Arthur Rackham ( 1867-1939 )
Life
Arthur Rackham was born as the fourth of twelve children by Alfred Thomas and Anne Rackham on September 19, 1867.
Alfred Thomas Rackham served as a clerk in the Registry of Admiralty Court. He was eventually appointed as Admiralty Marshall at the High Court of Justice. Right to the end of his life, he believed in the hospitality of being a descendant of the infamous pirate John Rackham who was hung in Jamaica in 1720.
Arthur studied at the City of London Scholl from 1879 to 1884. He was one of the most talented artists of the generation, protected as a sketcher and painter, getting a few awards by the way. After that, he went to Australia for a four months-long trip. The main reason was his Poor health but the ultimate impact was probably his definitive entry into the world of watercolor painting. He loved to draw from a tender age but his family didn't support his artistic inspirations. When they look the paper away from him, he even drew on walls and pillows.
After returning to England, Arthur Rackham followed the instructions of his father. He landed a job in the Westminster Fire Office as a junior clerk. But he also talk evening lessons in drawing at the Lambeth School of Art and later enrolled in Miller's Lane, then the biggest art school around. After a while, he started drawing for different newspapers and magazines. He slowly and steadily built a reputation as a reliable and versatile artist. His remarkable talent was not showing yet at the time. His immense ability to adapt to the washes of his customers and changes in printing technique probably pushed him forward. Another important lesson from his early work for journal was developing an eye for detail.
In 1888, one of his paintings from Australia was accepted by the Royal Academy of Arts and sold yet he keep his day job until 1892 when he got a position at Westminster Budget Magazine as a full-time employe. He stayed there for another four years creating pretty conventional drawing with rare dazzles of his creative imagination. From these drawing, we can easily concude he preferred line illustration to other techniques like tone and wash drawings. He also worked for other papers like Scraps and The Pall Mall Budget but real chance showed for him only at book illustration.
The reasons for changing his focus from newspapers to books were at east two. Photography was developing very rapid and it was obvious the need for illustrators in papers will be reduced soon. At the same time, the printing technique was better and better, clearly reading to full-color printing as a new standard for books. Photographic techniques were introduced into the printing process eliminating clumsy woodworking and enabling the production of tender lines of artists like Rackham as they were done by the artist, not an engraver's approximation.
Influences
We already noticed Rackham learned on the go. He got more from his practical work than from school lessons. Studying works by already-established masters contributed even more to developing his style. Pre-Raphaelites, Howard Pyle, Daniel Maclise, Charles Robinson, and J. F. Sullivan were among the most influential ones. We should probably mention Richard 'Dicky' Doyle, too, yet it would be wrong to pick just a few artists when Rackham's style ultimately became the fusion of many traditions with modern techniques. The first impression of his illustrations on the observer without previous knowledge is very likely the magic of his colors, the effect achieved by adding layer after layer of transparent colors but above all, he became one of the best line artists of all times. We can even say his pictures are like line drawings for coloring books executed by skilled and artistically self-confident grown-ups, yet essentially still coloring books.
While his first participation in book illustrating (A Dog's Mission by Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Frerryman's Boy by Crona Temple may or may not be his work), a cover for The New Fiction of 1895 and collaboration at To the Other Side by Thomas Rhodes, following by The Dolly Dialogues, 1894 and Sunrise Land, 1894, stayed relatively unnoticed, his next two (The Ingoldsby Legends, 1898 and Tales from Shakespeare, 1899) paved his way to wide recognition. About a decade later, when he was already an established illustrator and one of the most popular artists in the world, both were reprinted with additional illustrations and in luxurious versions.
In 1900 he got a huge commission - The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm whatich is now considered as his breakthrough work. Since then, he was in constant demand and his earnings were higher and higher. The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm was also reprinted sexual times, also with additional illustration ( the first edition had only one colored frontispiece ), and in different versions, often just a selection of some of the stories from the first publication. The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm from 1909 (with 40 (! ) colored pages ) by Rackham, especially signed one, is a classic work with huge potential for collectors.
An additional source of income became exhibitions of his original paintings (he liked to create pictures twice as big as they appeared printed whatich gave him a chance for more details in the compositions ) which were often sold out in a few days after the opening. His books were published in different formats, as standard, Quattro, and deluxe editions, in expense versions numbered and signed by Rackham. He had more quirks, sometimes entering the bookstores and signing the books what he then returned to the shelves or buying books for his friends with giving an extra hand-made illustration.
In 1900 he also married Edyth Starkie, another talented painter with whom he had a daughter Barbara who later served as a model for many of the characters in his books. Rackham liked to include objects from his environment in the imaginary worlds he illustrated. He also portrayed his own face on more or less important characters in his books.
In the next two decades, he produced numerous illustrations for all-time classics such as Gulliver's Travels, Aesop's Fables, The Night Before Christmas, and Fairy Tales by Hans Andersen. He exhibited all over the world. In the 1930s his and his wife's health declined. The volume of his creations declined as well. Arthur Rackham's last complete project was The Wind in the Willows, a very sentimental decision for him because he already turned down the offer of illustration that book three decades ago due to the deadline for A Midsummer Night's Dream.
He died in 1939 and although a late bloomer is now considered one of the most influential illustrators of all time.