Bill Peckmann &Books &Illustration 29 May 2012 06:28 am
Reynard the Fox
- Here are illustrations by Keith Ward from the book, Reynard the Fox, which was published in 1945.They are outstanding illustrations from an artist whose every work seems to be outstanding. These were sent to me by Bill Peckmann, and this is what he wrote to accompany the scans:
- Here are Keith Ward’s illustrations from ‘Reynard the Fox’. And beauties they are, all
35 of them! For me, being very partial to the Caniff/Sickles school of cartoon/illustration, these fall right into that wonderful 1940′s category and it makes me wonder if Milt or Noel could have been as facile with animals as Keith Ward was.
A couple of side bonuses, and they are this, the drawings have the same realistic cartoon playfulness that illustrators Jack Davis and Wally Tripp infuse in their art and you’ll get to see foxy Reynard’s influence and inspiration that found its way into Disney’s ‘Robin Hood’ feature. (Turn to Will Finn‘s July 22, 2007, excellent “expose” blog for that story!)
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This, to me, is a GREAT illustration. Brilliant work in a book.
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Marc Davis spent a lot of emotional weight developing the story for a feature to be called Chanticleer and the Fox (Andreas Deja has a wonderful posting on his site about this film.) This film combined the stories of Chanticeler the Rooster (Chaucer) and Reynard the Fox (Rostand). Disney opted to bypass this film to make the story that was developed by Bill Peet, Sword in the Stone.
Thanks again to Denis Wheary for lending us his Keith Ward book!
And thanks to Bill Peckmann for scanning and sending and getting the copy from Dennis.
on 29 May 2012 at 4:19 pm 1.Don Cox said …
Great illustrations. They are very like the Starewitch film of “Le Roman de Renard”, released 1937 (German version) and 1941 (French).
Could the book be inspired by or even based on the film?
on 29 May 2012 at 8:34 pm 2.Michael said …
The story comes from Edmund Rostand, who wasfamous for writing CYRANO DE BERGERAC.
on 28 Apr 2016 at 9:38 am 3.ZOOTOPIA OR THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SECOND CHARACTER - Las Musas no avisan. said …
[…] In 1945 an American version appeared, written by Harry J. Owen and illustrated by Keith Ward and it is not difficult to appreciate the influence of Ward drawings in the work or Anderson for Disney Robin Hood. […]