The Look of Love

I recently reviewed this delightful little book for The English Home and fell in love with its quirky, funny, and at times, melodramatic images. The British Library has done a wonderful job in selecting an eclectic collection of illustrations that will appeal to all audiences and ages, giving the reader an interesting history of how romantic interludes and courtships were once portrayed, as far back as the Middle Ages to as recently as the 1930s. My review, unfortunately, didn't have enough room to feature any of the illustrations, so here's a selection of my favourites:

The colours of this fifteenth-century manuscript of Petrarch's poems are so vivid and beautiful

Drawn for Poems by Alfred Lord Tennyson in 1864, 'Lockesley Hall' by John Everett Millais is so sincere and heartfelt - I wonder if the couple were imagined or embracing their last farewell for real...

'A Flower Wedding' by Walter Crane, 1905, is such a charmingly Edwardian image of a blushing bride and groom

A stolen (perhaps illicit?) moment at a dinner party perhaps? All-story magazine, 1927

This image reminded me of Daisy and Gatsby in Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby; a perfect illustration of the heady Jazz Age; La vie parisienne magazine, 9 February 1929

And my two favorites, which had me in giggles and need no explanations... please feel free to add your own speech bubbles!:

Rund ums Freibad by Heinrich Zille, 1926

Jugend magazine, 1904
(NB: apologies for the glare at the top of this image - I took a photo of the page with my phone)

The Look of Love, published by The British Library, £10, out now