Illustration for Zlaté Rouno 1920

This is an illustration for Zlaté Rouno by Artuš Scheiner; the date of creation is unknown, but it’s likely from the early 20th century. The limited palette of murky greens, reds, and yellows gives the piece a dreamlike, slightly unsettling quality. I love how the artist uses the texture of the paper to create a sense of depth and atmosphere, especially in the lower right corner where blues and blacks bleed into the composition like some kind of gas or ectoplasm. The way the paint is applied is interesting. Notice the scales of the dragon or crocodile, each one carefully rendered. Whereas the figure in the centre is ghostlike and soft. Scheiner’s approach reminds me of some of the Symbolist painters, like Odilon Redon, who were also interested in exploring the darker, more mysterious aspects of the human psyche. Like those artists, Scheiner seems less concerned with depicting reality as it is, and more interested in creating a world of imagination and fantasy. It’s this ambiguity, this openness to interpretation, that makes the work so compelling.