Sunday 24 June 2018

Whilst Thinking About Indian Food,

well the Ali Baba restaurant in town,


 I decided to read Arabian Nights, and came across this superbly illustrated book, I should mention that the translator is a legend himself, Sir Richard Francis Burton

but here is the illustrator, Virginia Frances Sterrett, whose work in this edition of the book captivated me,

 all of these illustrations,

 are from Arabian Knights,

 the last of her three books that she illustrated,

 a little about her, she was an American artist and illustrator, born in 1900, Sterrett received her first commission at the age of 19, shortly after she was diagnosed with tuberculosis, and was then asked by the Penn Publishing Company to illustrate Old French Fairy Tales (1920), a collection of works from the 19th-century French author, Comtesse de Ségur (Sophie Fedorovna Rostopchine), 

 a year after the publication of Old French Fairy Tales, a new title including commissioned works from Sterrett was presented by the Penn Publishing Company Tanglewood Tales (1921), 

from 1923, in failing health, Sterrett was able to work on projects for short periods of time only and as a result, she was able to complete just one further commission prior to her death,

  her own interpretation of Arabian Nights (1928), Her best-known work, you can see more of her illustrations here,

She died of tuberculosis in 1930 aged 30, what a sad loss to the world of illustrators.


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