Been really enjoying the paintings of Ferdinand Leeke recently. Although they predate the early era of fantasy literature, they still have that softness to them that you see in old Tolkien illustrations. Its almost watercolor esque, although Leeke primarily painted with oils.

Its interesting, the women in his paintings might seem plain in modernity, and I wonder if that was the taste of the time, or a failing on Ferdinand's part. The environments they are in are beautiful though, and he certainly captures a wild and beautiful Maenad pwr in them

Ferdinand Leeke was born in the late 1830s, and is best known for paintings from Wagner's operas. They capture the grandiose scale and emotional heft of Wagner in a manner that I personally find deeply impactful.

These two capture that almost watercolor early fantasy era softness that I mentioned initially very well. Horses don't look like that (look at the face), and forest don't appear the way that they do in the second painting IRL. But that's the magic of it, almost dreamlike.

His landscape work is gorgeous too, albeit difficult to find. Leeke is a lesser known painter, so its hard to find high quality scans of his work, but due to his style it almost doesn't matter. The lack of clarity in the images almost adds to that hazy beauty he captures.

I'll finish off w/ two of my favorites.

The despondency & masculine power captured in this funeral march is entrancing.

And to me this second painting is heart-warming. Both man and women are clearly aging, but the love and tenderness captured is all the sweeter for that fact.