There can hardly be an existent fairy-story among the hundreds told
before the making of books that Mr. Ford has not illustrated in one
version or another. The telling-house of every nation has yielded
stories for Mr. Lang's annual volumes; and since the appearance of 'The
Blue Fairy Book' in 1888, Mr. Ford, alone or in collaboration with Mr.
Jacomb Hood, Mr. Lancelot Speed and other well-known artists, has
illustrated the stories Mr. Lang has gathered. Moreover, in addition to
seven volumes of fairy tales, and many true story and animal story
books, Mr. Ford has made drawings for AEsop, for the 'Arabian Nights,'
and for 'Early Italian Love Stories.' His decorative and illustrative
ideal has never lacked distinction, and his recent work is the coherent
development of that of fourteen years ago, though he has gained in
freedom and variety of conception and in quality of expression. Mr.
Ford's art is obviously founded on that of Walter Crane, but he looks
at a subject with greater interest in its dramatic possibilities, and
in the facts of place and time than the later 'Crane' convention
admits. An abundant fancy, familiarity with the facts of legendary,
romantic and animal life, over a wide tract of country and through long
ages of time, fill the decorative pages of the artist with a plentitude
of graceful, vigorous and persuasive forms. The well-devised pages of
Miss Emily J. Harding's 'Fairy Tales of the Slav Peasants and
Herdsmen,' are akin in form to the drawings of Mr. Batten and of Mr.
Ford, though regard for the national tone of the stories gives these
illustrations individuality and interest.
[Illustration: FROM MR. FORD'S 'PINK FAIRY BOOK.'