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The Art of Virginia Sterrett

Virigina Sterrett (1900-1931) was an American artist of extraordinary talent associated with the Golden Age of Illustration. During her short life, she left the World with many beautiful images that displayed her outstanding ability to imbibe fantasy images with the spirit of her own age.   The Virginia Sterrett Collection at Spirit of the Ages includes art images from some of Sterrett's seminal work. As a valuable reference resource, options are also provided for purchasing a range of gifts, including reproduction prints, posters and greeting cards.   Sterrett received her first commission at the tender age of 19 (shortly after she was diagnosed with Tuberculosis) from The Penn Publishing Company to illustrate Old French Fairy Tales - a collection of works from the 19th Century French author, Comtesse de Ségur (Sophie Fedorovna Rostopchine).

Above, we show a vintage photograph of Virginia Sterrett

A year after the publication of Old French Fairy Tales, a new title including commissioned works from Sterrett was

presented by The Penn Publishing Company - Tanglewood Tales.

From 1923, in failing health, Sterrett was able to work on projects for short periods of time only and as a result, she was

able to complete just one further commission prior to her death - her own interpretation of Arabian Nights.

The comments of the St Louis Post-Dispatch in the supplement published following Sterrett's death (published 5 July 1931)

pay fitting tribute to her life and work:

        Her achievement was beauty, a delicate, fantastic beauty, created with brush and pencil.

        Almost unschooled in art, her life spent in prosaic places of the West and Middle West,

        she made pictures of haunting loveliness, suggesting Oriental lands she never saw and

        magical realms no one ever knew except in the dreams of childhood ...

        Perhaps it was the hardships of her own life that gave the young artist's work its fanciful

        quality. In the imaginative scenes she set down on paper she must have escaped from the

        harsh actualities of existence.

We invite you to take the time to peruse the wonderful artwork from Virginia Sterrett that is included in the Collection -

to view images from any one of Sterrett's suites listed below, simply 'click' on the hyperlinks embedded within the titles

and the images.

Old French Fairy Tales 34 images	Tanglewood Tales 36 images	Arabian Nights 19 images