DETMOLD, Maurice

Charles Maurice Detmold, always known as Maurice, was an artist, printmaker and illustrator of books, and the older twin brother of Edward Julius Detmold.  When only 12 Maurice competed against adults in a fine-art competition, gaining 3^rd prize.  Edward Burne-Jones was an admirer of the Detmolds’s work, encouraging them to continue with their own style, and advising against art school which could inhibit them. The twins collaborated to produce a set of 16 illustrations for Kipling’s Jungle Book (1903), the water-colours for which “must be among the finest book illustrations ever produced” (D. Larkin). Despite his gifts and increasing success, Maurice took his own life in 1908, aged only 24.