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Christa Zaat



Arthur Rackham (British book illustrator) 1867 - 1939
Jorinda and Joringel, 1909
book illustration
s.l.

Illustration for 'Jorinda and Joringel' published in first edition of 'Grimm’s Fairy Tales' by William Heineman Ltd, London, 1909.

"Jorinde and Joringel" is a German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm.
The story is known in many English translations as "Jorinda and Jorindel."

A shape-shifting witch lived alone in a dark castle in the woods. She could lure wild animals and birds to her before killing them. She transfixed anyone who would come near to where she stood, and turn innocent maidens into birds and cage them. Jorinde and Joringel, two lovers engaged to be married, went for a walk in the forest. They came too near to the witch's lair. She turned Jorinde into a nightingale and fixed Joringel to the ground. Once she had carried away the bird, she freed Joringel.
One night Joringel dreamed of a flower and that it would break all the witch's spells. He sought it for nine days, found it, and carried it back to the castle. He was not frozen to the ground when he approached the castle and it opened all the doors. He found the witch feeding the birds. She was unable to curse him. When she tried to take one cage away, he realized it was Jorinde. He touched the witch with the flower and her evil magic left her forever. He touched Jorinde with the flower and she became a woman again. Then he transformed all the other women back.

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Rackham was born in London as one of 12 children. In 1884, at the age of 17, he was sent on an ocean voyage to Australia to improve his fragile health, accompanied by two Aunts. At the age of 18, he worked as a clerk at the Westminster Fire Office and began studying part-time at the Lambeth School of Art.

In 1892 he left his job and started working for The Westminster Budget as a reporter and illustrator. His first book illustrations were published in 1893 in To the Other Side by Thomas Rhodes, but his first serious commission was in 1894 for The Dolly Dialogues, the collected sketches of Anthony Hope, who later went on to write The Prisoner of Zenda. Book illustrating then became Rackham's career for the rest of his life.
In 1903 he married Edyth Starkie, with whom he had one daughter, Barbara, in 1908. Rackham won a gold medal at the Milan International Exhibition in 1906 and another one at the Barcelona International Exposition in 1912. His works were included in numerous exhibitions, including one at the Louvre in Paris in 1914. Arthur Rackham died in 1939 of cancer in his home in Limpsfield, Surrey