Reading and recapping 'The Arabian Nights'
A few weeks ago, I used an image by artist Sarah Piper to illustrate my recap about Delilah the Wily.
The scene with Delilah is actually one of a series of Arabian Nights prints created by Sarah, collected on a dedicated blog.
What I like about the series is how they are reminiscent of the images that accompanied one of the very first editions of The Arabian Nights published in Arabic, the ‘Bulaq’ text.
Willy Pogany (1882 – 1955) was a Hungarian illustrator. These images are taken from a 1915 edition of Lane’s More Tales From The Arabian Nights.
Brian Wildsmith (1930 – 2016) was a British illustrator who also won the Kate Greenaway Medal. These images are taken from www.brianwildsmith.com.
Albert Letchford (1866–1905) painted the illustrations for Sir Richard Burton’s original translation of The Book Of A Thousand Nights and A Night.
Errol Le Cain (1941 – 1989) was a British illustrator who was awarded the Kate Greenaway Medal for Hiawatha’s Childhood in 1984. These images from Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, retold by Andrew Lang (Faber, 1981) are perhaps my favourites of the illustrations I have found so far. They capture the ideas of infinity and symmetry that are imbued within the tales and their structure.
Kay Rasmus Nielsen (1886 – 1957) was a Danish illustrator. A couple of years ago a book of newly discovered illustrations for The Arabian Nights was published by Taschen. There’s an interesting interview with the editor of the book on the NPR website.
William Harvey (1796 – 1866) was a Newcastle-born illustrator and engraver. Each of these illustrations carries a different signature — Harvey did the original drawings, while other artists created each actaul engraving.
Gustaf Tenggren (1896- 1970) was a Swedish-American illustrator who was chief illustrator for the Walt Disney Company in the 1930s. These illustrations are from his Golden Tales from the Arabian Nights.
Ali Baba hides in the robbers' treasure trove#FairyTaleTuesday #illustration by Gustaf Tenggren, in "Arabian Nights", pub. Golden Pleasure Books, 1967 pic.twitter.com/PIGj0ESUoG
— Flamenco Nut ❄️ (@flamencobug) April 28, 2020
Abu’l-Hasan Khan Ghaffari Kashani (1814–1866) was an Iranian painter, miniature and lacquer artist and book illustrator.
This week: Sir Frank Brangwyn (1867 – 1956), an Anglo-Welsh artist.
