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Visions of the Jinn: Illustrators of the Arabian Nights
| Author: | Robert Irwin |
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Arcadian Library, 2011 |
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| Book Type: | Non-Fiction |
| Genre: | Fantasy |
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Synopsis
In this richly illustrated book illustrations of various western editions of The Arabian Nights from the eighteenth to the twentieth century are presented and analysed. Visions of the Jinn is simultaneously a closely focused study of a special case in the history of book illustration, an account of the evolution of an important strand of visual fantasy and a presentation of a hitherto neglected area of Orientalism.
A well-known authority on The Arabian Nights, Robert Irwin in this study considers illustration as a form of commentary on the text, rather than as a notionally independent art form. At the same time he investigates the limited visual sources available to the earliest illustrators, whose images had a distinctly European look. In the nineteenth century some attempt was made to illustrate Arab costume and architecture, but authenticity was rarely a primary motive, and later illustrators, drawing on a wider range of sources, created a tradition of fantasy. The author also analyses the various techniques used in book illustration over the years, from early engraving to lithography, chromolithography and photolithography, and the different audiences, adults and children, at which the illustrated editions were aimed.
Many of the artists whose work is analysed here, such as Arthur Boyd Houghton, Gustave Doré, Walter Crane and Edmund Dulac, are well known; others are almost forgotten, and Robert Irwin provides a wealth of detail about some of the minor characters--Albert Letchford and Henry Justice Ford, for example--who have made a distinctive contribution to the history of illustration and deserve to be remembered.
The Arabian Nights was first published in Europe as a work for adults, but came to be adapted and illustrated mainly for children. It is no longer universally read, but it has continued to attract modern illustrators such as Pauline Baynes, Eric Fraser and Errol Le Cain. The rich tradition that they build on has become a fascinating part of western visual culture, as the splendid illustrations of this book vividly demonstrate.
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