Ichabod Framed

I came upon this framed print of Ichabod Crane at an estate sale this past summer. The person whose estate sale it was had a house filled throughout with shelves of books.

I recognized it as a vintage book plate and was at first was a little perturbed that someone would cut a book plate out.  But damage done, I decided to bring it home. I didn't find any additional plates from the volume, so it may have been bought this way by the home's owner.

The plate is Plate 1 from Volume 1 of "Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama" from 1892 and was painted by Edwin Austin Abbey.

Washington Irving described Ichabod as such:

He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together. His head was small, and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weather-cock perched upon his spindle neck to tell which way the wind blew. To see him striding along the profile of a hill on a windy day, with his clothes bagging and fluttering about him, one might have mistaken him for the genius of famine descending upon the earth, or some scarecrow eloped from a cornfield.

Depending on the source you believe, either  John Quidor or Felix Octavius Carr was the first artist to depict Ichabod Crane.  

John Quidor in his either 1828 or1858 painting "Ichabod Crane Flying from the Headless Horseman".

Or Felix Octavius Carr in his portrait of Ichabod Crane courting Katrina Van Tassel from 1849.

William John Wilgus brought Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman to life in this c. 1855 painting.

Edward Hull illustrated the Headless Horseman pursuing Ichabod Crane sometime before 1875.

This summer I was able to check off one of my bucket list items: visiting Sleepy Hollow, New York.  I went in June, so it wasn't particularly Halloween like, but I enjoyed it greatly and was glad to have the chance to visit the Old Dutch Church and it's graves containing the inspiration for Washington Irving's characters.

The Old Dutch Church

Eleanor Van Tassel, the inspiration for Katrina

Abraham Martling, the inspiration for Brom Bones

The author himself, Washington Irving.

The original bridge has been replaced with a modern concrete version. The original location is not known.

On the same trip, we stayed in Stockbridge, Massachusetts and visited the Norman Rockwell museum.  There I saw Rockwell's own take on Ichabod.

And finally, my first exposure, and therefore favorite, version of Ichabod was done by the animators of Walt Disney's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow".

Conceptial art for the Disney cartoon was done by Mary Blair.

What's your favorite version of Ichabod and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"?