Lines and Colors art blog

Frank C. Pape

Frank C. Pape classic illustration

Frank C. Pape classic illustration

Frank Cheyne Papé was an English illustrator active in the early 20th century. He worked in both monochrome and color. His style varied from naturalistic to fantastic to comic, and he sometimes mixed those approaches within a series of illustrations for a single volume.

Papé is not as well known as many of his contemporaries who worked in the latter part of the time known as the “golden age” of illustration, and little is known of his life.

There are some resources online for his work, and there are reprints of books he illustrated currently in print as well as available from used book sources.

The best bio I can find is the one by Jim Vadeboncoeur Jr. on his JVJ Publishing resource about illustrators.


Comments

5 responses to “Frank C. Pape”

  1. Picture # 2 is reality overhere. It’s snowing.
    The rest of the Images are frightening!
    Cannot imagine The Diamond Fairy Book, each chapter illustrated by Papé, are children’s fairy tales.

    Page 1, Princess Crystal or the Hidden Treasure. A story by Isabell Bellerby.
    THERE were the four Kings: the King of the North, the region of perpetual snow; the King of the South, where the sun shines all the year round; the King of the East, from whence the cold winds blow; and the King of the West, where the gentle zephyrs breathe upon the flowers, and coax them to open their petals while the rest of the world is still sleeping.

    And there was the great Dragon, who lived on top of a high mountain in the centre of the universe. He could see everything that happened everywhere by means of his magic spectacles, which enabled him to look all ways at once, and to see through solid substances; but he could only see, not hear, for he was as deaf as a post.

    BTW, the orbo, # 3 is nowadays the supersized cousin of the lute.

  2. I’m sorry, Papé illustrated 8 coloured plates, but H.R. Millar made 82 drawings in 1897.

    https://www.illustrationhistory.org/artists/h.-r.-millar

  3. Dan Whitworth Avatar
    Dan Whitworth

    I’ve been scanning images from my Papé collection and posting them on Facebook for a few years now, along with what few bits of biographical information I’ve been able to glean from the internet. Please enjoy!

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/fcpape/

    1. Wonderful. Thanks!