Women of the Golden Age of Illustration: Margaret Evans Price, By Amanda Bergloff

 

 

The Golden Age of Illustration is a term applied to a time period (1880s - 1920s) of unprecedented excellence in book and magazine illustrations by artists in Europe and America. Advances in technology at the time allowed for accurate and inexpensive reproductions of their art, which allowed quality books to be available to the voracious public demand for new graphic art.

When many people think of the Golden Age of Illustration, Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac, and other male artists come to mind, but there were also female artists that excelled during this time.

Margaret Evans Price was one such artist that produced magical work, so learn a bit more about her and her art below...

Margaret Evans Price (1888 - 1973) was an American children's book illustrator and author, but did you know that she was a co-founder of Fisher Price, one of the world's most popular toy manufacturers?

Margaret was interested in art from a young age and when she was twelve, she sold her first illustrated story to the Boston Journal. She received a formal art education in Boston at the Boston Academy of Fine Arts, then moved to New York City for freelance illustration work. There, she worked for publications like Harper & Brothers, Rand McNally, and Stecher Lithography creating illustrations for children's books of fairy tales and myths.

But illustration work was not her only career path as in 1930, along with her husband, Irving L. Price, Helen Schelle, and Herman J. Fisher, Margaret co-founded the Fisher-Price toy company that still exists today. She was the first Art Director of Fisher-Price where she designed push-pull toys based on characters from her children's books.

Margaret continued to exhibit her art in national galleries in the U.S. after the formation of Fisher-Price. Her art was not only published in children's books, but also in Nature Magazine, The Women's Home Companion, and Pictorial Review. A permanent collection of her works are housed at the New York Historical Society.

Margaret's simple, graphic style, combined with her beautiful compositions, makes her art enchanting for children and adults.

Check out her work below:

From Once Upon a Time - A Book of 

Old-Time Fairy Tales, 1921

From Enchantment Tales for Children, 1926

From A Child's Book of Myths, 1929

From Once Upon a Time - A Book of 

Old-Time Fairy Tales, 1921

From Off to Bed, 1920

Cinderella & Her Godmother, 1939

From Once Upon a Time - A Book of 

Old-Time Fairy Tales, 1921

The Land of Nod, 1916

The Old Woman & Her Pig, 1928

From A Child's Book of Myths, 1926

On the Road to Storyland, 1926

From A Child's Book of Myths, 1926

Beauty & The Beast, 1921

Little Red Riding Hood & The Wolf, 1921

From A Child's Book of Myths, 1926

And if you'd like to read a full children's book

that Price illustrated, you can find

The Troubles of Biddy

HERE

Enchanted Conversation's contributing editor, Amanda Bergloff, writes modern fairy tales and speculative fiction. Her work has appeared in various anthologies, including Frozen Fairy Tales, After the Happily Ever After, and Uncommon Pet Tales.

Follow her on Twitter @AmandaBergloff

Check out her Amazon Author page HERE

Join her every Tuesday on Twitter for #FairyTaleTuesday to share what you love about fairy tales, folktales, and myths.

Also, if you like sharing your #vss fairy tales on Twitter, follow @fairytaleflash and use #FairyTaleFlash so we can retweet!

 

Cover: Amanda Bergloff

Fairies On Film, By Amanda Bergloff

 

"What care I

for human hearts?

Soft and spiritless as porridge!

A faerie's heart

beats fierce and free!"

◆Oona From LEGEND ◆ 

Fairies...They live fierce and free in our imagination and in art, books, and film.

In film, fairies are generally depicted as human in appearance, ranging in size from a few inches in height to the size of a regular human being. They usually have the ability to fly by means of wings that resemble dragonfly or butterfly wings, and they can either be helpful or harmful to people. Plus, a fairy in a film always brightens the day for us here at EC.

So, to inspire some fairy magic in your day, we've picked eight fairies on film below that you may or may not have seen. There are so many films to pick from, and if you're looking for more, you can find a list of 40 Fairy Films HERE.

And share your favorite scenes of "fairies on film" in the comments section. We'd love to hear from you!

A Midsummer Night's Dream 

(1935)

Written by: Charles Kenyan & Mary C. McCall

(based on the play by William Shakespeare)

Directed by: William Dieterle & Max Reinhardt

Starring: Anita Louise (Titania) Victor Jory (Oberon)

A Midsummer Night's Dream may be the most popular depiction of fairies on screen, since the play itself, by William Shakespeare, has been made into multiple films from 1909 all the way to 2017. Fairies are central to the plot, as they manipulate the human characters in the play for their own reasons.

This 1935 version is an exceptionally beautiful black and white film adaptation. Fairy Queen, Titania and her fairies seem to be made of starlight, and Fairy King, Oberon is a striking presence in his "cloak of night." With solid acting performances from the cast, gorgeous costumes and special effects, this film has a unique and wonderful depiction of fairies that influenced later films.

Click below to watch Titania gathering the fairies:

Click below to watch Oberon greeting Titania:

A Midsummer Night's Dream 

(1999)

Screenplay by: Michael Hoffman

(based on the play by William Shakespeare)

Directed by: Michael Hoffman

Starring: Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Everett, Kevin Kline

Another lush adaptation of the William Shakespeare play that sets the story at the turn of the twentieth century. With it's more modern touches from the 1900s in costume and production design, this film nonetheless shines a spotlight on the radiant Michelle Pfeiffer portraying Titania, and Rupert Everett as her Fairy King, Oberon, along with her lovely nature inspired woodland fairies.

Click below to watch Titania with her fairies:

A Midsummer Night's Dream:

The Royal Ballet

A Midsummer Night's Dream has also been adapted as a ballet, and The Royal Ballet filmed the performance, so we can enjoy the beauty of fairies through the magic of dance. The Fairy Queen, Titania (Akane Takada) and Fairy King, Oberon (Steven McRae) show off their power and grace in a way that is beyond mere words.

Click below to watch the Titania & Oberon Pas de Deux:

Legend

(1985)

Written by: William Hjortsberg

Directed by: Ridley Scott

Starring: Tim Curry, Tom Cruise, Annabelle Lanyon

Yes, Tom Cruise once made a fantasy film. While Legend is more a tale of a human boy defeating Darkness while saving his human girl love interest, along with the last unicorn, it is the fairy, Oona, that stands out to me. When her love is rejected by the human, her "what care I for human hearts" speech makes me cheer as her fierce and free fairy spirit is let loose. Fantastic performance by Annabelle Lanyon as Oona, and bonus points for Tim Curry's outstanding "Darkness" character, too.

Click below to watch Oona's scene:

Fairy Tale: A True Story

(1997)

Written by: Albert Ash, Tom McLoughlin, Ernie Contreras

Directed by: Charles Sturridge

Starring: Elizabeth Earl, Florence Hoath, Paul McGann

Based on the true story of the Cottingley Fairy photographs taken by cousins, Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright, that England became fascinated with in 1919 as proof that fairies actually existed. Years later, as adults, they admitted that the photos were faked using cardboard cutouts of fairies taken from picture books. However, until her death, Frances insisted at least one of the fairy photographs was real.

Original photos below:

This film dramatizes the events in a charming way, and quite honestly, I would have loved for my childhood self to have seen fairies like in the clip below.

Click below to watch a visit from the fairies scene:

~ANIMATED FILMS~

Fantasia

(Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy)

(1952)

Written by: Sergey Aksakov

Directed by: Lev Atamanov

Starring: Nina Krachkovskaya, Mikhail Astangov

There are many fairies in Disney films: Cinderella's fairy godmother, Pinocchio's Blue Fairy, and Peter Pan's Tinkerbell, but the most iconic fairy sequence to me is from Fantasia. It's everything I imagine fairies to be, floating around flowers to the music of Tchaikovsky. Beautifully animated and magical.

Click below to watch the fairy sequence:

Shrek 2

(1991)

Screenplay by: Joe Stillman (based on William Steig's book)

Directed by: Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury, Conrad Vernon

Starring: Mike Meyers, Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Saunders

Many are familiar with the kindly fairy godmother who helps Cinderella by singing Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo in the Disney version, but the fairy godmother from Shrek 2 is a different kind of fairy godmother. Not only does she sing and mess with her son's love life, but she is definitely not helpful to the main characters, Fiona and Shrek. In fact, she causes them all kinds of problems, however, she does it in a fierce and fabulous way all her own.

Click below to watch the Fairy Godmother song:

~ON TELEVISION~

The Sleeping Beauty:

Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre

(1983)

Teleplay by: Jeffrey Alan Fiskin

Directed by: Jeremy Kaga

Starring: Beverly D'Angelo, Bernadette Peters, Christopher Reeve

In 1982, Shelley Duvall created Faerie Tale Theatre which was an American live-action fairy tale anthology series that featured prominent actors and directors of the time. Originally airing on Showtime, this series introduced a generation of kids to fairy tales that they could watch again and again on tape when it was released on VHS.

Set in a Russian landscape, this humorous version of, "The Sleeping Beauty" features fairies that look like they're a cross between Djinn and babushkas. With their blue faces and no wings, these fairies include a male one, too. Weird and wonderful with a standout campy performance by Beverly D'Angelo as Henbane, the bad "uninvited to the christening" fairy that places a curse on the princess.

Click below to watch the full episode.

FAIRIES SCENE at 10:22

~Bonus Short Film~

The Fairies of Blackheath Woods

(2006)

Written & Directed by: Ciarán Foy

Starring: Katie Keough, Orla O'Rourke, Bernard Kelleghan

The fairies of this short film are not the cute, fun-loving fairies of the previous films, but are more in line with traditional fae folklore which is usually quite dark. This unsettling fantasy horror short is an eerie tale of following insect-like fairies into the woods. Filmed in Ireland, it won Best Short in seven different international film festivals.

Click below to watch the 4 minute film:

MUSIC

to inspire your own fairy tale...

And may a little fairy magic follow you home...

Enchanted Conversation's contributing editor, Amanda Bergloff, writes modern fairy tales and speculative fiction. Her work has appeared in various anthologies, including Frozen Fairy Tales, After the Happily Ever After, and Uncommon Pet Tales.

Follow her on Twitter @AmandaBergloff

Check out her Amazon Author page HERE

Join her every Tuesday on Twitter for #FairyTaleTuesday to share what you love about fairy tales, folktales, and myths.

Also, if you like sharing your #vss fairy tales on Twitter, follow @fairytaleflash and use #FairyTaleFlash so we can retweet!

Cover & Layout: Amanda Bergloff

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