It's time to explain the covers that grace the covers of my three "Holmes Behind the Veil" novels. [Most of the readers of this article will have seen the covers many times by way of various promotions; for those who haven't, please just scroll down to the bottom.] Book covers do not happen by accident. Publishers, authors, artists and designers put a lot of energy into devising the image that is the first portal to liking any book. But first I’ll set the stage.
. . . . and how the two of them crossed the Atlantic to New York on business and quickly, entirely by chance and impulsively, decided they'd travel upstate to the Hudson River Valley to call on Frederick Church, the aging and onetime renowned landscape artist whose paintings Quatermain admired . . . .
“Frederic Edwin Church,” by
Charles Loring Elliot,
1866, oil on canvas (Copyright © Olana
State Historic
Park)
. . . . at his home, which he designed and built, Olana, in upper New York State overlooking the Hudson River . . . .
Late in his life Church built his dream home high on a
hill overlooking the Hudson River. Designed to resemble a Persian palace, he
called it Olana.
(Copyright © Olana State Historic
Park)
. . . . whereupon, Church appreciating his good fortune having two such worldly adventurers unexpectedly come to his door on a cold winter's night, bid them enter and make themselves comfortable in his sitting room before a roaring fire—which room was only used for the most important occasions.
The sitting room of the Church home. (Photo from the brochure "Treasures from Olana" (Copyright © Olana State Historic
Park)
While they sat with goblets of brandy in their hands before the fire, Quatermain notices the oil painting above the fireplace . . . .
El Kasné , the treasury house, was painted specifically to be displayed above the
fireplace in the sitting room in Church's home Olana. (Copyright © Olana State Historic
Park, 60 in x 50 in.)
. . . . and also another painting that is away in the corner still on an easel . . . .
El Ayn (The Fountain, also known as Constantinople) is
currently part of the collection of the Mead Art Museum, Amherst College,
Amherst, Massachusetts (24 in. x 36 in.). The fountain is in the bottom right
corner. Copyright
© Mead Art Museum
© Mead Art Museum
. . . . whereupon the usually taciturn Quatermain turned loquacious and related to Church and Watson the story of a grand adventure in the harsh deserts of east Africa with his man-servant Hans in 1872, and how he, Watson, being of a literary nature, wrote the whole thing down from memory on the voyage back, and finally how he sent that manuscript to Church as a memento of the grand evening they shared in Church’s home Olana, overlooking the Hudson River.
It is that very manuscript written in Watson's hand (a month before he even meets Sherlock Holmes!) that eventually becomes the book titled The Great Detective at the Crucible of Life, Book 2 of the "Holmes Behind the Veil" series.
Now that you have this scenario in your head, you can better understand how the cover (see the Great Detective book cover image at the bottom of this post) of my series came to be.
MX publisher Steven Emecz introduced me to artist/designer Brian Belanger, and Brian asked me what sort of cover I had in mind. I explained (1) that Holmes, while vital to each of the tales, is not the center of attention in two of the books, that he is muted, in the background, part of the reason the series is titled “Holmes Behind the Veil”, and (2) I explained that I am deeply affected by a particular school of art that was never far from my mind as I wrote the books. I went so far as to say that some part of that art was transferred into the novels. And indeed, this school of art became a major plot factor in Book 2, as you've seen summarized just above.
But of course, right about now, some of you are wondering just who this Frederick Church is. Here is a bit of back story (a back story within a back story!): From 1825 to 1875, there developed a style of uniquely American landscape painting known as the Hudson River School. These works were astonishingly photographic in detail while at the same time rendering nature in such romanticized and noble hues, with such immaculate emphasis on light and atmosphere that the paintings were like windows into paradise. Here is an example titled Mount Corcoran by Albert Bierstadt (© National Gallery of Art).
Mount Corcoran, c. 1876-1877, oil on canvas,
60 11/16 × 95
7/8 in.
But as its sobriquet indicates, many of the original artists painted views of the Hudson River Valley in upper New York State. This was a favorite region of the founder of this new school of art Thomas Cole and of his protégé Frederick Church, and many of Cole's disciples went out of their way to paint the same region. Among the foremost practitioners of this school, besides Bierstadt, Cole, and Church, were Asher Durand, John Kensett, and Thomas Moran. Church was easily the most popular of these artists because he painted vast—huge—canvases portraying Niagara Falls, towering South American mountain ranges, and erupting Ecuadorian volcanoes that inspired awe in those who viewed them. The latter two he painted from life having trekked over the Andes Mountains and though Ecuador in 1853.
Niagara, 1857. Oil on canvas, 41-1/2
x 90-1/2 inches. Photograph © Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
The Heart of the Andes, 1859. Oil on canvas,
66-1/8 x 119-1/4 inches. Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art.. 
Cotopaxi, 1862. Oil on canvas, 48 x
85 inches. Photograph © The Detroit Institute of Arts.
Knowing fully well how his work affected people, he
displayed his paintings alone in darkened venues with dramatic lighting much as we would a movie
screen in front of an array of seats, and he surrounded the paintings with fragrant flora and/or other props that suited the painting. Of course there
was an admission fee and Church became quite well off.
However, popular interest in this style of painting dwindled, and of course Church not only grew older, his hands became crippled with arthritis so that it became more and more difficult to hold a paint brush. Later in his life Church built his dream home high on a hill overlooking the Hudson River. Designed to resemble a Persian palace, he called it Olana. Since the home, like a jewel, was at the top of a hill, Church designed the approach to the house as a circuitous drive, so that at every bend visitors encountered fabulous scenes of the Hudson River or the Catskill Mountains. Church had planted thousands of trees in such a manner as to purposefully frame choice vistas just as though they were landscape paintings!
Now you might ask how all of this crossed paths with me. Have you ever, out of the blue, seen something that you bonded with fundamentally in an instant? In 1989, in Time magazine or Newsweek, there was a very small reproduction (I forget the point of the article; it was probably a discussion of trends in art at the time) of Hudson River School artist Albert Bierstadt's In the Mountains (Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut). The actual painting is 36 inches x 50 inches, but the photo in the magazine was hardly larger than a postage stamp, just as seen here (though you might want to click on it).
But, by some magic, by some trick of the moment, this tiny reproduction was enough to forever turn my head, and in short order I
was impassioned by all things Hudson River School—in particular Frederic
Church.
So you can imagine that as soon as the opportunity presented itself, I visited Olana in upper New York State.
Church built his home in a particular orientation relative to his grounds and gardens to literally frame the real-life views of the river and mountains rather as though they were landscape paintings. When he was alive, he maintained those framed views carefully for maximum effect. Even today, the view from the broad balcony pictured above gives an idea of what it must have been like in Church's day. Here I have pieced together two snapshots to clumsily approximate the view from the balcony of the winding Hudson River. (Special photo juxtaposition copyright © by Thomas Kent Miller.)
And that is why I mentioned the Hudson River School of art to Brian. I told him I felt there was something of the “romanticized and noble hues, and immaculate emphasis on light and atmosphere” in my work. And Brian said, "I can do that," and in short order he provided the masterful idyllic landscape that graces the “Holmes Behind the Veil” series. Also note that towards the bottom, the landscape fades into or merges into an image redolent of another aspect common to all three volumes—old, musty books, manuscripts, journals, scrolls, and such like, some mere centuries old, others thousands of years old.
You notice that all three of my books have the exact same cover art, which is a joy to me because now, finally, the three connected novels of my trilogy are presented with beautiful matching covers.
Book 2 of the “Holmes Behind the Veil” series from MX—The Great Detective at The Dawn of Time—will be available September 19. Book 1, Sherlock Holmes on the Roof of the World, is already available, and Book 3, The Sussex Beekeeper at the Dawn of Time, will be available on November 20 from online bookstores and marketplaces everywhere, including Amazon USA, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon UK.
Continued in post 10.
However, popular interest in this style of painting dwindled, and of course Church not only grew older, his hands became crippled with arthritis so that it became more and more difficult to hold a paint brush. Later in his life Church built his dream home high on a hill overlooking the Hudson River. Designed to resemble a Persian palace, he called it Olana. Since the home, like a jewel, was at the top of a hill, Church designed the approach to the house as a circuitous drive, so that at every bend visitors encountered fabulous scenes of the Hudson River or the Catskill Mountains. Church had planted thousands of trees in such a manner as to purposefully frame choice vistas just as though they were landscape paintings!
Now you might ask how all of this crossed paths with me. Have you ever, out of the blue, seen something that you bonded with fundamentally in an instant? In 1989, in Time magazine or Newsweek, there was a very small reproduction (I forget the point of the article; it was probably a discussion of trends in art at the time) of Hudson River School artist Albert Bierstadt's In the Mountains (Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut). The actual painting is 36 inches x 50 inches, but the photo in the magazine was hardly larger than a postage stamp, just as seen here (though you might want to click on it).
Albert Bierstadt's In the Mountains
(Copyright © Wadsworth Atheneum,
Hartford,
Connecticut)
So you can imagine that as soon as the opportunity presented itself, I visited Olana in upper New York State.
 |
The entrance to Olana
(Photo by Thomas Kent Miller.) |
 |
Olana's broad balcony overlooking the
(Photo by Thomas Kent Miller.)Hudson River. |
Church built his home in a particular orientation relative to his grounds and gardens to literally frame the real-life views of the river and mountains rather as though they were landscape paintings. When he was alive, he maintained those framed views carefully for maximum effect. Even today, the view from the broad balcony pictured above gives an idea of what it must have been like in Church's day. Here I have pieced together two snapshots to clumsily approximate the view from the balcony of the winding Hudson River. (Special photo juxtaposition copyright © by Thomas Kent Miller.)
And that is why I mentioned the Hudson River School of art to Brian. I told him I felt there was something of the “romanticized and noble hues, and immaculate emphasis on light and atmosphere” in my work. And Brian said, "I can do that," and in short order he provided the masterful idyllic landscape that graces the “Holmes Behind the Veil” series. Also note that towards the bottom, the landscape fades into or merges into an image redolent of another aspect common to all three volumes—old, musty books, manuscripts, journals, scrolls, and such like, some mere centuries old, others thousands of years old.
 |
| Cover Art and Design by Brian Belanger |
You notice that all three of my books have the exact same cover art, which is a joy to me because now, finally, the three connected novels of my trilogy are presented with beautiful matching covers.
Book 2 of the “Holmes Behind the Veil” series from MX—The Great Detective at The Dawn of Time—will be available September 19. Book 1, Sherlock Holmes on the Roof of the World, is already available, and Book 3, The Sussex Beekeeper at the Dawn of Time, will be available on November 20 from online bookstores and marketplaces everywhere, including Amazon USA, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon UK.
Continued in post 10.
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Thanks for your kind words, Tom. I have to give you credit for the overall idea, as you mentioned in one of your emails “The one physical thing in common in all three books is old, musty manuscripts, journals, scrolls, and the like. Some are mere centuries old, others thousands of years old”. That’s what inspired me to fade the landscape painting into the assortment of books and scripts at the bottom of the cover.
ReplyDeleteThanks again for turning me on to the Hudson River School of Art --- these are some of the most beautiful landscape paintings I’ve ever seen! I especially love the Niagra Falls pieces; apparently, there’s a waterfall buried under all the buildings, gates and fences that are at that spot today.