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Introduction

Draw Me a Story

Illustration from the Permanent Collection
April 14 - July 23, 2006

The word "illustration" implies a pairing: an image with a narrative, a poem, or even an event. By this definition, illustration functions as a device that amplifies the meaning of its partner. The two in many cases become virtually inseparable in the minds and memories of generations of viewers, such as in the childhood "picture book" mainstay Goodnight Moon.
Book illustration has its origins in medieval manuscript illumination, but it was in the 18th and 19th centuries that the art form became more widely available through large published editions. As a genre that is by definition reproduced, book illustration reached a diverse audience, crossing social and often cultural barriers. In England and France, the illustrator's style and subject matter had important crossovers with contemporary decorative arts, painting, and sculpture, demonstrated most clearly in the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau artistic movements.
Periodicals and newspapers such as Le Charivari and Punch were also important sites for the illustrator's art during the 19th century. During the 20th century, American magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post, Life, and The New Yorker became famous for their illustrations. Norman Rockwell, Jessie Willcox Smith, and other artists associated with these publications played an important part in picturing the American experience. More recent illustrators such as David Macaulay take the educative value of pictures to a new level. Others, among them Chris van Allsburg, inspire fantasy and elicit intensely emotional responses to their stories.
At RISD, education in illustration began with the founding of the Department of Illustration in 1945. There are now eleven full-time and twenty-six part-time faculty members and over two hundred majors in the department. Many alumni are among the most revered illustrators working today.
The Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs would like to thank Andrew Raftery, RISD Associate Professor of Printmaking and Faculty Fellow, for his substantial contribution to this exhibition.

Selected Objects

Félix Bracquemond

Gargantua and His Mare at the Ford of Vede, 1869

Jessie Willcox Smith

The Picture Book, ca. 1906

Saul Steinberg

No. 6, ca. 1945

Aubrey Vincent Beardsley

Third Tableau of Das Rheingold, ca. 1896

Charles Samuel Keene

At Buxton, ca. 1878-1888

Charles Samuel Addams

American Museum of Natural History, 1937

Arthur Rackham

The Bailiff and his wife floating about in the air where thy'd been kicked by the Young Giant, 1917

Kate Greenaway

Girl Standing with Bouquet, ca. 1880-1890

Kate Greenaway

Girl with Garland of Flowers, ca. 1880-1890

Kate Greenaway

Girl Seated on Grass, ca. 1880-1890

Norman Rockwell

I Meet the Body Beautiful, 1960

Frederic Rodrigo Gruger

Sweat and Iron, 1924

Gustave Doré

Judith with the Head of Holofernes, ca. 1865

Léon Becker

Symphony of the Insects, 1870

Rube Goldberg

Monkey Throws Coconuts Which Turn Wheel..., ca. 1941-1945

John Tenniel

Study for Right Half of Two Fire Engines, 1871

Kate Greenaway, illustrator

Almanac, 1883

Richard Merkin

1917: Scott Joplin at Bellevue, 1984

Joseph Swain, engraver

Two Fire Engines, June 10, 1871

George Cruikshank

MY SKETCH BOOK No. 6, 1836

Charles de Sousy Ricketts

The Teacher of Wisdom, July 1894

David Macaulay

Design for Unbuilding, 1980

Kate Greenaway

Boy Fishing, 1883

Kate Greenaway

Lady in Window, ca. 1884

Cham

Caricature of Monsieur Prudhomme, after 1848

J. J. Grandville (Jean-Ignace-Isidore Gérard)

Study for “Ne la trouvez-vous pas jolie?” (“Don’t you find her pretty?”),, 1842

John Tenniel

Study for Left Half of Two Fire Engines, 1871

Rockwell Kent

Study of Paquette, 1959

Henry Bonaventure Monnier

Monsieur Prudhomme, 1835-1870

Edward B. Koren

We've Re-Struc-tured the Fac-ul-ty Student Sen-ate, Yeah Man..., 1970

Aubrey Vincent Beardsley

Chapter VI, ca. 1893

Kate Greenaway

Girl with Butterfly Net, mid 1800s- late 1800s

Richard Lippincott Denison Taylor

Smile, 1939

Kate Greenaway

Girl Walking, 1885
No Image Available

Kate Greenaway

Almanac, 1888

George Cruikshank

Brewing Mischief, 1834

Rosalind Chast

Autumn in New York, 2003

Calvin Burnett

Holiday, 1948

Chris van Allsburg

Missing in Venice, 1983

More objects +

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