Diabolical Fantasia The Art of Der Orchideengarten Vol 1

The Art of Der Orchideengarten #1

by Thomas Negovan

Founded four years before the iconic American magazine WEIRD TALES launched in March 1923, DER ORCHIDEENGARTEN (The Orchid Garden) is considered to be the world's first fantasy magazine.

Published after the First World War, when German art was at its height of decadence and debauchery, the magazine included a wide selection of new and reprinted stories by both German-language and foreign writers ranging from suspense and terror to crime and the eerily-erotic.

While the literary content is historically significant, many of the stories have been reprinted in multiple places across the last century; we have focused our attention on that has gone largely undocumented: the incredible artworks that illustrated these stories.

The artworks contained herein range from peculiar medieval etchings to occult woodblocks to expressionist visions, all balancing the romantic and the gothic with hyper-elegant sophistication.

Diabolical Fantasia: The Art of Der Orchideengarten Vol 1 thoroughly covers the magnificent and macabre illustrations in issues #1-6 of Der Orchideengarten magazine from the year 1919.

The illustrations are captured from high-resolution scans made from a pristine collection in the Century Guild museum archive, and the accompanying text documents extensive research to support the artworks and verify the artists whose names were not listed in the publication.

Genres: Fantasy

80 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2017

About the author

Thomas Negovan is the founder of Century Guild, a private museum, art gallery, and archive specializing in artworks 1880-1920 with emphasis on Art Nouveau & Symbolism.

Reviews

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gorgeous artwork, interesting content if a little sparse.

[Armando Hernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Impresionantes ilustraciones de la revista Der Orchideengarten, precursora de la famosa “Weird Tales”