Jack sneaks into the giant’s house 

Arthur Rackham made this line drawing with ink on paper, sometime in the early twentieth century. It illustrates the fairy tale of Jack and the Beanstalk, and the giant’s dwelling is teeming with details. Rackham was one of the great illustrators of his day, reviving a tradition that stretches back to illuminated manuscripts. To produce images like this, he would have started with a preliminary sketch, and then carefully rendered the image in ink, using cross-hatching to create a sense of depth and shadow. The starkness of the black ink against the white paper emphasizes the drama of the scene, the suspense that is building. The image has a strong graphic quality, which made it suitable for reproduction in books and magazines. In Rackham’s time, such images were a primary source of entertainment and information for many people. So, next time you encounter an illustration, remember that it isn’t just a pretty picture, it’s a product of skilled labor and a window into the social and cultural values of its time.