The Art of Arthur Rackham

The influences of Aubrey Beardsley, George Cruikshank, Randolph Caldecott, and Richard Doyle shaped Arthur Rackham's unique style, that set him apart through his career.as a book illustrator that started in 1893 with a guidebook of Canada and the United States entitled To the Other Side, and later, The Ingoldsby Legends (1898) and Tales from Shakespeare (1899). 

In 1900 his success took off with the publication of The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm,. Then in 1905,  an illustrated version of Rip van Winkle established him as the leading decorative illustrator of the Edwardian period. 

Leicester Galleries, London.also began exhibiting his work, where nearly all of his work from Rip van Winkle sold. This caught the attention of J.M. Barrie who commissioned him to illustrate the first edition of his classic children's tale Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906), then he illustrated Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1907),  this success led to him illustrating; A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1908), Gulliver’s Travels (1909), Undine (1909), Aesop’s Fables (1912), Mother Goose  (1913), A Christmas Carol (1915), The Romance of King Arthur (1917), Cinderella (1919), The Sleeping Beauty (1920), Comus (1921), The Tempest (1926),  and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1928). 

By 1936, exhibitions of his work were taking place across the world. That summer, Rackham was commissioned to illustrate James Stephen’s The Crock of Gold, and The Wind in the Willows, by American publisher George Macy. 

His failing health caused The Wind in the Willows to take three years to complete, and was Rackham’s last work before he died in 1939, and was published in 1940.

After his death The Times described him as “one of the most eminent book illustrators of his day” with “ a special place in the hearts of children.”

Here are some illustrations of his that I really like, and demonstrate his unique illustrative style. 

Norman Rockwell Museum; Arthur Rackham