Fairies, elves, gnomes, goblins, dwarves, invisible and magical creatures of the forest, along with other unusual characters from stories and fairy tales, come to life on paper before the reader’s eyes thanks to the imaginative illustrator and painter Arthur Rackham.
Rackham belonged to the narrow circle of the most significant representatives of the Golden Age of Illustration in England (1880 – 1920), during a time of great popularity of books with drawings of mythical creatures. These small artistic pictures, which were meant to represent only a part of the story, now appear as scattered jewels on rare preserved pages.
Arthur’s story begins in London a few days before the beginning of autumn, on September 19, 1867, when he was born into a large family with eleven brothers and sisters. He learned to read and write at home, and only started school at the age of fourteen, where he immediately began to express his talent for drawing and win his first awards for his artwork. He got a job as a clerk at the Westminster Fire Office, which, among other things, allowed him to pursue his artistic interests in his free time. Financially, he was able to enroll in Lambeth, an art school he attended for about seven years. Even during his education, he participated in art exhibitions such as The Royal Academy, The Royal Watercolour Society, The Royal Society of Portrait Painters, The Art Workers Guild… After completing his studies, he started collaborating with various magazines, creating illustrations that complemented articles on various topics, as photography was still in its early stages of development.
His first job, as a journalist and illustrator, was in the magazine Westminster Budget in 1892, after resigning from his position as a clerk and embarking on the somewhat uncertain artistic path, following his calling and dream. Soon, new challenges and accomplishments arrived, as he began receiving orders and books were published featuring his illustrations. The first one was a travel guide called “To the Other Side” from 1893, with black and white illustrations mainly based on photographs. The second one, slightly more demanding, was a collection of short stories, called “The” The sketch tells the story of Dollini’s dialogues by Anthony Hope from 1894. It is believed that his style first came to light in the illustrations in the book The Zankiwank and the Bletherwitch in 1896, which also opened his path as an illustrator of stories, fairy tales, myths, and other beautiful literature.
He achieved greater success and recognition with the book of fairy tales by the Grimm brothers, which was published in 1900 and is considered a turning point in his work because the illustrations showcased the richness of his artistic potential, the mastery of technique, and the recognizability of his style. Shortly after that book, he illustrated one of his probably most famous books, Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle, with color illustrations, which gained popularity in America and eventually became a trademark of his work.
Writer James Matthew Barrie noticed his drawings at an exhibition at the Leicester Gallery in London and was delighted by them. Their collaboration led to a beautiful literary-pictorial masterpiece of children’s art. In Kensington Gardens in 1906, you find Peter Pan. In the same year, he won a gold medal at the International Exhibition in Milan.
In addition to children’s stories and fairy tales, he began illustrating famous literary classics, the first of which were Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1908, Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué’s Undine in 1909, and Wagner’s Das Rheingold and Die Walküre in 1910, and Siegfried and Götterdämmerung in 1911.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is considered one of his most beautiful achievements, where he fully expressed his great talent, imagination, and suggestiveness. In it, he virtuously depicted the intertwining of two worlds; witfully, with warmth and understanding, he portrayed unusual and sympathetic human characters, and subtly, dreamily, and imaginatively created an unreal world of the fairy forest.
Although this period is considered the pinnacle of his work, he continued to build new worlds of illustrated stories, retaining enthusiasm, freshness, and inspiration in his works. Often, he couldn’t even accept new orders due to high demand. he illustrated over sixty famous and lesser-known works, delving into the world of many significant writers such as Lewis Carroll, H.C. Andersen, E.A. Poe, C. Dickens, Aesop, John Milton, W. Irving, H. Ibsen, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Thomas Malory, Clement Moore, and others, leaving a glittering trace on the pages of books, faithfully depicting the words and the hidden soul of the story.
In his work, he stood out with an abundance of small details that give his paintings and characters convincingness, liveliness, and beauty. His illustrations are filled with a whole spectrum of shades and moods. From bright, tender, airy colors of watercolors that soothe like a spring walk, to melancholic and sometimes dark, autumnal, muted tones that seem to emphasize the mystery and certain apprehension of what is hidden and unknown. The characters are playful, mischievous, and create an impression of constant turmoil in which the story never ends, but continuously unfolds with a multitude of unpredictable twists. When And we pass through his creations, a new space opens up before us on the border between dream and reality, imagination and truth, unfamiliar and familiar. We enter a vast field of possibilities that is hinted at behind skillfully crafted illustrations, or in that place described by J. M. Barrie, the writer whose story of Peter Pan was illustrated by Rackham: “You know that place between sleep and awake, the place where you can still dream…”
The foundation of his artwork was pen and ink. First, he would draw a sketch with a pencil and then go over it with ink. He would shade the color illustrations using watercolor technique, adding subtlety and color to the drawings, following the emerging Art Nouveau style.
He considered his wife Edith, a portrait painter, to be his greatest critic and advisor, as she introduced him to certain secrets of the craft. He occasionally created portraits of his daughter Barbara and self-portraits, which he would sneakily incorporate among depictions of gnomes and fairies in his drawings.
Some of his later works were inspired by Japanese woodblock printing technique.
He painted until his death, using his final moments to complete the well-known work “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame. He had once declined the opportunity to work on that book, so he didn’t want to miss the second chance that came his way. The book was published in 1940, one year after his death.
In his works, he brought to life a rich world of diverse characters, ethereal and whimsical, serious and wise, human and imaginary, unusual, humorous, and seemingly scary, all intertwining in a multitude of stories derived from nature and imagination. It is a world that reminds us of the vitality of everything that surrounds us, much more dynamic than it may seem at first glance.
He left a significant influence on the art of illustration. He inspired many famous artists and their works, as he continues to do so today. Although his paintings and drawings are not entirely aimed at children, they invite everyone to immerse themselves in the world of imagination and symbols that reside around and within us.
ija Pulja