Illustrator and artist Virginia Frances Sterrett (1900 – 1931) had a short but productive and influential career. From an early age, Sterrett showed incredible creative talents, but as a teenager, Sterrett became the sole provider of her family and was unable to complete her studies at The Art Institute of Chicago. At the age of 19, Sterrett completed commissions for Penn Publishing Company, including Comtesse de Ségur’s Old French Fairy Tales and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Tanglewood Tales. It was around this time that Sterrett developed tuberculosis, greatly affecting her ability to create work. She was only able to complete one additional project, her interpretation and most popular work, Arabian Nights.
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Virginia Francess Sterrett
“They walked side by side.”
Old French Tales, Penn Publishing Company, 1920.
