Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp Images

Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp; Free Pictures

You may know this fairy tale under many different titles: Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, Aladdin and His Magic Lamp, History of Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp, or simply Aladdin. In each case, we are dealing with a fairy tale from Arabian Nights (1001 Nights), a classic story with a controversial background. Some scholars, for instance, believe it never belonged to the corpus of fairy tales from Arabian Nights (just like Ali Baba and 40 Thieves) and was inserted by Antoine Galland because he saw its commercial potential in the popularity of Arabian Nights. Some even believe he wrote it by himself.

Everybody can see that something is definitely off with Aladdin which is set in China, not in Persia or some of the Arabian countries like the rest of the stories from the collection. Anyway, it's a great story that inspired countless artists from Andersen's first fairy tale Tinderbox to Disney's blockbusters, and, of course, many illustrators who were attracted to the exotic background and magic actions in Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp.

We will present them (artists) by their works in alphabetical order. Enjoy!

Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin (1876-1942)

This color lithograph is one of two illustrations from Stories of Arabian Nights (the other depicts Sinbad the Sailor) dated 1932.

Thomas Blakeley Mackenzie (1888-1944)

There is some doubt about the years of birth and death of Thomas Mackenzie, one of the last illustrators of luxurious gift books. He may have been born in 1887 and died in 1947. The next set of illustrations comes from Arthir Ransone's adaptation of the story about Aladdin in verses.

There are a dozen illustrations originally made in watercolors and numerous black and white drawings and decorations.

Frances Brundage (1854-1937)

Frances Brundage illustrated Aladdin at least on two occasions. The first two illustrations come from the picture book titled Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp marked as the number two in the Father Tuck Fairy Tale series published around 1910.

The next illustration is from The Arabian Nights, published by the same publisher (Raphael Tuck & Sons) in 1893. This book contains a dozen different titles and a dozen illustrations (half of them done with Frances' husband William).

Rene Bull (1872-1942)

Aladdin and Wonderful Lamp was published in The Blue Fairy book in 1889 by Longmans, Green & Co. This book is the first in the collection of twelve 'colored' fairy books edited by Andrew Lang with the last being published in 1907.

While Henry Justice Ford (1860-1941) was the main illustrator of the series, the color plates were made by Rene Bull. The price of the original book in good condition can exceed one thousand dollars.

Alfred William Cooper (1828–1916)

This chromolithograph was created for the 1896 edition of The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments for George Routledge and Sons, Limited and printed by Ballantyne, Hanson and Co., simultaneously in Edinburgh and London.

Walter Crane (1845-1915)

Walter Crane is one of the fathers of picture books as we know them today. He set high standards about the illustrating style, typography, design, etc. which are clearly visible in his take on Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp.

A complete set of pictures from the book, first published in 1875 is available on this address.

Edmund Dulac (1882-1953)

Stories from the Arabian Nights was published by Hodder and Stoughton, Limited in 1907 as the first of so-called gift books, luxurious editions often sold even before printing by collectors and later reprinted in more affordable versions for additional audience and profit.

Edmund Dulac later illustrated several more stories from Arabian Nights.

Maud Humphrey (1868-1940)

Maud Humphrey's Book of Fairy Tales was published in 1892 by Frederick A. Stokes, New York. It presents 20 fairy tales.

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The illustration from Aladdin is one of 12 colored pictures originally made by watercolors.

Alfred Edward Frederick Jackson (1873-1952)

Next two illustrations come from Tales from Arabian Nights, published by Warne around 1910. The book has 48 colored plates!

The illustrator signed his work as A. E. Jackson.

Max Liebermann (1847-1935)

This rare illustration is from Ludwig Fulda's adaptation of the fairy tale in verses. It was published in Berlin in 1912.

Walter Stanley Paget (1862-1935)

Walter Paget illustrated Aladdin for the collection The Arabian Nights published around 1907 by Ernest Nister in London and E. P Dutton & Company in New York.

Albert Robida (1848-1926)

Let's see how Aladdin started building his wealth by selling plates and how eventually had to fight for his wife and palace, both stolen by an evil magician.

The illustrations above are from Aladin and the Wonderful Lamp, one of the tales in The Book of One Thousand One Nights, published in 1926.

Arthur Rackham (1867-1939)

The scene with the magician trying to get the magic lamp by exchanging new lamps for old ones comes from The Arthur Rackham Fairy Book, A Book of Old Favorites With New Illustrations, George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd., London, 1933.

Charles Robinson (1870-1937)

The Big Book of Fairy Tales was edited by Walter Jerrold and first published by Blackie & Son, London, Glasgow, Bombay, 1911. Aladdin or the Wonderful Lamp is one of 30 fairy tales and this illustration is just one of 34 color images in the book.

Virginia Frances Sterrett (1900-1931)

Virginia Frances Sterrett illustrated only three books in her short life. This American artist suffered from poor health and was diagnosed with tuberculosis at the age of 19.

Arabian Nights was her last finished work, published in 1928.

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Elizabeth Tyler Woolcott (1892-1952)

This illustration was made in 1920.

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