Gould - Revenge of the Rose Cover

The cover to Michael Moorcock's Elric saga titled "Revenge of the Rose". Interesting story behind this cover. Robert Gould who rarely attends any art events, was one of the many master artists at Illuxcon 2016. While at the show, I spoke with Robert at length about his work on the Moorcock series and he told me about how this piece came into being. Apparently Michael Moorcock was going through his "rose" phase and wanted an image of Elric surrounded by roses. Initially, Robert painted Elric's face with just the roses, but the publisher insisted that Stormbringer also be included in the cover image. Robert then created this piece, but felt that it needed a bookend for the back cover, so he created another portrait of Elric without the roses, so the viewer would have a better look of his face. Robert also mentioned that he didn't know what ever happened to the other piece that was intended to be a bookend to this one. As our conversation moved along I decided I would ask him about a couple of pieces I already had in my collection. The first one was of a bearded warrior with a sword that he could not place. However, when I showed him the second piece, he exclaimed, "That's it! That's the bookend!" At that point, I knew I was fated to own Revenge of the Rose so that it could once again sit along next to it's counter piece.