Rackham - Arthur Rackhams Book of Pictures

P LATE 1
The Magic Cup
[Frontispiece]

ARTHUR RACKHAMS
BOOK OF PICTURES

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
SIR ARTHUR QUILLER-COUCH

ARTHUR RACKHAM

DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC.
Mineola, New York

Bibliographical Note

Arthur Rackhams Book of Pictures , first published by Dover Publications, Inc., in 2011, is an unabridged republication of the work originally published by Heinemann, Inc., London, in 1913. As in the original edition, Plate 1 is the Frontispiece, and Plates 2 through 44 constitute the color-plate section.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rackham, Arthur, 18671939.

Arthur Rackhams book of pictures / Arthur Rackham ; introduction by Arthur Quiller-Couch.

p. cm.

Originally published: London : Heinemann, 1913.

ISBN-13: 978-0-486-48354-2

ISBN-10: 0-486-48354-1

1. Rackham, Arthur, 18671939Themes, motives. I. Title. II. Title: Book of pictures.

NC978.5.R32A4 2011

741.942dc23

2011036101

Manufactured in the United States by Courier Corporation
48354101
www.doverpublications.com

Contents

PICTURES

I OF THE
LITTLE
PEOPLE

THE MAGIC CUP [FRONTISPIECE]

ELVES

SEEKERS FOR TREASURE

GOBLIN THIEVES

BY THE WAY

THE LITTLE PEOPLES MARKET

WEE FOLK

MALICE

THE MAN WHO WAS TERRIFIED BY GOBLINS

II CLASSIC

DANA

Dana was the daughter of the king of Argos, Acrisius. An oracle had foretold that she would one day give birth to a son, who would kill her father. So Acrisius for safetys sake shut her up in a tower, where, nevertheless, she was visited by Zeus in a shower of gold and became the mother of Perseus. Acrisius put the mother and child into a chest and exposed them on the sea. But the chest drifted ashore on the island of Seriphos, Dana and her child were saved and Perseus lived to fulfil the oracles prophecy.

THE DRAGON OF THE HESPERIDES

DRYAD

III SOME
FAIRYTALES

JACK THE GIANT KILLER

In the course of his adventures, Jack sleeps at the house of a monstrous Welsh giant with two heads. In the morning he has breakfast with the giant. Each has a bowl containing four gallons of hasty pudding. One would have thought that the greater portion of so extravagant an allowance would have been declined by our hero, but he was unwilling the giant should imagine his incapability to eat it, and accordingly placed a large leather bag under his loose coat in such a position that he could convey the pudding into it without the deception being perceived. Breakfast at length being finished, Jack excited the giants curiosity by offering to show him an extraordinary sleight of hand ; so taking a knife, he ripped the leather bag, and out, of course, descended on the ground all the hasty pudding. The giant had not the slightest suspicion of the trick, veritably believing the pudding came from its natural receptacle, and having the same antipathy to being beaten, exclaimed in true Welsh, Odds splutters, hur can do that trick hurself. The sequel may be readily guessed. The monster took the knife, and thinking to follow Jacks example with impunity, killed himself on the spot.

JACK AND THE BEANSTALK

Jack clambers down the beanstalk and chops it through with his axe; and the giant who is descending after him falls to the earth and is killed.

PUSS IN BOOTS

Puss in Boots was the sole possession of a poor youth. The cat, however, manages by a succession of clever tricks to make his masters fortune. He gains for him the fine castle and vast estates that belonged to an ogre by the same device that Loge used to get the Ring of the Niblungs from Alberich. He calls at the castle and, by pretending to doubt the ogres magic powers, he induces him to change himself first into a lion and then into a mouse, whereupon he falls upon him and eats him up.

Perrault.

ADRIFT

I will put on my new red shoes, she said one morning, those which Kay has not seen, and then I will go down to the river and ask it about him.

It was quite early; little Gerda kissed her old grandmother, who was asleep, put on the red shoes, and went out quite alone through the town gate towards the river.

Is it true that you have taken my little playmate? I will make you a present of my red shoes, if you will give him back to me.

And she thought the waves nodded to her so strangely : she then took her red shoes, the most precious she had, and threw them both out into the river, but they fell close to the bank and the little billows soon carried them ashore to her; it seemed as if the river would not take the dearest treasure she had because it could not give back little Kay to her ; but then she thought she had not thrown the shoes out far enough, and so she climbed into a boat which was lying among the rushes, and went right to the farthest end of it and threw the shoes into the water; but the boat was not fastened, and its motion as she got into it sent it adrift from the bank. As soon as she noticed this she hastened to get out of the boat, but before she could jump ashore it was an arms length from the bank, and it drifted rapidly down the river.

The Snow Queen.
Andersen.

THE FROG PRINCE

The youngest daughter of the King loses her golden ball in a well in the forest where she has been playing. A frog hears her crying and bargains with her before he fetches back her ball. He will not accept her offer of her pretty dresses, or her pearls or diamonds, or even of her golden crown, but makes her promise that she will be fond of him and let him be her playmate, sit by her at table, eat out of her plate, drink out of her cup and sleep in her little bedif you will promise all this, he says, I will dive down and bring you back your golden ball. Of course she agrees, thinking she may safely promise a frog anything he asks no matter how absurd it is. The frog brings back her ball, and the Princess has to keep all her promises much to her chagrin. But all ends happily. The frog proves to be a bewitched Prince, is restored to his natural form, and marries the Princess.

Grimm.

SANTA CLAUS

IV
SOME CHILDREN

MARJORIE AND MARGARET

THE LITTLE PIPER

ON THE BEACH

THE BROAD WALK, KENSINGTON GARDENS

In the Broad Walk, you meet all the people who are worth knowing.

Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens.
J. M. Barrie.

V
GROTESQUE

& FANTASTIC

THE GREEN DRAGON

ONCE UPON A TIME

THE SEA SERPENT

THE WIZARD

THE HAUNTED WOOD

ELFIN REVELLERS