Tuesday 19 February 2019

The man with the golden brush!


As Ian Fleming's books were being released in Sweden for of them was released with a cover drawn by a famous Swedish artist called Hans Arnold.

Hans was not born in Sweden but in Switzerland and moved to Sweden in his early 20's. He is famous for his strange and sexy drawings with huge amount of details.

Albert Bonniers Publications released all the James Bond books by Ian Fleming and turned to Hans when they needed a suspenseful and classic new cover for the books THUNDERBALL, YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN and OCTOPUSSY.

Hans Arnold died in 2010 and there is soon a documentary to be released about his famous drawings. I was able to catch an early screening of this film and during the end credits I could read and take notes of the names of his family.
Then I was able to contact them to ask if the original paintings were for sale or if the publishers owed them and had the rights.

I received a prompt answer saying that sadly a lot of Hans fine work has been sold during the years and the four paintings I was after was among these. I will continue to keep my eyes out and hope that some day they will be offered to me.

Below you will find his four James Bond covers.

Click here to see other iconic drawings by Hans Arnold.

THUNDERBALL - Notice how the black balloon actually is a bomb. 

YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE - notice how the flowers actually sculls.
THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN
OCTOPUSSY - Notice that the golden fish also is a cello. This book is very hard to come by even in Sweden.


Hans Arnold at his study.

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