Cooking Over Campfire In Art And Illustration

A man went in search of fire with a lighted lantern. Had he known what fire was he could have cooked his rice much sooner.

Zen parable
Boys' Life Magazine September 1933 (cover art)
Boys’ Life Magazine September 1933 (cover art). Pretty sure the Native American guide is not saying ‘Here, have all this land’, despite appearances.
Hunting & Fishing Magazine July 1937
Hunting & Fishing Magazine July 1937
Charles William Hargens, Jr. (1893−1997)
Charles William Hargens, Jr. (1893−1997)
Molly Brett

My life has been told to me through campfire tales — stories that spill over when the fire has burned low and silence must be filled. They’re like old coats hauled from the back of the cupboard. Dusted off, aired out, good as new. My mother, Vivienne, doled them out as reward or consolation, depending on her mood. And so I came to know myself — through the telling and retelling.

Friday Brown by Vikki Wakefield, Australian author

Tall tales are a storytelling tradition that extends far back into human history. In our imaginations, tall tales happen around the camp fire.

LE DIEU VIVANT (1974) DH Comes campfire
LE DIEU VIVANT (1974) DH Comes campfire
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN Magazine cover art 1934
Trader Trapper magazine 1927 August art by Edwin Bolenbaugh
Hunting & Fishing Magazine March 1939
From Kipling’s A Song of the English. Illustrated by W. Heath Robinson
Norman Rockwell (American painter and illustrator) 1894 – 1978 Hobo and Dog 1924
1932 The Open Road For Boys Magazine Story of Northwest Mounted Police cover art by William Eaton
1932 The Open Road For Boys Magazine Story of Northwest Mounted Police cover art by William Eaton
Frank C. Bensing (1893-1993) c1950, 'Three Men Hunting'
Frank C. Bensing (1893-1993) c1950, ‘Three Men Hunting’
The Mystery of the Spiteful Letters by Enid Blyton full cover
This Week (The Minneapolis Journal), January 29 1939 cover art
This Week (The Minneapolis Journal), January 29 1939 cover art by William
Stuart Hogarth
Who Fears The Devil by Manly Wade Wellman
Evgenii Rachev (1906 - 1997) 1960 illustration for Russian Folk Tales campfire
Evgenii Rachev (1906 – 1997) 1960 illustration for Russian Folk Tales.
Jill Barklem Brambley Hedge, The High Hills
Summer of Night by Dan Simmons campfire
by Tove Jansson for 'Moominland Midwinter (1957) camp fire
by Tove Jansson for ‘Moominland Midwinter (1957)
camp fire singalong, Illustration in Childcraft vol 9 by Tom Fawell. First printed by Field Enterprises 1964
Camp fire singalong, Illustration in Childcraft vol 9 by Tom Fawell. First printed by Field Enterprises 1964
George Watson Barratt, interior illustration for Harper’s Weekly, June 1911 camping
George Watson Barratt, interior illustration for Harper’s Weekly, June 1911
Khasui Kawase (1883 – 1957)
A postcard from Finland, illustrated by Rolf Lidberg in the 1970s.
Jenny Eugenia Nystrom (1854-1946) ~ Swedish painter and illustrator who created numerous Christmas cards and magazine covers
Jenny Eugenia Nystrom (1854-1946) ~ Swedish painter and illustrator who created numerous Christmas cards and magazine covers
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892 - 1973) 1937 The Trolls illustration for The Hobbit campfire
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892 – 1973) 1937 The Trolls illustration for The Hobbit campfire
The Young Balloonist by Esther M Douty 1963. This guy isn’t cooking food but he’s cooking up something.
Smoking Animals, Theodor de Bry, after Johann Theodor de Bry, 1591 fire
Smoking Animals, Theodor de Bry, after Johann Theodor de Bry, 1591
Winslow Homer, Seaside Sketches – A Clam-Bake, 1873

Leonid Zolotarev – The Snow Queen
Leonid Zolotarev – The Snow Queen
Top-Notch v016 n05 [1914-05-20] campfire
PRIJDTE K NAM, MUZIKANTI (1960) Jiri Trnka camp fire
PRIJDTE K NAM, MUZIKANTI (1960) Jiri Trnka camp fire
A campfire scene by Olivier Tallec
from How To Make Friends With A Ghost by Rebecca Green
from How To Make Friends With A Ghost by Rebecca Green
The Saturday Evening Post February 23, 1952
Banks of the Tiber, 1893 by Antonia Munoz Degrain (Catalan)
Edward Gorey, for an adaptation of ‘Rumpelstiltskin’ by Edith Tarcov
Paul Zelinsky – Swamp Angel by Anne Isaacs. I think there might be more to this one than ‘camp fire’.
Cowgirl Romances #1 1950
Arkady Sher
May Gibbs postcard, c.1916 ANZAC
Campfire artwork created with artificial intelligence, based on stock photography.
Once humans took charge of fire, fire remade humans and commenced remaking the world. “We got small guts and big heads because we could cook food,” says Stephen Pyne, the world’s leading historian of fire. “We went to the top of the food chain because we could cook landscapes. And we have become a geologic force because our fire technology has so evolved that we have begun to cook the planet.“ The understanding of wildfire as an ecological benefit got its biggest boost from Pyne’s 1982 landmark book, “Fire in America”. Since then he has encompassed the whole of fire history–from analysis of the chemical reaction that “takes apart what photosynthesis puts together” to study of the massive industrialization of combustion in the last two centuries. “The Anthropocene might equally be called the Pyrocene,” he says.
CONTEMPORARY FICTION SET IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND (2023)

On paper, things look fine. Sam Dennon recently inherited significant wealth from his uncle. As a respected architect, Sam spends his days thinking about the family needs and rich lives of his clients. But privately? Even his enduring love of amateur astronomy is on the wane. Sam has built a sustainable-architecture display home for himself but hasn’t yet moved into it, preferring to sleep in his cocoon of a campervan. Although they never announced it publicly, Sam’s wife and business partner ended their marriage years ago due to lack of intimacy, leaving Sam with the sense he is irreparably broken.

Now his beloved uncle has died. An intensifying fear manifests as health anxiety, with night terrors from a half-remembered early childhood event. To assuage the loneliness, Sam embarks on a Personal Happiness Project:

1. Get a pet dog

2. Find a friend. Just one. Not too intense.

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