A girl, a witch and a firebird
Through a fortunate coincidence I was recently introduced to the work of Russian born illustrator Ivan Bilibin (1876-1942), the beauty of which blew me away.
A large number of his haunting and expressive drawings revolve around Slavic mythology and are usually set against the mountains and forests of Old Russia.
From “Vasilissa the Beautiful” (1900), a story about Baba Yaga:
- Vasilissa outside Baba Yaga’s house
- Baba Yaga flying through the forest in her mortar
- Vasilissa and the white rider
- The black rider
Some other works:
- The Tsar’s son catches the Firebird’s feather from “The Firebird and the Grey Wolf” (1899)
- The merchants visit Tsar Saltan from “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” (1905)
- A Tsar outside a snowy house (not sure what this is from…)
More about Ivan Bilibin:
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on June 22nd, 2006 at 7:18 pm
Lovely stuff, I think it was the golden age of illustration. For example Arthur Rackham
http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/adc/10100735A.jpg
on February 3rd, 2010 at 12:05 am
@A Tsar outside a snowy house (not sure what this is from…)
It’s from the tale by alexander poesjkin - about tsaar Sultan en his son the famous knight prince Guido Saltanowitsj en the Swanprinces