Welcome to my blog, featuring various pieces from my collection of Oz books, artwork and memorabilia!

Friday, September 16, 2011

Prince Inga

This illustration in L. Frank Baum's Rinkitink in Oz has always intrigued me. It's a portrait of Prince Inga outside a castle, but the odd part is the domed structure on the left side of the drawing. This has always looked to me like John R. Neill left an unfinished portion of pencil sketch that somehow got printed with the rest of the drawing.

On the right, I've removed that part of the image. This way the drawing feels more finished to me. Admittedly, it leaves a large area of white space, but I find the overall piece much more pleasing!

Neill did do a fair amount of sketchy work, but this particular illustration has always felt like an odd combination of a lovely finished drawing and a rough sketch!

4 comments:

J. L. Bell said...

The domed structure doesn't seem to have the same perspective as the rest of the background, and has a slightly different style of architecture. But it’s also more detailed than the other structures, suggesting that Neill started with that and filled in the rest.

Bill Campbell said...

It's always bothered me - just another little Ozian mystery!

Scott O. said...

I've never noticed that before (how come I never notice these things?). Anyway, that doesn't even look like Neill's work!

ericshanower said...

The illustrations for Rinkitink are some of the oddest Neill ever did. Costumes change, things are unfinished, names and faces are hidden within illustrations. A lot of it looks like a rush job to me, and I've always figured that this particular illustration was an example of that.