Edward & Charles Detmold

 

Edward Julius Detmold (21 November 1883 Putney, Wandsworth, Surrey – 1 July 1957 Montgomery) and his twin brother Charles Maurice Detmold (1883-1908) were prolific Victorian and early twentieth-century book illustrators.

Their parents were Edward Detmold and Mary Agnes Luck. Their father, an electrical engineer, was absent for much of their childhood, and they lived with their uncle and tutor, Dr. Edward Barton Shuldham, who taught them and was a noted collector of porcelain and Japanese woodcuts of plants and animals. Dr Shuldham occupied a house in Upper Richmond Road, Putney, where the twins were born. It ensured their interest in natural history and art and created a nurturing environment for their precocious talents. They also spent time with another uncle, the painter Henry E. Detmold, who encouraged them in their art. Most of their prodigious energy was spent depicting animal subjects, and their work showed great influence from traditional Japanese art, Albrecht Dürer and later the Art Nouveau movement. By the age of 13 they were exhibiting watercolors at the Royal Academy and the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours. Edward Burne-Jones praised their work and warned of the dangers of uniformity inherent in art schools.