Monday 19 September 2022

Arthur Rackham : The Beloved Enchanter (19 September 1867 – 6 September 1939)


                                                              Self Portrait, 1934

Arthur Rackham, nicknamed  ' the beloved enchanter’, who is best known for his for his lush, detailed illustrations depicting the mystical world of fantasy and fairy tales, was born in, Lambeth. London on September 19, 1867.as one of twelve siblings, the third surviving child of Annie and Alfred Rackham.
After a brief sojourn in Australia due to poor health, he spent his early education at the prestigious City of London School. Rackham won a couple of prizes for drawing during his school days, but showed little of the imaginative genius which marked his adult artwork.
From a solidly middle-class family, Rackham was not encouraged to go into art and he embarked on an artist’s career tentatively by working as a clerk during the day and devoting himself to artistic study in the evening at the Lambeth School of Art. However, by 1892 he was ready to leave his office job to become a reporter and illustrator for The Westminster Budget. Rackham recalled this has one of his most trying periods as an artist, ‘distasteful hack work’ as he described it. but the work served as additional training and he continued to hone his craft. 
During this period Rackham contributed occasional illustrations to magazines such as Scraps and Chums, efforts decidedly indicative of an artist in search of a style.  His first book illustrations were for To the Other Side, a travel guide and now particularly rare book, and the Dolly Dialogues; published in 1893 and 1894 respectively.
These publications marked the beginning of Arthur Rackham’s long and illustrious career as .one of the leading artists of the Golden Age of Illustration: a period of time spanning from about the 1880s to the 1920s,  and is widely acknowledged as one of the most iconic fantasy artists who ever lived. It was in this period that in 1898 over a garden wall  that  Rackham met the Irish  portrait painter and sculpter  Edith Starkie.  She was to be ‘his most stimulating, severest critic’ and future wife, Starkie helped Rackham expand his artistic range; moving away from simpler techniques of pure line drawing, towards intricate washes of colour.
This shift could not have come at a more fortuitous moment, as technological advances in the printing process meant that Rackham’s images could be photo-mechanically reproduced, thus removing the traditional middle-man of the engraver. This allowed Rackham to display his talent for line as well as his expert appreciation of the three-colour printing process; producing the luxurious colours and lavish details which made his reputation.  The images were then pasted (‘tipped in’) after the final book was printed, and whilst this was quite an expensive process, the results helped create the new ‘gift book’ market.
In 1903 after he marred Edyth Starkie she encouraged him to indulge his fancy for fantastical scenes of fairies and elves. The couple had a daughter, Barbara, in 1908. Rackham cemented his position  as one of the preeminent illustrators of his day for his illustrations for The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm.This book featured ninety-nine black-and-white drawings with a color frontispiece. Two new editions were issued within ten years of the original, with new and edited illustrations by Rackham in each. 


Largely influenced by Aubrey Beardsley, George Cruikshank, Randolph Caldecott, and Richard Doyle during the beginning and height of his career, Rackham’s style remained unique and set him apart from contemporaries and competitors.
Rip van Winkle, published in 1905 contained fifty-one colour plates – all drawn by Arthur Rackham, firmly establishing him as the ‘leading decorative illustrator of the Edwardian period.’ Rackham created each plate by first painstakingly drawing his subject in a sinuous pencil line before applying an ink layer. He then used layer upon layer of delicate watercolours, reminiscent of the Art Nouveaux style, to build up the romantic yet calmly ethereal results on which his reputation was constructed. Most recognisable, in retrospect, is the good natured calmness of the drawings, conveying a non-threatening yet exciting thrill to their audience.
 Another practice established with Rip Van Winkle was for Rackham to promote each book with an exhibition at the Leicester Galleries in London. J,M Barrie attended this display, and was so impressed by Rackham’s work that he asked him to illustrate Peter Pan in Kensington  Gardens. 


This was to be Rackham’s next commercial success, becoming the ‘outstanding Christmas gift-book of 1906’ and of course, one of the most beloved children’s books of all time.  He followed it up with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 1907.which proved to be much more controversial because of the already beloved version illustrated by John Tenniel. Nonetheless, Rackham’s watercolors for Lewis Carroll’s beloved story were largely a success, because by this point Rackham was at his artistic peak.




 Around this time he being  offered so many commissions that he frequently had to decline. The decision he most regretted was failing to illustrate the first edition of Kenneth Grahame's  classic story, the Wind in the Willows, turned down in order to complete A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The Shakespearean drawings were a great accomplishment though, stunning pieces of work  and imagination. .




Published in 1908, the ‘Arthur Rackham Fairies’ are some of his best-known work, with his ‘gnarled trees and droves of fairies… representing the visual reality of the Dream for thousands of readers.’  Fairies were deeply popular during Rackham' time, despite the allure  for these mystical creatures waning over the years there has been a rsuranabe in popularity. 





This publication was followed in rapid succession by three other books for adults; Undine (1909) The Rhinegold and the Valkyrie (1910) and Siegfried and the Twilight of the Gods (1911).  Many suggest that Rackham’s finest illustrations can be found in these dramas.




Despite his financial and professional success, Rackham never lost his quiet and unassuming  manner, his love for magic, or his appeal to children.He firmly believed that children would benefit from the imaginative, the fantastic, and the playful, and he shwed the greatest respect for his child audience in all his works. 
The demand for gift books and scenes of fantasy was much affected by the grim realities of the war. After WWI, Rackham’s fame, however, still garnered him lots of work unlike many other great illustrators of his day and Rackham started producing work for the American market, illustrating a variety of books including, Where the Blue Begins by Christopher Morley (1925), Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1928), and Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1935).
The 1930s were trying for the Rackhams as Edyth’s health declined and shortly after, Rackham himself began to have health problems. Despite these trials, Rackham continued to produce numerous illustrations, both for reissued deluxe editions of his books, and additional commissions. Deluxe editions of classics such as The Night Before Christmas (1931), Fairy Tales by Hans Andersen (1932), Goblin Market (1933), and The Arthur Rackham Fairy Book (1933) were released throughout the early 1930s. Rackham’s illustrations for Fairy Tales by Hans Andersen were especially successful, and the work was named the best picture book of the year by Hugh Walpole for The Observer in 1932. By 1936, exhibitions of Rackham’s work took place all over the world, though by now he was suffering from chronic illness and was unable to produce the magnitude of work he once had.
After Rackham had unfortunately declined to illustrate the Wind in the Willows, he was given a final chance in his twilight years. Taking up the offer with relish, Rackham experienced great difficulty in completing the work; exhausted and in failing health,  he insisted that every detail must be right, down to the last oars in Rattie’s boat. In  final triumph with great labour he worked and reworked the drawings to his eventual satisfaction.  The end result was a masterpiece of children’s illustration and a beautiful reminder of the innocence and sensibilities of the Victorian age.


.His illustration to when Mole and Rattie meet the horned God Pan  in my favorite  chapter of the book The Piper at the  Gates of Dawn is utterly  gorgeous.  


The Wind in the Willows was Rackham’s last completed illustrated work before he died on September 6, 1939. from cancer in in his home at Stilegate.Limpsfield, Surrey on September 6, 1939, just before his seventy-second birthday.  
His now iconic illustrations are chilling, bewitching and  continue to provide a colourful contrast to the dark winter months ahead.and his  pictures are evocative of an age when fairy tales seemed real and people believed in the magical past.Highlighting where the magical world overlaps – often subtly – with our own, Rackham’s art reveals dreamlike realms where all manner of strange and fantastical entities reside. Home to lovely maidens and delicate fairies as well as mythical monsters and surreal beasts, there’s no shortage of unusual characters in Rackham’s gritty fantasy worlds. This, however, only serves to make these worlds more enticing, after all, what’s a fairy tale without a little darkness and danger? 
What I like so much about Arthur Rackham’s illustrations is that, even when separated from the storybooks that inspired them, they still communicate something meaningful and emotional to the viewer.In imagination, draftsmanship and colour-blending, his work has never been surpassed. His deep understanding of the spirit of myth, fable, and folklore seems to have afforded him a transcendent range of deep expression  His richly detailed work remains extremely artistically impressive, and it’s easy to understand why his work continually enchants and delights both young and old in equal measure all these many years later. His palette, his fineness of line, and his exceptional translation of literature to art whose influence on fantasy art and book illustration is still very much apparent today.and he has since been propelled  to the top of the list of the world’s greatest illustrators of all time.His images have been widely used by the greeting card industry and many of his books are still in print or have been recently available in both paperback and hardback editions. His original drawings and paintings are to this day keenly sought at the major international art auction houses. His most lasting legacy, however, is the list of books that he has illustrated, which reads like a Who’s Who of fairy tales, fantasy and children’s stories.
 "For children in their most impressionable years, there is, in fantasy, the highest of stimulating and educational powers."-  Arthur Rackham.
Here are some of his autumn fairies, from Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, 1906.


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