Basic illustration definition of Basic illustration in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

illustration, any type of picture or decoration used in conjunction with a text to embellish its appearance or to clarify its meaning. Illustration is as old as writing, with both originating in the pictograph. With the advent of printing, the art of hand-painted illumination illumination, in art, decoration of manuscripts and books with colored, gilded pictures, often referred to as miniatures (see miniature painting ); historiated and decorated initials; and ornamental border designs.
..... Click the link for more information. declined as a means of book illustration.

History of Book Illustration

Modern book illustration originated in the 15th-century block books block book. Before and after the invention of printing from movable types in the mid-15th cent., some books were printed in Europe from engraved wooden blocks, with one block for each page. This method was developed by the 9th cent. A.D. in China.
..... Click the link for more information. , in which the text and the illustration were cut on the same block. Book illustration has followed closely the development of the printing processes. Copperplate engraving engraving, in its broadest sense, the art of cutting lines in metal, wood, or other material either for decoration or for reproduction through printing . In its narrowest sense, it is an intaglio printing process in which the lines are cut in a metal plate with a
..... Click the link for more information. and etching etching, the art of engraving with acid on metal; also the print taken from the metal plate so engraved. In hard-ground etching the plate, usually of copper or zinc, is given a thin coating or ground of acid-resistant resin.
..... Click the link for more information. tended to replace the woodcut during the 16th and 17th cent., but it was not until the close of the 18th cent. that the art was revolutionized by Thomas Bewick Bewick, Thomas (by`ĭk), 1753–1828, English wood engraver.
..... Click the link for more information. 's ingenious use of wood engraving and Senefelder Senefelder, Aloys (ä`lōüs zā`nəfĕl'dər, ä`lois), 1771–1834, German lithographer, b. Prague.
..... Click the link for more information. 's invention of lithography lithography (lĭthŏg`rəfē), type of planographic or surface printing.
..... Click the link for more information. . These two processes greatly stimulated the production of illustrated books and magazines and were exploited by such masters as Daumier, Doré, and Gavarni.

In the late 19th cent. wood engraving and lithography were superseded by the photomechanical processes that made possible the reproduction of a wide variety of painting and drawing techniques. The exploitation of these processes for cheap and rapid but sloppy mass production obscured their artistic potential. Thus early hand processes were revived in book illustration by such artists as William Morris, Matisse, Rouault, Picasso, Chagall, Rockwell Kent, and many others. However, such major illustrators as Aubrey Beardsley, Howard Pyle, and Elihu Vedder understood and exploited the photomechanical processes to great effect in the reproduction of their art works. Other great artists famous for illustration are Dürer, Holbein, William Hogarth, William Blake, Manet, and Winslow Homer.

Fiction and Children's Literature

Illustration of fiction was more popular in the 19th cent. than in the 20th. Dickens's works were illustrated by John Leech, H. K. Browne Browne, Hablot Knight (hăb`lō), pseud. Phiz, 1815–82, English illustrator.
..... Click the link for more information. ("Phiz"), and George Cruikshank Cruikshank, George (kr
..... Click the link for more information. . Sir John Tenniel Tenniel, Sir John (tĕn`yəl), 1820–1914, English caricaturist and illustrator.
..... Click the link for more information. 's illustrations for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland are almost as well known as the text itself. Today much of the finest illustration is done in the field of children's literature children's literature, writing whose primary audience is children.

See also children's book illustration .

The Beginnings of Children's Literature

The earliest of what came to be regarded as children's literature was first meant for adults.
..... Click the link for more information. . From Beatrix Potter Potter, Beatrix, 1866–1943, English author and illustrator. She published her first animal stories, The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902) and The Tailor of Gloucester (1903), at her own expense before she found a publisher, Frederick Warne & Company.
..... Click the link for more information. to Ludwig Bemelmans and Maurice Sendak Sendak, Maurice Bernard, 1928–, American writer and illustrator of children's books, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. His beautifully drawn, wildly imaginative, often fantastic, and sometimes controversial illustrations appear in dozens of children's books, including
..... Click the link for more information. , a number of gifted writers of children's stories have illustrated their own books. Among the great illustrators of children's books are Kate Greenaway, Walter Crane, Randolph Caldecott, Edward Lear, Ernest Shepherd, Palmer Cox, A. B. Frost, and Wanda Gág (see children's book illustration children's book illustration, any type of picture or decorative work produced for books specifically intended for a youthful audience.

Beginnings of a Genre

..... Click the link for more information. ).

Illustration in the East

In the Middle East fine printing of illustrated books is a very recent development. The lavish King Fuad Qur'an (1923, Egypt) is exceptional among Middle Eastern printed works. In East Asia the art of book illustration is very old. Printing was highly developed in China by the 9th cent., and exquisite block-printed illustrations enhanced many volumes. Japan borrowed Chinese techniques as early as the 9th cent. and used the ancient processes for wood-block printing of ukiyo-e (see Japanese art Japanese art, works of art created in the islands that make up the nation of Japan.

Early Works

The earliest art of Japan, probably dating from the 3d and 2d millennia B.C.
..... Click the link for more information. ) in books into the 18th cent. Twentieth-century printing of illustrated books in Japan involves the best and most recently developed processes.

Bibliography

See D. Bland, A History of Book Illustration (2d ed. 1969); D. Klemin, The Illustrated Book (1970); R. M. Slythe, The Art of Illustration (1972); J. G. Heck, The Complete Encyclopedia of Illustration (1979); M. Melot, The Art of Illustration (1984).