Lines and Colors art blog

Eye Candy for Today: Ivan Bilibin illustration

Maria Morevna (#4) by Ivan Bilibin

On Wikimedia Commons. here’s the info page.

For more, see my previous post on Ivan Bilibin

[Update: my original links were to a page in which the URL is in Russian characters, and I apparently can’t copy and paste those links. I’ve substituted links to another version of this image on Wikimedia Commons, but the color is not as good. To access the version shown above, go to the Wikimedia Commons page for Ivan Bilibin and look through the thumbnails (lots of additional Eye Candy).]


Comments

9 responses to “Eye Candy for Today: Ivan Bilibin illustration”

  1. Ivan Bilibin is certainly eye-candy to me. I grew up with the Russian Fairy Tales book (little did I know at the time that the foreword was written by Jackie Kennedy Onassis herself), and searched high and wide for the beautiful illustrations. It, along with the Real Mother Goose and another beautifully illustrated book of Hans Christian Andersen, are the three must-haves for any children I have.

    Thank you!

  2. Wonderful! I’ve not been aware of Bilibin before, so seeing his fantastic illustrations has been a real bonus for me today. His balance and composition sits perfectly within a colourful combination of line and tone. Really is eye candy – so much to take in!

  3. Why is the link to Maria Morevna forbidden?

  4. Just lik you I discovered Bilibin by accident, during an exhibition of russian Folk Tale art in Groningen, the Netherlands. I feel lucky to have seen so much of his original work.

    Below is a link to the museum’s website, although the exhibition was years ago you might be able to order the catalogue from them: it’s a real must have with the work of a lot of great Russian artists: http://www.groningermuseum.nl/en/exhibition/russian-legends-folk-tales-and-fairy-tales

  5. Yeah I could not get the two external links to works.
    These are beautiful and remind me of a couple very similar books I have illustrated in the same general style.”Tales Told in Holland ” illustrated by Maud & Miska Petersham and “Little Pictures of Japan” illustrated by Katharine Sturges.

    I’ll have to look Bilibin up, maybe find some originals out here I can go see.

  6. I don’t really know about the characters here but they look interesting that I am not clicking on one links to links. I feel lucky to be online today for seeing such an original piece of art. I don’t have a lot of ideas about illustrations myself but I can say this one’s really amazing.

  7. I once read an illustrated biography of Ivan Bilibin. It was a long day of reading. There’s always something in his sketches and I just couldn’t identify it coz I am so bad at interpretations. But even I am no pro in terms of this craft, I can very well said that he’s superb.

  8. Since I came across the page, I have been looking for more of Bilibin’s great works. Even if I know that they came from a single artist, there’s something unique in them that will make anyone think that they may be illustrated by different artists. This only signifies one common thing, that is, this artist can come always come up with something extraordinary.