Edouard Manet’s The Flying Raven is an extraordinarily spare image, reducing Edgar Allan Poe’s ominous bird to a single sweeping silhouette in flight. The raven’s outstretched wings stretch almost the entire width of the composition, while its ragged contours and dense black mass give the bird a powerful, almost abstract presence. Set against an otherwise nearly empty field of ivory, the image derives its effect from the contrast between the raven’s shadowy form and the surrounding silence: a fitting visual emblem for Poe’s poem.
Created in 1875 as the ex libris, or bookplate, for the deluxe French edition of Poe’s The Raven, the image was part of a collaboration between Manet and poet Stephane Mallarme. Mallarme translated Poe’s poem into French as Le Corbeau, while Manet supplied the illustrations: a frontispiece, four full-page lithographs depicting scenes from the poem, and this stark flying raven as the bookplate. The edition was published in Paris by Richard Lesclide and printed by J. Lefman, with an edition of 240 copies. The combination of Manet’s expressive, almost sketchlike graphic style and Poe’s themes of grief and haunting makes the ex libris one of the most memorable images in the volume.
🖨️ Print features:
– Made with museum-grade archival paper for excellent printing fidelity and vibrant color reproduction
– Paper weight: 189 g/m2
– For indoor use only
– Care instructions: If the print does gather any dust, you may wipe it off gently with a clean, dry cloth.
– Please note: Due to the production process of these posters, please allow for slight size deviations with a tolerance +/- 1/16″
🚚 Fulfillment, Shipping, and Return Policy:
– Printed and shipped from the U.S.
– Ships in a sturdy mailing tube, frame not included
– As our items are unique and made to order, we can only accept a return or exchange in the event that an item arrives damaged or misprinted. We cannot accept returns if you order the wrong size or change your mind. Any return requests must be made within 14 days of receiving the order.
💬 Questions? Looking for something else, or want something in a different size? Feel free to reach out anytime; we’ll see what we can do!
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