Charles Robinson, Illustrator

Frog Prince by Charles Robinson Frog Prince is also known as Frog King. It's the first fairy tale in the Children and Household Tales by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, officially noted as KHM 1. It's a very important story, a classic tale about a given word and a broken promise, paternal authority, an undesirable groom in the form of the frog, and, of course, a marriage as a typical happily ever after ending. Charles Robinson made the illustration which were published in 1911 by Blackie and Son in London. The book was titled The Big Book of Fairy Tales and this blog features several fairy tales from the same collection. Once upon a time, there was a princess whose favorite pastime was playing with her golden ball. Unfortunately, one day it dropped it in the pond. The princess was sad. She would like to get her ball back. But how? Then a frog appeared. He asked her what was wrong. Can he help her? She explained her problem and promised to reward the frog. He could eat by her table, pl...

Seasons, Series of four paintings by Charles Robinson Charles Robinson created a series of four paintings for the 1920 Pears Annual. Each of the watercolors was titled after one of the seasons of the year, which gave the name to the series: Seasons. All paintings are great examples of Art Nouveau style with many decorative details and vibrant colors which made them very popular till today. Several websites offer handmade reproductions of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter in many different formats. Shall we take a look? Spring Spring is a time of new life, new beginnings, time of optimism and happiness. The painter used a group of cherubs to present the magic of rebirth in its mythical experience with green dominating the color palette and other colors to add to enthusiasm and happiness, which is obvious in cheerful cherubs too. Little angels have colorful wings and decorative headbands of different colors excited over so many different things appearing around them. While we have so ma...

Snowdrop, illustrated by Charles Robinson Snowdrop or Snow White as most people know it, is another fairy tale from The Big Book of Fairy Tales, published by Blackie & Son, London in 1911. Charles Robinson created seven line drawings (including a decorative capital letter) and one full-page color illustration. It's interesting to note that the artist didn't make any picture of the prince as the rescuer. There is also no scene with the famous glass coffin or the hunter who is ordered to kill the beautiful Snowdrop. The title character actually doesn't really dominate in these pictures. The creator's attention is equally distributed to her, her nemesis, and the dwarfs who got the color illustration all by themselves. The title image above and the decorative one below both portray the main character somehow confined in the moment, maybe seen as a victim of the circumstances. It is by no means her fault that her father remarried a witch, obsessed with her beauty, and...

The Story of Bluebeard by Charles Robinson Bluebeard was a very popular fairy tale in the first half of the 20th century. Now, with all the worried experts (at least by titles) for sensitive children's souls, it's pretty hard to find even in libraries, not to mention the bookstores. On the other hand, the legend about the polygamist and serial killer still excites our minds and the story of Bluebeard still inspires artists who are now focused more on the adult audience. Charles Robinson made these drawings for kids. They were published in The Big Book of Fairy Tales by Blackie & Son, London in 1911. Let's see, how Mr. Robinson presented this immortal story in just six illustrations. The so-called title illustration presents all the vital elements of the fairy tale. We can see the title character and his new wife Fatima. As we can see by the surroundings, the setting is in the Muslim world. The story never mentioned the religions of the characters and even the name F...

Beauty and the Beast, as seen by Charles Robinson Beauty and the Beast is a popular fairy tale written by Madam Le Prince de Beaumont. The illustrator decided to decorate the beginning of each story with a decorative capital letter. Let's summarize this classic fairy tale with line drawings by Charles Robinson. There was a merchant who had three daughters. One, she was called Beauty, was very good, others not so good. When he lost his money, they had to move. One of the daughters adapted easily, others not at all. Then the merchant got a chance to regain his fortune. He had to travel but promised to bring precious gifts to his daughters. Two were very picky, Beauty, the youngest, didn't want anything. Finally, she asked for a rose. The merchant's travel didn't go as well as expected. On the way back he had to sleep over in a strange castle. It was comfy, it had food, but he saw nobody. When he left it, he remembered the wish of his youngest daughter and picked...

Aesop's Fables by Charles Robinson Aesop's Fables was one of the first projects signed by Charles Robinson. He was still a young inspiring artist when he got a chance to illustrate legendary fables by Aesop. These were all black-and-white drawings in his still-evolving yet already recognizable style. Numerous fables with clear morals were published in 1895, a year before Robinson's take on Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verse which secured him commissions for many years to come. Drawings from Aesop's Fables were also reprinted several times but never achieved the fame of already mentioned Stevenson's masterpiece. After World War 1 Charles Robinson spent more time on watercolor paintings and that resulted in a series of new illustrations of Aesop's Fables, this time in full color. These were published in 1930 by Blackie and Son in the book from which we are presenting them in this article. Here are some examples of fables splendidly portray...