The illustrations are by Willy Pogány, the forty-four fairy tales were collected and translated by Ignácz Kunos. This wasn’t the first edition of Kunos’s book which dates back to 1889, but Pogány’s edition must be one of the most heavily illustrated, with drawings in a variety of styles throughout. The tipped-in plates look like woodcuts which is a style I’ve not seen from Pogány before. Elsewhere there are many comic demons and monsters rather like the kinds of things Sidney Sime used to enjoy inventing. And many Orientalist motifs, of course The Internet Archive copy isn’t dated but other sites give a date of 1913. This copy is also poorly hand-painted in places. Sacred Texts has the illustrations sans daubings.
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The illustrators archive
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Maxfield Parrish’s Arabian Nights
• Thomas Mackenzie’s Aladdin
• Harry Lachman’s Inferno
• Willy Pogány’s Lohengrin
• More Arabian Nights
• Edward William Lane’s Arabian Nights Entertainments
• Willy Pogány’s Parsifal
Your blog is better than life.
My older brother bought me ‘Children of Odin’, the book of Norse myths illustrated by Pogany, when I was about 10. His illustrations made a big impression on me. Always thought he had a real masterful use of negative space. Haven’t seen these samples before.
Drew: Ha, thanks.
Alfie: I’ve only ever seen a couple of his books in their printed form, and those weren’t especially good examples which is why it’s so great to see this work appearing online. There’s still more to ferret out. I especially like his Wagner books (see earlier posts), they’re less comical (of course) and feature some marvellous page designs.