Edward Ardizzone was an English
illustrator of French-Italian extraction, who illustrated a very large number
of children’s books through the 40s, 50s and 60s. “The Land of Green Ginger” by
Noel Langley, is an absolutely wonderful book, full of wit, whimsy, humour and
adventure. Although it’s called a children’s classic – which it is – it’s sadly
out of fashion now. It continues the story of Aladdin, through his son, Abu
Ali, focusing on Abu Ali’s quest to win the hand of the beautiful Silver Bud.
It’s just great, an utter gem, and I can’t wait until my grandson is old enough
for me to read it to him.
The illustration I’ve copied shows
Abu Ali and Silver Bud on the left, while his rival suitors, TinTac Ping Foo
and Rubdub Ben Thud look on from the right. Noel Langley, who wrote the novel,
was a South African writer, who wrote the original screenplay for the smash hit
film “The Wizard of Oz”, but this book, I think, is his most inspired creation,
and it’s perfectly portrayed in Ardizzone’s unique and distinctive style. It's a style which is light years removed from my own, with relatively few bold lines, and a range of shading and just suggested outliines which give his figures a shadowy, indistinct quality, almost like sfumato in its effect. If you look at this particular illustration I've tried to copy, the two foregrounded figures to the left are the two villains, Tintac Ping Foo and Rubdub Ben Thud, and I think that you can still clearly start to get an idea of these villains particular qualities.
