illustration - A design or picture in a book, magazine or other print or electronic medium that explains the text or shows what happens in a story.

Examples:

France, Troyes, Dance of Death, 16th century, incunabulum, illustrated with hand-colored woodcuts, Saxon State Library, Dresden, Germany. Based on a fourteenth-century morality poem by an unidentifiable author, the Dance of Death evolved into a set of illustrated verses depicting a dialogue between Death and people of all social ranks. The theme was very popular in 15th and 16th century Christian Europe, reminding the living that rank and station in life were meaningless in the face of death. The illustrations show representations of ecclesiastical and secular society being carried off by Death. The pages displayed here show the Pope, the Emperor, a cardinal, and a king. See dance and vanitas.

Andrea Palladio (Andrea di Pietro della Gondola) (Italian, 1508-1580), author; Venice: Domenico de'Franceschi, 1570 (4 parts in one volume), publisher, I Quattro Libri dell'architettura di Andrea Palladio..., 1570 (4 parts in one volume), printed book; 128 p. : ill., maps ; 12 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. See Palladian.
Illustrated: title page of Andrea Palladio's I Quattro Libri dell'architettura and engraved portrait of Palladio from the frontispiece.

Denis Diderot (French, 1713-1784), author; Jean d'Alembert (French, 1717-1783), author; Paris: Briasson, 1751-1765, publisher; Neufchastel : S. Faulche & cie., Vols. 8-17 published, Encyclopedie, ou Dictionnaire Raisonne des Sciences, des Arts et des Metiers, 1751-1765, printed book; 17 v. : fold. tab. ; 40 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.
Illustrated: Plates, Volume 8. Plate 1- "Relieur". The procedures for binding a book from the Encyclopedie.

Sir Thomas Malory (British, 15th c.), author; Aubrey Beardsley (British, 1872-1898), illustrator; London: J. M. Dent and Co., 1893, Publisher, Morte d'Arthur, 1893, printed book; 12 pts. : ill. , pl. ; 26 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.
Illustrated: Aubrey Beardsley's design for the printed paper wrapper from Part I. See aestheticism and fin de siècle.

William Blake (British, 1757-1827), from Songs of Innocence and of Experience/'Songs of Innocence': Title-Page, 1789, reprinted 1831 or later, relief etching on paper, image 12.0 x 6.4 cm, Tate Gallery, London. See Romanticism.

William Blake, Pity, c. 1795, color print finished in ink and watercolor on paper, 42.5 x 53.9 cm, Tate Gallery, London. The subject is partly drawn from Shakespeare's play Macbeth.

William Blake, from Illustrations to `The Book of Job' / Satan before the Throne of God, 1825, reprinted 1874, Tate Gallery, London.

Sir John Tenniel (English, 1820-1914).

Gustave Doré (French, 1832-1883), Glory be to the Father . . . , c. 1861, wood engraving, illustration for Dante's Divine Comedy, The Paradiso, Canto XXVII.

Walter Crane (English, 1845-1915).

Randolph Caldecott (English, 1846-1886), Good-bye, Baby Bunting, engraved by Edmund Evans, image 15.9 x 18.4 cm, Tate Gallery, London. Caldecott's illustrations for children's books have been so highly regarded that the annual award -- the Caldecott Medal -- for best children's book illustration was named after him.

Richard Doyle, illustrator, cover of Andrew Lang's The Princess Nobody, A Tale of Fairyland, 1884, published by E.P. Dutton & Co., New York.

Doyle's frontispiece for The Princess Nobody. See frontispiece.

Edward Austin Abbey (American, 1852-1911).

Howard Pyle (American, 1853-1911), page decoration for the "Seven O'Clock" chapter heading of his book, The Wonder Clock, 1887, ink on paper. Howard Pyle founded the "Brandywine School" of illustration. Among his students were N.C. Wyeth, Maxfield Parrish, Violet Oakley, Jessie Willcox Smith and Frank Schoonover. See three fairy tales illustrated and written by Howard Pyle.

Frederic Remington (American, 1861-1909), The Apache War -- Indian Scouts on Geronimo's Trail, as published on the first page of Harper's Weekly, January 9, 1886. Remington's drawing was copied by the maker of this wood engraving. See nocturne.

Jessie Willcox Smith (American, 1863-1935).

Helen Beatrix Potter (English, 1866-1943), from Illustrations for "The Tailor of Gloucester", Frontispiece: The Tailor Mouse, c. 1902, pen and ink and watercolor on paper, 11.1 x 9.2 cm, Tate Gallery, London. See frontispiece.

Helen Beatrix Potter, from Illustrations for "The Tailor of Gloucester", Simpkin in the Snowy Street, c. 1902, pen and ink and watercolor on paper, support: 11.1 x 9.2 cm, Tate Gallery, London.

Helen Beatrix Potter, from Illustrations for "The Tailor of Gloucester", The Mice Sewing the Mayor's Coat, c. 1902, pen and ink and watercolor on paper, 9.2 x 11.1 cm, Tate Gallery, London.

Charles Dana Gibson (American, 1867-1944).

Arthur Rackham (English, 1867-1939), The Dance in Cupid's Alley, 1904, pen and ink and watercolor on paper, 32.4 x 59.7 cm, Tate Gallery, London.

Maxfield Parrish (American, 1870-1966). See kitsch.

Charles Robinson (American, 1870-1937).

Elizabeth Shippen Green (American, 1871-1954).

Aubrey Beardsley (English, 1872-1898), design for the cover of the prospectus for The Yellow Book, Volume I (April 1894), and an unused design for the cover of The Yellow Book, Volume V. See aestheticism and fin de siècle.

Aubrey Beardsley, Messalina and her Companion, 1895, pencil, ink wash and watercolor on paper, 27.9 x 17.8 cm, Tate Gallery, London.

Aubrey Beardsley, The Dream, 1896, pen and black ink, J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, CA.

J. C. Leyendecker (American, 1874-1951).

Ivan Bilibin (Russian, 1876-1942), Ivan the Tsar's Son and the Firebird, 1899, illustration to the fairy-tale "Ivan the Tsar's Son, the Firebird, and the Grey Wolf." See Russian art.

Ivan Bilibin, The Merchants Visit Tsar Saltan, 1905, illustration to "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" by Pushkin.

James Montgomery Flagg (American, 1877-1960), I Want You for U.S. Army, 1917, chromolithograph, 39 1/2 x 29 1/8 inches (100.4 x 73.8 cm), National Museum of American Art. Flagg's version of Uncle Sam is a self-portrait. Used for recruitment during World War I and again during World War II, his popular poster demonstrates the commanding effectiveness of a strong design and simple message. See poster.

George Bellows (American, 1882-1925), The Drunk, c. 1924, lithograph, second state, printed by Bolton Brown, published as an illustration for Mabel Potter Daggett, "Why We Prohibit," in Good Houskeeping, May 1924, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Edmund Dulac (French, 1882-1953).

N. C. (Newell Convers) Wyeth (American, 1882-1945), Bronco Buster, 1907, oil on canvas, 41 1/2 x 28 1/8 inches, Minneapolis Institute of Arts. This picture was commissioned for ads for "Cream of Wheat" breakfast cereal. Newell Convers Wyeth was best known as "N.C.," and was the father of painter Andrew Wyeth (American, 1917-) and Henriette, and the grandfather of painter James Wyeth. See portrait and realism.

N. C. Wyeth, "One more step, Mr. Hands," said I, "and I'll blow your brains out", 1911, illustration for Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, Scribner's first edition (1911), New Britain Museum of Art, CT.

Edward Julius Detmold (English, 1883-1957).

Kay Nielsen (Danish and American, 1886-1957).

Norman Rockwell (American, 1894-1978), The Problem We All Live With, published in Look, January 14, 1964, oil on canvas, Arts International, Chicago, IL. See narrative art and Realism.

• The Society of Illustrators was founded in 1901. Members of the society have included such reknowned illustrators as James Montgomery Flagg (American, 1877-1960), Maxfield Parrish (American, ), N.C. Wyeth (American, 1882-1944), and Frederic Remington (American, 1861-1909). Their work appeared in magazines like The Atlantic Monthly, Collier's and Harper's Magazine, and in children's books, as well as in posters for war efforts and cigarette ads.
  
  
• The International Children's Digital Library is a huge and colorful project that offers copies of thousands of great children's illustrated books. The works range from early ones with black and white woodcuts to current popular favorites, but most are copyright-free. They also come from a hundred cultures in twenty languages. You'll need a high-speed connection.

Also see clip art, frontispiece, graphic arts, graphic design, iconography, illustrate, illustrator, page, poster, and tip.

https://inform.quest/_art