Professor Dowell`s Head

Ukrainian graphic artist Alexander Dovhal (1904-1961) created many illustrations for science fiction on Ukrainian language in the 1950s. Among his works – design books “Beautiful Disaster” by Yuriy Smolich (1956), “Professor Dowell`s Head” by Alexander Belyaev (1957), “Into Star Worlds” by Vasil Berejniy (1958), “Andromeda: A Space-Age Tale” by Ivan Efremov (1960) and others.

Alexander Dovhal studied at the Kharkov Art Institute (1922-1929), where one of his teachers was Ivan Padalka. Was a member of the “Association of Revolutionary Art of Ukraine” (ARMU) (1925-1932). He has exhibited at the republican, union, international and personal exhibitions since 1927. He taught at the Kharkiv Art College (1931-1933).

Classic example of Soviet sci-fi literature, Alexander Belyayev`s novel “Professor Dowell`s Head” tells of a young doctor Marie Laurent, who had just entered the work in the clinic of Professor Kern. Going into his lab, she saw separated from the body, but live human head…

Dovhal`s illustrations conveying the atmosphere of a work by Alexander Belyayev. They are full of expression and glamour of the 1920s, when the action of the novel takes place. In 1957 Dovhal made 18 drawings for the novel, including the cover. They depict the characters of the novel, surgeon-thief clinic`s interior and pictures of city life. Library of Ukrainian Art for the first time in internet publishesillustrations of Alexander Dovhal to the cult novel by Alexander Belyayev.