Madame Talbot and the Art of Victorian Lowbrow

A Review of the Dark Artist Who Can Breathe Life into the Cult of Death

Madame Talbot coined the term “Victorian Lowbrow” to define her own genre of art. She draws each piece of artwork individually, using no digital altering or resonance imaging. Each piece is created by hand using ink and pen, and can often take an entire day to complete.

Her carefully drawn pen- and-ink posters are on display at her own website as well as famed goth memorabilia websites like Edward Gorey’s, famed for Emily the Strange and Gashlycrumb Tinies. The fascination with death has been known to stem from Victorian Lowbrow culture, an sub-dimension of the Victorian Era.

While most of us would think of the Victorian Era as women in fancy corsets, rich ladies with their hair in ringlets, wealthy families, snooty houseguests, etc., the “Lowbrow” refers more to the lower classes, whose interests were slightly less distinguished. The tales of Jack the Ripper and Lizzie Borden were popular among Victorian Lowbrow, as well as medical oddity shows, circus side-shows, cult of death and museum exhibits, etc.

The publishing company behind Madame Talbot’s extraordinary and unique artwork, Brennan Dalsgard Publishing, was formed in 1998 and has since then expanded exponentially. Publishing not only Madame Talbot’s pen-and-ink posters but now many other dark and dreary interesting things. On her website, (madametalbot.com), there are posters, books, dolls, web designs, t-shirts—and that’s just to name a few.

Currently, Madame Talbot lives in an old Victorian house (no surprise) off the coast of Oregon behind a street that was once known as “Mortician’s Row.” Her neighborhood is frequented by bats and, as she recently noted in an interview in Gothic Beauty magazine, bones are often found there. But she loves it, judging it the perfect atmosphere for her to do her work.

So, this holiday season, if you’re looking for something unique to give to that impossible-to-shop for gloomy gus, how about some beautiful dark and irresistably gothic art posters by Madame Talbot?