beautiful old illustrations

December 19, 2007 7:27 AM

Packed full of galleries of beautiful illustrations by Maxfield Parrish, Aubrey Beardsley, William Morris, Gustave Doré, Arthur Rackham and others with prints one can buy of any illustration, Artsy Craftsy includes a sumptuous collection of Victorian Fairies illustrations. The site also has the illustrated Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde, illustrations of cats in fairy tales, Magic Cats, and a selection of beautiful free ecards as well.

To find a free ecard from the illustrations, one can click on the caption for that illustration. For example on the Dulac page, if one scrolls down the page to the caption, "Firebird" and clicks on that, it can be sent as an ecard. A good fairy ecard page.

posted by nickyskye (17 comments total)

It's impossible not to fall in love with these drawings. Thanks.
posted by nicolin at 7:32 AM on December 19, 2007

Funny, I was just looking at this site, trying to get ideas for my wife's web site. Lovely stuff, thanks.
posted by Mister_A at 7:33 AM on December 19, 2007

however, it is a pain in the ass trying to figure out which things you can send as postcards. Grrrrr.
posted by Mister_A at 7:36 AM on December 19, 2007

Dear Mister_A, Having gone through the site thoroughly, experienced the same frustration and so you don't bust a gasket looking for ecards on this site, let me help you. The ecards are located on the Art Passions part of the site. The main galleries are on the Artsy Craftsy part of the site. Once you see an image you like on the Artsy Crafty site, remember the caption for that image, then go to the Art Passions section.

An example, here is the Warwick Goble main gallery on the Artsy Craftsy site. On that page I like the image with the caption "Three Spirits filled With Joy". That site sells prints of the images if one clicks on an image. So it's not useful for free ecards.

Then go to the Warwick Goble page on the Art Passions section. Scroll down the page linked below and click on the caption. The ecard will open. See where the caption says Three Spirits Filled With Joy, for example? On the Art Passions site it becomes a free ecard.

The ecards aspect of this site is amazing. Ecards by Arthur Rakham, Gustave Doré, Aubrey Beardsley, William Morris, Sulamith Wulfing (a good selection of Christmas and holiday ones), Adrienne Segur, Kay Nielsen. Hope that helps.
posted by nickyskye at 8:07 AM on December 19, 2007 [1 favorite]

Thanks, I want to send a pic to my wife :)

My gaskets are in good order thanks to you.
posted by Mister_A at 8:54 AM on December 19, 2007

I'm surprised this site doesn't have watermarks over the images that they're selling. So many of these sites just won't let me view a large version of the prints I like and stick it on my Desktop....but now I have some Parrish. I'm happy.
posted by thanotopsis at 8:59 AM on December 19, 2007

lol Mister_A, really happy to hear about your gasket, I almost bust my own looking for ecards on that site and thought I'd offer you some comfort and joy in the seasonal spirit. You sound like a caring husband too. :)
posted by nickyskye at 9:05 AM on December 19, 2007

I find the name, "Artsy Craftsy," a bit too cutesy for the extensive collection of fine art on this site. But the works are just incredible.

The widely divergent interpretations of, for example, the fairy tales featuring felines, varying from cartoonish caricature cats to perfectly detailed animals that are almost frightening due to their human-sized dimensions, is really fascinating.
posted by misha at 9:13 AM on December 19, 2007

I was just about to complain that the site did not have my favorite Wulfing (and the only one I have seen that I unabashedly adore), but then I realized that the ecards section has pictures not included in the ArtsyCraftsy galleries. The prints are pricey, but the site does have some good stuff - Beardsley and Parrish both get me all Stendhalish. And some of the Doré illustrations are incredible, though I am skeptical about reproductions (I couldn't find any information on print methods).
posted by dilettanti at 9:28 AM on December 19, 2007

misha, so agreeing with on the name ArtsyCraftsy not fitting the superb caliber of the art. If anything I grew up using that phrase as an insult or synonym for cheesy or tacky. But on the web names seem less connected with the content these days. Maybe the good domain names have been snapped up and people take what they can?

dilettanti, you could always contact the site owner and ask about printing methods. Contact info at the bottom of the ArtsyCraftsy front page.
posted by nickyskye at 9:41 AM on December 19, 2007

Man, I love Aubrey Beardsley. His work is just great.

I bought a copy of Wilde's Salome a while back because of the illustrations. When I got home though, much to my dismay, I discovered the over-exuberant publisher had censored the illustrations.

"Where are my hermaphrodites," I raged!

And then I angrily shook my hand at the sky, cursing Dover Publishers and the $1.50 they had suckered out of me!
posted by milarepa at 10:46 AM on December 19, 2007

I haven't made it yet beyond the Wilde fairy tales and they are quite interesting.
posted by caddis at 11:57 AM on December 19, 2007

Cool! You've been making really good, cheerful posts lately. Though I'm not a cat person, the Magic Cats series was my favorite of these.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:44 PM on December 19, 2007 [1 favorite]

Beautiful beautiful art. Thank you for posting that. I saw illustrations from fairy tales I read as a child that I haven't seen SINCE I was a child. Thank you!
posted by workinggringa at 1:52 PM on December 19, 2007

Thank you for posting this. I would not have looked at it on my own because of the name. What on earth possessed them?

Thank you so much!
posted by winna at 3:44 PM on December 19, 2007

I bookmarked this to check later and then saw Warwick Goble's name in nickyskye's comment and now I'm lost. I first saw Goble's stuff in a book a year ago and fell in love. Check him out - he's not as well known as Dulac, Rackham and the rest but is clearly just as talented.

Thanks, nickyskye.
posted by mediareport at 9:41 PM on December 19, 2007

Oh YAY, happy happy joy joy. Glad you liked the post. Learned an expert tip from a savvy MeFite who wishes to remain anonymous, for reasons I do not understand, that if you right click any picture on that site, scroll down to View Image, the images are of better quality and hey presto, it's true. So, credit to The Anonymous Smart One for that tip.
posted by nickyskye at 9:25 AM on December 20, 2007