My cover for "Oscar Wilde: Stories for Children" was another of my paintings that shows the influence of Edmund Dulac.
So maybe I should have been more understanding when I saw this book cover.
Someone named Owen Cook was credited as the cover artist on this Wordsworth Classics edition of Wilde's fairy tales.
He has taken my inside illustration of the Happy Prince and combined it with the cover image .
The only element which I am happy to ascribe to Owen is his daring use of colour.
When I discovered this I got pretty mad about it, but now I can see the funny side.
The publisher was quite good about owning up and paying compensation. They said that Owen was a student who briefly passed through their design studio.
I've since been told that this is a fairly standard excuse when unethical publishers get caught out ripping people off.
So be warned!
