Pictorial frontispiece

Edward Burne-Jones

Steel etching, by an unknown etcher

5½ x 3¾ inches

Archibald Maclaren, The Fairy Family (1857).

This strange image establishes the book’s fantastical tone. Made up of neo-medieval characters which are brightly illuminated in contrast to a dark background, it suggests the weird dislocations of a dream – or nightmare. The composition is unsigned, and the artist disowned it.

Scanned image and text by Simon Cooke. Click on the `image to enlarge it, and mouse over the text for links.

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]