Having apprenticed in stained glass design as young man, Harry Clarke became adept at composing distinct imagery with flat shapes, a skill that carried over into his work in illustration. Throughout his career, he produced both glass work, in a studio that would eventually bear his name, and truly noteworthy book illustration. Clarke became one of Ireland's leading figures of the Symbolist movement, applying his craftsmanship and design to the artistic ideals of the day.

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Clarke became well known for the stylized appearance of his drawings, somewhat influenced by Aubrey Beardsley's "decadent" look. He used elongated, stylized figures, solid flat areas and large amounts of delicate and elaborate details. Clarke's work has its own distinct quality, and its uniqueness brought him to the attention of one of the biggest publishers in London: Harrap & Co. His earliest published works in books occurred in 1916, with the Harrap edition of Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen.

 

Soon afterwards, Clarke following with illustrations for Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe. That book featured Clarke's intricate ink work and wild imagination and was so successful that a second edition quickly followed the first, with an additional eight plates in color. Clarke’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination is to this day viewed as a definitive treatment of Poe illustration. It established Clarke among the leading gift book illustrators working in London in the period. His penchant for bizarre imagery would be encouraged again when he illustrated Goethe’s Faust in 1923.

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Clarke's artistic success pulled more from him than he had to give. In the late 1920s, his health began to suffer. Following the death of both his father and then his brother (with whom he shared the work at the stained-glass studio), he succumbed to tuberculosis at the age of 41.