annabel » Sat August 8th, 2009, 1:44 pm

Yes, I agree,I love the Pre Raphaelites, too, and the TV series is fun, though a bit OTT.
Interesting to see the way headless women are so popular on covers these days - does this have a cultural significance, do you think?
I loved Katherine. read it many years ago and recently re-read it with enjoyment.
I've just been given Green Darkness ( 2008 edition with another headless woman on the cover, though this one is a detail from an Albrecht Durer portrait) So far I'm a bit disappointed. the 1968 opening seems rather stilted with elaborately laid clues as to the direction the plot is going to take. Maybe the 1550's part will come to life. Hope so.

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Post by SonjaMarie » Mon February 1st, 2010, 5:18 am

I found a new one, seems to be in German:
Image

And another:
Image

SM
Last edited by SonjaMarie on Mon February 1st, 2010, 5:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Misfit » Mon September 19th, 2011, 3:23 pm

Went to the FOL sale last weekend. Found a 1954 copy of Katherine. No DJ, but look what's on the inside flap.
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LCW
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Post by LCW » Mon September 19th, 2011, 6:59 pm

[quote=""Leyland""]Image Yay - I got the hang of it! OK, this one makes me think about a teen girl in a werewolf or vampire novel (guess which one), but not about the woman who rocked John of Gaunt's world. Would her shoulders have really been bare?[/quote]

This cover is horrible! I would definitely pass this book by based on this cover. A creepy chick with bare shoulders, long flowing hair, and vomit colored to top it off? Eww, just eww!

I really like this one for some reason. Besides the stage make up I think its glamorous and it makes Katherine look beautiful. Maybe not entirely appropriate for the book within the cover, medieval women probably didn't look this flashy, but I like it.
Image

**Sort of off topic but were the colors of the clothes so vivid at the time? I would think with the low quality dyes and such that even the clothes of the royals and wealthy would be nowhere near as vibrant as we see today.
Last edited by LCW on Mon September 19th, 2011, 7:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by LCW » Mon September 19th, 2011, 7:01 pm

[quote=""Misfit""]Went to the FOL sale last weekend. Found a 1954 copy of Katherine. No DJ, but look what's on the inside flap.[/quote]

Its been a few years since I've read it but didn't the latest release of this book have a family tree like this? I'm thinking it did.
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Misfit
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Post by Misfit » Mon September 19th, 2011, 8:15 pm

[quote=""LCW""]Its been a few years since I've read it but didn't the latest release of this book have a family tree like this? I'm thinking it did.[/quote]

I don't recall and I loaned my copy off, never to be returned again :mad:
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DianeL
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Post by DianeL » Mon September 19th, 2011, 10:53 pm

[quote=""Misfit""]These are great. Amazing how I can nod off to bed and find these new threads started. Magic :) :rolleyes: :confused:

Image

Image

Slightly OT but I found this one for Green Darkness whilst searching for more covers,

Image

Image

Image[/quote]

The top one here is my copy, it's a 1954 Book Club Edition, and is the one with the family tree inside the cover. My mother bought this for me in something like 1993; I had never seen this book before (surprising, in a way; I was at least 25 by the time I discovered "Katherine") and what she gave me she thought was a valuable first edition. It's priceless to me, either way.

The one with the knighting on the cover sort of doesn't make sense to me, but I studied way too much costume (and, you know, actually read the contents of the book) so it seems an irrelevant picture to what is inside.

I like the Book Club cover because it's very specific - illustrating the coat of arms, which is such a particular moment within the plot - and because it is not didactic. I can still imagine Katherine for myself, without some overly 1960s looking starlet gazing haughtily at me (hee - through her lashes ...) or an anachronistic, anorectic model, either. Knowing enough about what constituted "beautiful" in ages other than our own makes it a little embarrassing when contemporary images get thwapped onto 14th century aesthetics.
Last edited by DianeL on Mon September 19th, 2011, 10:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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