Harry Clarke’s gothic masterpiece

Cork horror fans may have been drawn in by the lure of 'The Fall of the House of Usher' on Netflix this winter.

Adapted from tales by famed author Edgar Allan Poe, the king of 19th century gothic horror, the eight-part miniseries charts the demise of every heir to the fortune of the ill-fated Roderick Usher, reimagined for a modern era as the CEO of a ruthless pharmaceutical company.

While the eerie series may only loosely draw inspiration from Poe's 1840 short story, the surge in Poe-related interest makes a visit to Cork City's Crawford Art Gallery to witness Irish illustrator Harry Clarke's interpretation of 'The Fall of the House of Usher' a must-see.

Harry Clarke (1889-1931) depicts the horrifying moment that Roderick Usher and the tale’s unnamed narrator realise that the sounds they are hearing as they sit and read are in fact Roderick’s sister Madeline, who has been entombed alive.

Clarke’s illustration is 100 years old this year, but it has lost none of its spine-tingling resonance. Created in 1923, it is one of 26 works acquired from the Dublin artist by Crawford Art Gallery in 1924.

Tragedy

Clarke’s own life was punctuated by the kind of morbid tragedy found within Poe’s gothic romances: he suffered ill health all his life and died at just 41 in Switzerland, having sought treatment in a TB sanatorium. His condition was likely made worse by working with caustic chemicals to create his famous stained-glass works.

After his death, Clarke’s family being unaware of a Swiss law relating to the maintenance of cemetery plots, his body was later exhumed and reinterred in an unmarked pauper’s grave.

The Fall of the House of Usher is amongst several illustrations Clarke did of Poe’s work that are currently being exhibited in Crawford Art Gallery in an exhibition titled HARRY CLARKE: Bad Romance.

Clarke’s magical watercolour studies for his stained-glass window The Eve of St Agnes, his remarkable book illustrations, and three stained-glass panels (believed to be the earliest examples of his work in that medium) are on show between now and 18 February in what has become Crawford Art Gallery’s annual celebration of his work.

Exhibition curator Michael Waldron says the power of Clarke’s make-believe worlds to captivate – or horrify – art lovers is as strong today as it was 100 years ago, and that The Fall of the House of Usher is just one of the illustrations on display that will enchant gallery-goers.