Nature, War and the Art of the Detmold Twins: Orientalist Dreams, Modernity’s Nightmares

Twins Charles Maurice Detmold (1883-1908) and Edward Julius Detmold (1883-1957) were among the most extraordinary, enigmatic and tragic figures in early 20th century British art.In unravelling the mysteries of their lives, this book re-examines themes of art and war, orientalism, and the human relationship with nature. By the time they entered their teens, the Detmold twins were widely recognised as artistic geniuses.They worked together on acclaimed etchings and on illustrations to Kipling’s Jungle Book, but at the height of their fame, and while still in his early twenties, Charles Maurice Detmold inexplicably committed suicide, leaving only a couple of strange sentences as clues to the reason for his death.Edward Detmold went on to become a central figure in the golden age of book illustration, famous particularly for his nature paintings and for the images he created to accompany Hodder and Stoughton’s exquisite 1924 edition of The Arabian Nights.He was also imprisoned as a conscie