Art Gallery: The Worlds of Mervyn Peake | reviews, news & interviews
Art Gallery: The Worlds of Mervyn Peake
Art Gallery: The Worlds of Mervyn Peake
The centenary of the Gormenghast creator is celebrated in a new exhibition
![](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/mast_image_landscape/public/mastimages/e78c46e17fcaf25ae5e3fd895121344b.jpg?itok=s-60wC-s)
Best known for the Gormenghast Trilogy, Mervyn Peake, who died in 1968 and whose centenary is celebrated this year, was also an artist, an illustrator and a poet. As well as illustrating his own fiction (images 5-9), some of his finest drawings were for books by other authors. For grotesque satiric humour and Gothic sensibility he found a perfect match in Dickens, as his rather creepy illustrations for Bleak House beautifully attest.
Best known for the Gormenghast Trilogy, Mervyn Peake, who died in 1968 and whose centenary is celebrated this year, was also an artist, an illustrator and a poet. As well as illustrating his own fiction (images 5-9), some of his finest drawings were for books by other authors. For grotesque satiric humour and Gothic sensibility he found a perfect match in Dickens, as his rather creepy illustrations for Bleak House beautifully attest.
Share this article
Add comment
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
more Visual arts
!['Thatcher Unmasked', 1986 by Peter Kennard](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Peter%20Kennard_Thatcher%20Unmasked_1986.jpg?itok=5l9AxAqi)
!['Ineligible for Death', 2024 by Dominique White, Max Mara Art Prize for Women 2022-24](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Dominique%20White_ineligible%20for%20death_2024.jpg?itok=Or8wdFI-)
![Bill Viola](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Bill%20Viola_0.jpg?itok=OxrG5F3D)
![Sharpening the Saws, 1927, by Oleksandr Bohomazov. Oil on canvas](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/U%20saws.jpg?itok=J1bAOd6U)
![Children’s Game #40: Chivichanas, La Habana, Cuba, 2023 by Francis Alÿs](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Frances%20Chivichanas.jpg?itok=i_Y4i1U4)
![Freedom Hunters, 1977 by Gavin Jantjes, screenprint on paper](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Gavin%20Jantjes%20Freedom%20Hunters%201977%20Screen%20print%20on%20paper%20100%20%C3%97%2070%20cm%20Photo.%20Ann%20Purkis%20Image%20courtesy%20the%20artist%20Gavin%20Jantjes%20%C2%A9%20Gavin%20Jantes%2C%20licensed%20by%20DACS..jpg?itok=oJbrW2XX)
!['Supremely strange wall-mounted objects': part of Laura Aldridge's installation at Jupiter Artland](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/laura%20aldridge%20installation%20view%201%20by%20author%20%282%29small_0.jpg?itok=C8MKlSNg)
![Installation view of Revelations, 2024 by Judy Chicago at Serpentine North](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Chicago%201.jpeg?itok=NChDbymF)
!['The Roll Call', 1874 by Elizabeth Butler](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Now%20Elizabeth%20Butler%2C%20The%20Roll%20Call%2C%201874.jpg?itok=uzso8Rkh)
!['Muse', 1910](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Muse%2C%201910%204R00900_1000x1000_0.jpg?itok=mLF188qF)
![Gabriele Münter Listening (Portrait of Jawlensky), 1909](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Blue%20Gabriele%20Mu%CC%88nter%2C%20Listening%20%28Portrait%20of%20Jawlensky%29%2C%201909.%20Lenbachhaus%20Munich%2C%20Donation%20of%20Gabriele%20Mu%CC%88nter%2C%201957%20%C2%A9%20DACS%202024_0.jpg?itok=s_89ZOza)
!['Max Bill teaching Theory of Forms at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich', 1946, by Ernst Scheidegger](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/07.%20Ernst%20Scheideggersmall.jpg?itok=gw2iAMIl)
Comments
...
...