The Figure Was Tall and Gaunt (from The Mask of the Red Death)

 

Federico Castellon

  1914 - 1971 (biography)

1969  

color lithograph 

11 15/16 x 8 1/4" image 

unsigned as published 

471 of 500  

pencil titled and editioned verso 

Freundlich 196 

white wove 

published 

Aquarius Press, Baltimore 

13942 

$125.00 

On being questioned on to his choice to illustrate Poe's book "The Mask of the Red Death," Castellon responded: "I picked it because a lot of my work is devoted to this kind of questioning of what the hell is it all about and to me that was typical of the philosophy that Poe seemed to project. That we try to pose whatever we want, do whatever we want, everything, and therefore the whole game... Poe depresses me enormously in the sense that his compositions are basically lonely people all the time, rarely puts two people together. He has of course very often but a great bulk of them are alone and he impresses me with the uniqueness of an individual, this kind of floating and trying to find a niche that really isn't there. You have to function within what is there, but none of them is a comfortable niche for anybody."