Artproject of Jan G.Marque. Vril, the Power of the Coming Race, of Edward Bulwer Lytton.   Edward Bulwer Lytton. Sponsor or commissioner needed for the realisation of this art project. (Click here for more information.)   Alfred Percey Sinnet. A.P. Sinnett about Edward Bulwer Lytton’s Vril, The Power of the Coming Race. (Original text published in 1881) The seemingly magic feats which the adepts in occultism have the power to perform, are accomplished, I am given to understand, by means of familiarity with a force in nature which is referred to in Sanskrit writings as akaz. Western science has done much in discovering some of the properties and powers of electricity. Occult science, ages before, had done much more in discovering the properties and powers of akaz. In " The Coming Race," the late Lord Bulwer Lytton, whose connexion with occultism appears to have been closer than the world generally has yet realised, gives a fantastic and imaginative account of the wonders achieved in the world to which his hero penetrates, by means of Vril. In writing of Vril, Lord Lytton has clearly been poetising akaz. "The Coming Race" is described as a people entirely unlike adepts in many essential particulars--as a complete nation, for one thing, of men and women all equally handling the powers, even from childhood, which- or some of which among others not described- the adepts have conquered. This is a mere fairy-tale, founded on the achievements of occultism. But no one who has made a study of the latter can fail to see, can fail to recognise with a conviction amounting to certainty, that the author of "The Coming Race " must have been familiar with the leading ideas of occultism, perhaps with a great deal more. The same evidence is afforded by Lord Lytton's other novels of mystery, " Zanoni," and "The Strange Story." In "Zanoni," the sublime personage in the background, Mejnour, is intended plainly to be a great adept of Eastern occultism, exactly like those of whom I have to speak. It is difficult to know why in this case, where Lord Lytton has manifestly intended to adhere much more closely to the real facts of occultism than in " The Coming Race," he should have represented Mejnour as a solitary survivor of the Rosicrucian fraternity. The guardians of occult science are content to be a small body as compared with the tremendous importance of the knowledge which they save from perishing, but they have never allowed their numbers to diminish to the extent of being in any danger of ceasing to exist as an organised body on earth. It is difficult again to understand why Lord Lytton, having learned so much as he certainly did, should have been content to use up his information merely as an ornament of fiction, instead of giving it to the world in a form which should claim more serious consideration. At all events, prosaic people will argue to that effect; but it is not impossible that Lord Lytton himself had become, through long study of the subject, so permeated with the love of mystery which inheres in the occult mind apparently, that he preferred to throw out his information in a veiled and mystic shape, so that it would be intelligible to readers in sympathy with himself, and would blow unnoticed past the commonplace understanding without awakening the angry rejection which these pages, for example, if they are destined to attract any notice at all, will assuredly encounter at the hands of bigots in science, religion, and the great philosophy of the commonplace. Akaz, be it then understood, is a force for which we have no name, and in reference to which we have no experience to guide us to a conception of its nature. One can on)y grasp at the idea required by conceiving that it is as much more potent, subtle, and extraordinary an agent than electricity, as electricity is superior in subtlety and variegated efficiency to steam. It is through his acquaintance with the properties of this force, that the adept can accomplish the physical phenomena, which I shall presently be able to show are within his reach, besides others of far greater magnificence. References: De Occult World A.P. Sinnett Chapter “Occultism and its Adepts” Page 15-27 London: Trubner & Co., 1881 Artproject Vril - Jan G. Marque: Lord Edward Bulwer Lytton (1803-1873). Parcivalius and the lost body of Thomas Paine, Jan G. Marque 2007. This page is part of: The landscape art and the romantic painter art in the new romanticism of Jan G. Marque. Alfred Percey Sinnet (1840-1921) about E.B. Lytton’s Vril, The Power of the Coming Race - Edward Bulwer Lytton (1803-1873). The romantic tradition. A continuation. Landscapes. For centuries they’re being used in art as background for a another subject, or to serve as a subject in itself. These words sound in a part of the work of the Dutch writer and art painter Jan G. Marque, who wants to indicate that the landscape painting has a long tradition within painter art. Although for the most part Marque’s work exists out of what he calls Philosophical Realism; -artwork where combined word- and image-symbolism stimulate people into searching for subjects and let them reflect on it- with his romantic landscapes he chooses for another approach. The undergoing of the image with feeling by the spectator is the main point. He accomplish this with a traditional palette in oil on canvas. By means of sharp brushstrokes he creates colourful, virtuoso, romantic landscapes which are manufactured with much feeling and eye for detail. Here the landscape indicates the looking direction, and the found light holds the eye of the spectator. Marque gives us with his impressive work deliberately a glimpse to the past. They who make one’s way to the woods and know the beauty of nature, certainly recognise an image which also represents the present. Here the painter in him obtains his inspiration. Many travels and walking in nature ensure sufficient information and inspiration to devise at home. Every landscape has been built from fragments of images such as Jan G. Marque for the most part in reality has seen and experienced on one of his travels. This, completed with own ideas where he idealises the landscape just like its predecessors, he paints without using sketches and pre-studies, direct on canvas. By the centuries gone the landscape inspired, got its by-effect in several trends, knew varied styles and captivated above all. Their sources: the love for nature, the tension and perception, the changing light. The `landscape' can delight itself thus in a broad public interest. Not only the contemporary physical perception speaks to the imagination. Particularly the landscape in art captivates many and authoritative art painters have built a long tradition in this multi-purpose area. Names as Barend Cornelis Koekkoek, Johan Bernhard Klombeck, Frederik Marinus Kruseman and Andreas Schelfhout, but also Gerard Bilders, Wijnand Nuyen, Louwrens Hanedoes en Willem Roelofs, are still living representatives of the romantic tradition. A tradition which Marque continues himself thus with much pleasure and with his own brushstroke. One thing is certain, the romantic landscapes of Jan G. Marque are timeless and inspiring. Article has been paraphrased composed from Dutch sources mentioned below: Realisme Magazine; edition 2008 Nieuwsbank.nl; article Februari 2009 Moving Art Magazine; edition July 2009