Image, Memory and Reconstruction: Alastair’s

Illustrated Editions for Oscar Wilde’s The Sphinx

and The Birthday of the Infanta as Memory Palaces
 Memory Palace, Exhibition, Victoria and Albert
Museum (Porter Gallery), 18 June-20 October 2013
(Hari Kunzru/20 graphic designers and illustrators) .
 The Sphinx by Oscar Wilde,
illustrated and decorated by
Alastair, with a note by Robert
Ross. London/New York: John Lane,
1920. [1,000 copies]
The Birthday of the Infanta by Oscar
Wilde, L’Anniversaire de l’Infante par
Oscar Wilde. [trans. not specified],
ill. Alastair, preface Harry Crossby.
Paris: The Black Sun Press/Éditions
Narcisse, 1928 . [100 copies + 10].
ALASTAIR (Hans Henning Otto, Baron von Voigt)
1887-1969

•  Das Bildnis des Dorian

Gray, Konstanz, Lingua
Verlag, 1948
[translation].
•  The Sphinx, ill. Alastair,
London/New York, John
Lane, 1920.
•  Salomé, ill. Alastair,
Paris, Georges Crès,
1922.
•  The Birthday of the
Infanta, ill. Alastair,
Paris, Black Sun Press/
Éditions Narcisse, 1928.

Alastair, The Sphinx,
ill. Alastair, with a note by Robert
Ross, London/New York, John
Lane, 1920 [1,000 copies].

The Birthday of the Infanta,
ill. Alastair, preface Harry
Crosby, Paris, Black Sun Press/
Éditions Narcisse, 1928
[110 copies]
 I. RECONSTRUCTING INTERSEMIOTIC NETWORKS (1): FROM IMAGES TO
TEXTS TO IMAGES
1. Alastair,
The Birthday of
the Infanta,
Frontispiece

2. The Birthday of
the Infanta, last
illustration, plate 8,
facing p. 36
(The Dead Dwarf)
Diego VELÁZQUEZ, Las Meninas 3. The Birthday of the
(1656, oil on canvas, 318x276 cm, Infanta, plate 3, facing
Madrid, Museo del Prado) p. 10 (The Empty
Window).
Gustave MOREAU, Oedipus and the
Sphinx, (1864, oil on canvas, New
York, The Metropolitan Museum of
Art).

Alastair, Cover page of The Sphinx.

 Alastair, The Birthday of the
Infanta, plate 4, facing p. 14 (The
Autodafé)
Francisco de GOYA,
Los Desastres de la guerra
(1810-1815), Grande
hazaña! Con muertos! (Great
Feat! With dead men)
(engraving 39)
II. RECONSTRUCTING INTERSEMIOTIC NETWORKS (2): RECYCLING
AND REPRISING
Cover pages: The Sphinx by Oscar Wilde, ill. Charles Ricketts,
London, John Lane, 1894 (left) / Alastair, The Sphinx, 1920 (right).

Alastair, The Sphinx, cover page (left)/Salomé by Oscar Wilde, ill.
Aubrey Beardsley, London, Elkin Mathews and John Lane, 1894
censored title page (right).
 Frontispieces: Alastair, The Sphinx, frontispiece,
“Ashtaroth”/The Sphinx by Oscar Wilde, ill. Charles
Ricketts, London, John Lane, 1894 title page (right).
The Sphinx by Oscar Wilde, Albrecht DÜRER, Melencolia I
ill. Charles Ricketts, London, (1514, copper engraving,
John Lane, 1894, title page 238x168 mm, Frankfurt-am-Main,
Städel Museum)
 Alastair and Beardsley :
The Sphinx d’Oscar Wilde, ill. Alastair, London/New York,
John Lane, 1920, frontispiece, “Ashtaroth” (left)/Salomé by
Oscar Wilde, ill. Aubrey Beardsley, censored title page (right).
Last illustra*ons: The Sphinx by Oscar Wilde, ill. Charles Ricke5s, London,
John Lane, 1894, last ill., (le8)/The Sphinx by Oscar Wilde, ill. Alastair,
London/New York, John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1920, last ill (right).
The Sphinx by Oscar Wilde,
ill. Alastair, London/
New York, John Lane, The
Bodley Head, 1920, last ill
Egon SCHIELE, Seated Male Nude
(Self-portrait), 1910, oil on canvas,
1,525 mmx1,500 mm, Vienna,
Leopold Museum.
The Sphinx by Oscar Wilde, ill. Alastair, London/New York,
John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1920, last ill. (left)/Guido RENI,
Saint Sebastien (1610, oil on canvas, 127 x 92 cm, Genoa,
Palazzo Rosso) (right).
A House of Pomegranates,
ill. Charles RICKETTS and Charles Page 27 (“the semi-classical tragedy of
SHANNON, London, James R. Sophonisba”)
Osgood, McIlvaine and Company,
Chiswick Press, 1891
 III. A QUEER MEMORY PALACE?

2. Alastair,
The Birthday of the
Infanta,
plate 5, The Dancers
of the Virgin (facing
p. 20) 

1. Alastair, 3. Alastair,
The Birthday of The Birthday of the
the Infanta, Infanta, plate 7,
Frontispiece The Grape Treaders
(facing p. 31)
Alastair, The Sphinx, plate 3, Salomé, ill. Alastair, Paris,
“Sing to me of that odorous Georges Crès, 1922, cover
green eve when crouching by
the marge/You heard from
Adrian’s gilded barge the
laughter of Antinous” [facing
page 16]
 Alastair, The Sphinx, plate 1, “O tell me, were you
standing by when Isis to Osiris knelt?” [facing page 12].