Arthur Rackham
Arthur Rackham was a renowned English illustrator born on September 19, 1867, in London. He grew up in a large family and showed artistic talent early on, receiving awards for drawing during his education at the City of London School. His career began in the insurance industry, but he transitioned to illustration in the 1890s, gaining recognition for his unique artistic style, characterized by delicate watercolors, whimsical details, and imaginative portrayals of characters and creatures. Rackham's notable works include illustrations for classic texts such as "Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens," "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," and "The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm." His artistry was influenced by earlier German masters, and he became a prominent figure in the pre-World War I era, receiving accolades and exhibitions in esteemed venues, including the Louvre. He married fellow artist Edyth Starkie, and they had a daughter, Barbara. Despite a decline in popularity after the war, Rackham continued to illustrate until his death on September 6, 1939. His legacy endures through the more than 3,300 illustrations he created, with first editions of his books being highly sought after today.
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Arthur Rackham
Illustrator
- Born: September 19, 1867
- Birthplace: London, England
- Died: September 6, 1939
- Place of death: Limpsfield, Surrey, England
Biography
Arthur Rackham was born on September 19, 1867, in London, England. He was the fourth of the twelve children born to Alfred Thomas and Annie Stevenson Rackham, and grew up in a household that included two of his grandparents. Mr. Rackham was an admiralty marshal at Doctors’ Common Court. Arthur studied at the City of London School, where he received awards for his drawing and in mathematics. He spent six months in Australia before returning to London to become a clerk for the Westminster Fire Office, an insurance company, in 1884.
He studied at the Lambeth School of Art during the night and occasionally sold pieces to magazines such as Scraps and Chums. In 1888, he exhibited a watercolor painting at the Royal Academy. From 1891 to 1892, he was a part-time illustrator for the Pall Mall Budget, and he finally left the insurance company to become a full-time illustrator for the Westminster Budget in 1892.
His first book illustration, of Thomas Rhodes’s To the Other Side, came out in 1893. Rackham finally became a full- time book and magazine illustrator in 1896, using the new halftone printing process. In 1897, he traveled to Bayreuth, Germany, where he attended a performance of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring Des Nibelungen. Years later, he illustrated books based on operas in this cycle.
By the time Rackham produced one color and ninety-nine black- and-white illustrations for the Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm in 1900, he had developed his own unique style, inspired by the sixteenth German artists Albrecht Durer and Albrecht Altdorfer. Characteristics of his style included good-natured humor, curvilinear lines, an eye for detail, delicate watercolors, trees and animals with personalities, sexy, yet virtuous, female characters, and monsters that repulsed without frightening.
Rackham married Edyth Starkie, herself an artist, in 1903, and their daughter Barbara was born in 1908. His professional breakthrough came in 1905 when he produced fifty-one color plates for a new edition of Rip Van Winkle. He followed this with illustrations of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to become one of the most celebrated illustrators of the pre-World War I era.
Rackham was inducted into the Royal Society of the Painters of Watercolors in 1908, won gold medals at the Milan International Exposition in 1906 and the Barcelona International Exposition in 1911, had his work exhibited in the Louvre in 1914, and became a master of the Art Workers’ Guild in 1919. Besides his illustrations of children’s books, he also did Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, and works by Edgar Allan Poe. Although his popularity declined after the war, he continued to work until he died of cancer on September 6, 1939, in Limpsfield, Surrey, England. His last drawings, illustrations for The Wind in the Willows, were published posthumously. During his lifetime, he produced more than thirty-three hundred illustrations for books, and first editions of those books are rare and valuable.