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Arthur Rackham Born in London, Arthur Rackham began his career selling drawings to newspapers and periodicals. He quickly established himself as an illustrator of boy’s adventure stories, for which he produced fairly uninspiring black and white drawings. In 1905, William Heinmann commissioned him to produce 51 watercolours to illustrate Rip Van Winkle . The book, aimed at the Christmas gift market, was produced in a sumptuous format and its launch coincided with an exhibition selling the watercolours at the Leicester Galleries. Reviews and sales were exceptional, and a new era of book illustration had begun. Arthur Rackham’s career moved onto a totally different plane and over the following decades he worked at an astounding rate, pro- ducing his distinctive illustrations to books ranging from fairy tales to Shakespeare plays; from children’s novels, such a Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland to the works of Dickens, Ibsen and Goldsmith. Rackham was a celebrated artist, whose work was much in demand.
His earnings far exceeded those of his contemporaries, and he had a shrewd eye for ways to maximize his income, for example sell- ing sketches and embellishing books with humorous vignettes. His work is known for its extensive use of humour; his fantastical elfin creatures; the haunting anthropomorphic trees, dainty fairies and his caricatured self-portraits.
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