Faith Jaques: The Orchard Book of Nursery Rhymes

The Orchard Book of Nursery Rhymes
Published in 1990 by Orchard Books

Illustrations by Faith Jaques
Designed by Faith Jaques

Printed in Malaysia

The year 1990

I decided that I would research events that happened in the year The Orchard Book of Nursery Rhymes was published. I picked out things that could have influenced the art of the time.
- Cold War in Lithuania.
- Nelson Mandela is released.
- The Pale Blue Dot photograph of Earth is sent back from Voyager 1.
- Brixton in South London is sealed off after a night of protests against the poll tax.
- Twelve paintings, collectively worth $100 to $300 million are stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.
- Robert Mapplethorpe's show of nude and homosexual photographs "The Perfect Moment" at Cincinnati Contemporary Art Centre.
- Portrait of Doctor Gachet by Vincent Van Gogh is sold for $82.5 million.
- John Keane, war artist in the Gulf War due to being commissioned by British Imperial War Museum.

The Orchard Book of Nursery Rhymes is a book of some well known children's rhymes which most have illustrations by Faith Jaques. Below I have picked and scanned some of the Nursery Rhymes that I could see myself illustrating and that I found interesting. I noticed that the rhymes I chose all had structured illustrations which I think works really well and in my opinion finishes off the rhymes. I like how Faith uses her illustrations kind of like a border around the rhyme. 

Sing a Song of Sixpence by Lilli Carre 

I found this image really inspiring. I think the way she has gone about illustrating this nursery rhyme is really unique and effective. I really like the use of minimal colour and simplicity. I think it is highly aesthetically pleasing. 

Hush Baby by Sylvia Long

Sylvia Long's version of Hush Baby is different to the original but her illustrations really inspired me. She has portrayed the mother and baby of the rhymes as rabbits which I think is a really imaginative idea. It made me realise that because the poem doesn't state whether the characters are human you can literally draw anything to get the point of the rhyme across. 

The Queen of Hearts by Therese Cilia

I really like the illustrations for The Queen of Hearts that Therese Cilia created because they have a really nice style. In my opinion it's like a cross between Quentin Blake and Tim Burton. 

I don't think I am going to choose to illustrate this book because the choice is so wide and I don't think I see myself illustrating nursery rhymes because there isn't very far you can take it.