Rene Bull
Arabian Nights and Rubaiyat
Oriental art

Rene Bull's journies through Middle East and oriental art influences reflect his brilliance in The Arabian Nights and Rubaiyat illustrations.

Only after he came to know the entertaining and well-known illustrator Caran d’Ache of Paris did Rene(born 11th December, 1872), begin his distinguished career in artistry.

He was employed by a magazine, the Black and White, and almost immediately earned himself the reputation of a celebrated and gifted artist about the war.

His renown book illustrations for The Arabian Nights, published in 1912 and the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, published in 1913, are products of his extensive travels in the Middle Eastern countries and his familiarity with the traditions, conventions and dress of the Arabs.

Bull was also learned in Oriental artistry.

Bull’s life was colored with journey and incident. As a “special” working for the black and White magazine, Bull was required to travel to witness the massacre in Armenia and the war which took place in Greece.

He was a part of the RAF and the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve in World war I. He was also a reporter for the Omdurman campaigns which were carried out in Sudan and visited the North West Frontier of India as well.

Rene Bull is remembered as a gifted artist and his illustrations of the Arabian Nights are unquestionably among the best. He was able to depict any subject with his lively imagination and eye for detail.

His ability for comic genius must also be appreciated. The US Publisher Dodd Mead made use of the margins covered with black and white drawings by Bull as headings for his chapters, in the 1925 edition of E.J.Detmold, without acknowledging the debt.

The john C. Winston Company of Philadelphia also used his designs without acknowledging their debt to him in 1920.

Adelaide H. Bolton used four clumsy plates of color and included a pastedown on the cover, in an exaggerated and sentimental way.

The actual edition of 1912 by Rene Bull had included all of the “Sixty Illustrations”.

In 1924, this published version was used again for the benefit of school children and this time the Adeline H. Bolton was named as illustrator.

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