Virginia Frances Sterrett

Virginia Frances Sterrett Art: Viriginia Frances Sterrett illustrated three books: The Arabian Nights, Tanglewood Tales, and Old French Fairy Tales. Her work is enjoying a renaissance of interest, and is becoming increasingly difficult to find. Illustrations from all three books are presented here. Virginia died in 1931, at the age of 30, of tuberculosis. She left incomplete a set of illustrations to Myths and Legends.

First Book: Old French Fairy Tales Viriginia Frances Sterrett's first commission came in 1919. She was commissioned by Penn Publishing Company to illustrate the Comptesse de Ségur's Old French Fairy Tales. She was 19 and received $500 for the eight watercolors and 16 pen and ink drawings, with a supplemental $250 for a colored drawing for the cover and ink drawings for the end papers and boards. download a printable version of princess rosalie in pdf format
Old French Fairy Tales	The Dream	Blondine Threw Her Arms Around Him

Genie of the Mountain	Blondine and the Tortoise	They walked side by side

Princess Rosalie	What are you seeking?	The Forest

Second Book: Tanglewood Tales In 1921, the Penn Publishing Company again commissioned her to illustrate an edition of Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Tanglewood Tales, with its stories from Greek mythology was a favorite children's book of the time, one also illustrated by Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac, Anne Anderson and other Golden Age illustrators. Four images, from a early edition of Tanglewood Tales, are missing and we're working on that; otherwise we believe all the color illustrations are here. download a printable version of proserpina refuses the pomegranate in pdf format
Ariadne	Cadmus saw Harmonia	Proserpina Refuses the Pomegranate

Ulysses in Circe's Palace	Cadmus Slays the Dragon	Medea Flew High Over the City

Jason and the Golden Fleece

Last Book: Arabian Nights In 1923, Virginia began work on what was to be her last completed commission and the work that is considered her masterpiece, a set of illustrations to Arabian Nights. The set consists of 16 color illustrations, 20 black and white in drawings, a colored picture for the front cover and a drawing for the inside boards. Due to ill health, the illustrations took her three years to complete. It was published in 1928. download a printable version of the ali baba and the forty thieves in pdf format
Scheherazade	The Sultana had a Conversation with a Man	The son regained his form

The History of the Second Calendar	They Danced Before Me	The Great Serpent

Aladdin and the Genie of the Ring	Aladdin and the Magic Lamp	Aladdin Made his Way to the Sultan's Palace

Aladdin Greeted the Princess with Joy	The Story of Baba Abdallah	Ali Baba and the forty thieves

Ali Baba: Morgiana Danced with Much Grace	The Tale of Sinbad the Sailor	The Third Voyage of Sinbad

The Fifth Voyage of Sinbad	The Arabian Nights