BAGDContext CSM

Beautiful lithographic drawing by Fred Taylor for the Great Western Railway to Oxford.

These are colour lithographs published by the Swiss National Tourist Office during the 1940s. They were printed by Wolfsberg, in Zurich.

The artist is Alois Carigiet, and the prints are from a series called, Beautiful Switzerland…

It turns out that Carigiet is famous as an artist, children’s book writer and illustrator, and as a poster artist.

I love the idea of the Alpine sublime in these pictures, and of the slight delirium of space, light and altitude, rendered by the optical disturbance of sharp light, and with harsh contrasts of light and shade…

I like that, in a couple of the prints, there are trains and railways, and paddle-steamers.

Lovely.

I already posted about the history of the Alpine sublime, here

http://paulrennie.rennart.co.uk/post/136819974040/speed-ski-style-and-sophistication-the-alpine

I’ve posted before about the feelings of vertigo that derive from the sensation of speed and excitement associated with train travel…it’s all very Freudian, and psycheadelic.

It turns out that the first writing by Lewis Caroll (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass) was for a magazine called, For the Train (1856). That’s perfect.

The 19C philosophy of nonsense, deriving from Caroll and Edward Lear, provides an important wellspring for thinking about different realities…and anticipate the counter-culture of the 1960s and post-modernism.

It’s all a bit Doctor Who too…Tardis, anyone?

This has been painted on the buildimng site hoarding at the back of our shop in Folkestone. Thanks to you-know-who. Perfect.

Lovely.

Here is the cover of a folder with four sheets of paper model trains within.

Actually, it’s one loco and tender, an SR streamlined Merchant Navy or Battle of Britain class by Bullied, with a passenger carriage and a number of goods wagons, and a station.

A whole model railway in fact.

I love paper-models in their sheet form.

Mechanical sublime.