Cesarino and the Dragon

London, 1916. RACKHAM, Arthur. Cesarino and the Dragon". London: 1916. Original fine pen and ink and watercolor from "The Allies' Fairy Book." Measures 250 x 192 mm. Signed and dated 'ARackham 1916' on lower left corner. Mounted, framed and glazed. Image depicts Cesarino protecting his love while fighting a dragon with a sword and a knife in his hand. Meanwhile the dragon is fighting off a lion, a bear and a dog. Even the personified tress behind Cesarino appear to be helping scare away the dragon. This mythical and whimsical piece is very romantic despite all of the gore gong on. James Hamilton notes in his biography of Rackham that in this illustration 'Rackham combines his feelings of heraldry and the fantastic with his love of early Italian painting... The head of Cesarino is adapted from the head of the young horseman in Uccello's Battle of San Romano, a painting which Rackham recorded as being one of his favourites at the National Gallery in London.' "Cesarino and the Dragon' was used for the title-page of James Hamilton's biography of Arthur Rackham. Provenance: Probably item number 24 ("Fighting Dragons") from the Leicester Galleries Exhibition (number 284), December 1919; Sotheby's, 1 June 1989, lot 559; Sotheby's 11 December 2003, lot 277. Latimore and Haskell,. Riall,. Hamilton. HBS 67321. $28,500.