13 Days of Baba Yaga: Ivan Bilibin

As I’ve been putting together the first issue of Croning, I’ve looked at a lot of Baba Yaga-inspired art. As we get close to publication day, I’ll be sharing some of my favorite images. First up: A few of Ivan Bilibin’s illustrations for Vassilisa the Beautiful.

Bilibin’s Baba Yaga is iconic—and absolutely gorgeous. His influences include Japanese woodcuts and Art Nouveau, but his work is grounded in the folk traditions and landscape of Russia. His life, like his art, reflects a period in which Russia was becoming modern and cosmopolitan, in ways both good and bad. He left for Egypt after the October Revolution and settled in Paris for several years before homesickness took him back to Russia. He died during the Siege of Leningrad and was buried in a mass grave. His lithographs, though, introduced Russian folklore to the world and set a standard for fairytale art that endures.

These illustrations originally appeared in: Vassilisa the Beautiful. Moscow: Department for the Production of State Documents, 1900. They are now in the public domain.

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