René Bull...

 

FitzGerald, Edward, (trans.), Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, Rendered into English verse, Introduction and notes by Reynold Alleyne Nicholson, Illustrations by René Bull, Smithmark Publishers Inc., New York, NY, USA, 1995.

 

Large 32mo; hardcover, with gilt spine-titling and decorated endpapers; 144pp., with monochrome decorations by Willy Pogány, and other illustrations and frontispiece by René Bull. Some minor spotting to the top edge of the text block. Dustwrapper is mildly sunned along the spine. Near fine

This is my Holy Grail of collecting. For whatever reason, copies of this Gift Book didn’t seem to make it to the antipodes, so René Bull’s 1913 Rubaiyat is pretty thin on the ground down here. I have two copies - later re-prints by publishing houses - which tell me what I’m after; the real thing however, remains elusive.

 

René Bull (1872-1942) was of Irish/French descent, and was educated in Paris where he studied to be an engineer; however, like Pogány and Dulac before him, he got distracted from his original purpose and ended up training to be an artist. He returned to Dublin and began to work as a magazine illustrator and cartoonist, drawing many satirical pictures for local journals.

He moved to London in 1892 and started work with the newspapers and magazines there. His work led to an appointment as roving artist and photographer and he was sent to various battlefields to record his impressions. He witnessed the Tirah Campaign in India in 1898, visited the Sudan and saw the Battle of Omdurman, and was present at the relief of Ladysmith during the Boer War in 1900, at which engagement he was wounded and repatriated to London. His travels informed his Orientalist aesthetic and provided him with a wealth of imagery upon which to draw in his future career.

 

FitzGerald, Edward, (trans.), Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, Rendered into English verse, Illustrated by René Bull, Gramercy Books/Outlet Book Company Inc./Random House, Avenel, NJ, USA, 1992.

 

Octavo; hardcover, quarter-bound in illustrated and gilt decorated papered boards with a cloth spine, titled in gold, with illustrated endpapers and a blue marker ribbon; 96pp., with many monochrome and full-colour illustrations. Near fine.

From then on, Bull threw himself into his work as an illustrator. He never really won free of magazine work and, despite some truly breathtaking imagery in his gift books, was tied to the relative drudge work of illustrating children’s annuals such as Chums and Blackie’s. While working for The Sketch, he often drew strange and whimsical machines that were a precursor (and perhaps an inspiration for) Heath Robinson’s later work.

 

In 1914, he enlisted as a lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve; he transferred to the Royal Air Force during World War One and was promoted to the rank of major. In World War Two, he served as part of the Air Ministry in a technical capacity before his death in 1942.

 

Like Gilbert James, Bull remains a bit of an enigma in the world of illustration. He was never one of the “big guns” but his presence was palpable. Lost in the world of periodicals and newspapers – where provenance and cataloguing seem to be anathema – he has become simply another anonymous contributor to bygone endeavours. If not for his Rubaiyat and some of his other beautiful books, he might have vanished forever.

 

Books Illustrated by René Bull:

La Fontaine, Fables, Nelson, 1905

Saville, Fate’s Intruder: A Novel, Heinemann, 1905

Chandler Harris, Uncle Remus, Nelson, 1906

The Arabian Nights, Constable, 1912

Johnson, The Russian Ballet, 1913

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Hodder, 1913

Mérimée (Translated by A. E. Johnson), Carmen, Hutchinson, 1915

Strang, The Old Man Of The Mountain, Hodder, 1916

Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, 1928

Fyleman, A Garland of Roses: Collected Poems, Methuen, 1928

Andersen, Fairy Tales, Clowes, c.1928

Chandler Harris, Brer Rabbit Plays (Retold by Elizabeth Fleming), Nelson, 1930

La Fontaine, Fables: A Selection (Translated by Shirley Edward), 1935

Zoo Friends, Blackie, 1939

Various, The Children’s Golden Treasure Book, 1939

Magazine Contributions (where known):

“Weekly Freeman”, c.1890

“Illustrated Brits”, 1892

“Black and White”, 1892

“Chums”, 1892

“Pall Mall Budget”, 1893

“Illustrated London News”, 1893

“St. Paul’s”, 1894

“Lika Joko”, 1894

“English Illustrated Magazine”, 1894–96

“Black and White”, 1896

“Pick-Me-Up: The New Budget”, 1895

“The Sketch”, 1895-1918

“The Ludgate Monthly”, c. 1896

“Chums”, c.1900

“London Opinion”, c.1900

“The Bystander”, 1904

“Punch”, 1906–07