House of the Rising Sun

After drawing an Oldsmobile for the book Grijsgedraaid, I was commissioned for a drawing for a chapter in the next book House of the Rising Sun. There are several theories as to what house the song refers to: a brothel, a burned down hotel, a women’s prison with a round window—a rising sun—above the entrance? And like the house itself, the origins of the song itself remain partly shrouded. The chapter describes its journey from the oldest known recording in 1934 to the most famous rendition by The Animals, and various other covers after that.

Published in Het Plaatjesboek, written and designed by Leo Blokhuis.