Favorite Illustrastions

[Hannah High]

What are your favorite Peter Pan illustrations? Who is your favorite artist that's taken on the story?

I am reading "Peter and Wendy" to my kindergarten class, a chapter a day. They are loving it. I'm always looking for different illustrators, but so often find the drawings ghastly. I'm using a unique edition now by Raquel Jaramillo. She uses photos of children (and adults for the pirates and parents). They are quite lovely, a bit too tame and clean for the boy who hated mothers. But I especially appreciate that the illustrations are actually of children (so often I find Peter drawn as an adolescent). My kids like it best out of the copies we have. Her pictures are deep in color and very large. The pages are also so smooth for them to turn.

I personally like the ones by Francis Donkin Bedford. Especially his poetic capture of the characters' emotions. How about you all? I'd be curious to look up some.

[GOSH]

I have three favourite illustrated editions:

- F D Bedford - of course, being the first edition written by Barrie, who approved of the choice of artist
- Gwynedd M Hudson, from the mid-1930s: not as dark as some, but Peter is definitely of the right age and costume (no silly hat or tights!). Apart from its full page colour images, it also contains lots of smaller pictures and vignettes running along the bottom of the page. It is quite Art Deco in look, and the handlettering, decorations, typesetting and layout of the page all contribute to making this one of the best. (It was published by Hodder & Stoughton, but I don't think it ever had a US publisher.)
- Edmund Blampied, who illustrated his edition in 1939 (published by Hodder & Stoughton in the UK, and Scribners in the US, in a smaller format).  He was an artist from Jersey and I find his images capture the "other worldy" and dreamy feel of the story, with a hint of menace. Glorious.