Arthur Rackham

Self Portrait

BIOGRAPHY:

Known for his ability to capture innocence and soul in his uniquely fantastical art, English artist Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) is considered one of the most prominent illustrators of the Victorian age. He studied at the Lambeth School of Art and in 1892 began working as a reporter and illustrator for the Westminster Budget, a weekly magazine. His first book of illustrations was published in 1893 and was comprised mostly of reused images, works he had created for magazines or other books featuring the work of several illustrators. Through the turn of the century, Rackham provided illustrations for numerous boys books and was a regular contributor to the children’s periodicals Little Folk’s and Cassell’s. However, it was in the 1905 publication of Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle that Rackham’s signature expressive pen and watercolour fantasy illustrations became the object of public praise. His works were displayed in a number of exhibitions including the Louvre in 1914, receiving gold medals at International Exhibitions in Milan (1906) and Barcelona (1912). Up until his death in 1939, Rackham continued to create accompanying illustrations to canonical works of children’s literature like Aesop’s Fables, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare as well as celebrated poetic works like Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market.”

ILLUSTRATION STYLE:

Rackham’s earliest illustrations resemble renderings of drawings on woodcuts, the primary figures drawn in thick pen and brush. As printing techniques improved in the early twentieth century, his line was made more narrow and fine, resembling the aesthetic of his most famous illustrated works. Rackham’s colour illustrations are composed of soft reds, greens or blues and highlighted through several layers of transparent watercolour wash, a technique that could be well replicated in the three-colour separation printing process popular at the end of the nineteenth century.

Rip Van Winkle (1905)