Heathcliff Under the Tree

One of Fritz Eichenberg's seventeen wood engraving illustrations for Wuthering Heights, the haunting English novel by Emily Brontë first published in 1847, Heathcliff Under the Tree portrays the malevolent hero in profile, leaning against the sturdy trunk of a bare-branched tree battered by swirling winds in a forlorn, isolated setting. Oblivious to the gusts that tug the flaps of his coat and his tie, Heathcliff tilts his determined face upward to the sky. The undulating striations of fine lines in Eichenberg's print articulate the gnarled tree trunk and stormy sky and evoke the torment of Heathcliff's thwarted love.

Heathcliff Under the Tree originally was created for the compelling front and back covers of a 1943 Random House edition of Wuthering Heights issued as part of a boxed set with Jane Eyre, a novel by Emily Brontë's sister Charlotte for which Eichenberg also designed illustrations. This quintessential image of Heathcliff summarizes the lonely, tortured soul of the character, an epitome of the Romantic spirit. The image proved so popular that Eichenberg printed it as a fine print edition on Japanese paper, of which this impression is an example. When Eichenberg was making his illustrations for Wuthering Heights, World War II was sweeping across Asia and Europe, including his native Germany. Against a backdrop of destruction abroad and wartime strictures on the American homefront, Brontë's harrowing tale of untamed passion and cruelty set in Yorkshire's rugged moors must have seemed ripe for reissue. Among the most famous of Eichenberg's book illustrations, Heathcliff Under the Tree exemplifies the artist's talent for giving dramatic visual form to a memorable literary character.

On Process: The American Print, Technique Examined, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, January 13–March 2, 2001.

Visages de l'Amérique: de George Washington à Marilyn Monroe (Faces of America: From George Washington to Marilyn Monroe), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–October 31, 2004 (on exhibit partial run: April 1–July 5, 2004). [exh. cat.]

Eichenberg, Fritz. The Wood and the Graver: The Work of Fritz Eichenberg. New York: C. N. Potter & Barre, Mass., Imprint Society, 1977. Ill. pp. 46–47.

Eichenberg, Fritz. Six Decades of Prints. Washington, D.C.: International Exhibitions Foundation, 1979. Cat. no. 25; ill. cover.

Eichenberg, Fritz with Curt Visel, David Maslyn and Hildegard Nägele. Fritz Eichenberg: Werkkatalog der illustrierten Bücher, 1922–1987. Memmingen, Germany: Edition C. Visel, 1987. No. D14.