WHISTLER, Rex (illus.); ANDERSEN, Hans Christian.

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Fairy Tales and Legends. First Whistler edition, signed limited issue, one of 200 copies signed by the artist on the half-title and bound in gilt-decorated white cloth. This enchantingly illustrated edition of Andersen's classic fairy tales has been described as among Whistler's finest productions. The book's external beauty alone is such that a copy was carried by Lady Elizabeth von Hofmannsthal (née Paget) during her wedding and "assumed to be a splendid prayer book" by spectators (Whistler, p. 192). For this work, Whistler proposed a novel technique in book illustration: "White scraperboard, intended for commercial artists, on which you could paint with indian ink and then scrape off, for an effect like a wood engraving... Presently he was using brushed ink in various tones to produce what may be roughly described as a painting with scratched highlights, his own invention, and very lively in his hands" (Whistler, p. 192).

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