Guleesh-na-guss-dhu
Date1902
Artist
Bertha Corson Day
(American painter and illustrator, 1875–1968)
Illustration Citation"Guleesh-na-guss-dhu," in Where the Wind Blows, by Katharine Pyle (New York: R.H. Russell, 1902)
MediumInk, watercolor, and gouache on illustration board
Dimensionscomposition: 18 3/4 × 12 3/16 in. (47.6 × 31 cm)
sheet: 23 15/16 × 17 15/16 in. (60.8 × 45.6 cm)
sheet: 23 15/16 × 17 15/16 in. (60.8 × 45.6 cm)
Credit LineGift of Mrs. J. Marshall Cole, 1988
Object number1988-177
On View
Not on viewClassificationsDRAWING
Label TextThe story of Guleesh-na-guss-dhu appeared in 19th-century compendia of Celtic lore. Guleesh "of the black feet" (so nicknamed as a youth because his father could not convince him to wash them) has many international adventures — including transport from Ireland by fairy horses — culminating in his marriage to a princess, seen here in a herb-induced sleep. Day's fluid and delicate illustrations gave the book, according to one critic, "a charm and character all its own." 
