By Becca Crislip
Born in 1867, Arthur Rackham grew up in London as one of twelve children and demonstrated artistic talent from a very young age. At 18 he started working as a clerk for the Westminster Fire Office – to continue his artistic journey, Rackham decided to take night classes at the Lambeth School of Art. Later he began working in tandem with his clerk duties as a part-time staff artist for the newspaper, Westminster Budget (1892-1896). He worked in both ink and watercolor, where his images began to show his focus on detail and shading.
During this time Rackham started illustrating books. His work on the 1900 publication of the Grimm brothers’ Fairy Tales brought him great success and made him a renowned illustrator both nationally and internationally. Rackham went on to illustrate over 60 books. He remains one of the most influential fairytale illustrators of the Victorian Period.
C.S. Evans, The Sleeping Beauty (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, W. Heinemann, 1920)
Courtesy of Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University
PZ8.92
[Sleeping Beauty asleep under the curse of the witch]
The illustration depicts Sleeping Beauty, a princess asleep in her bed after being put under a curse by a wicked fairy who has caused her to sleep for a hundred years. She is named Briar Rose in this story, which symbolizes her delicate nature surrounded by a hedge of thorns.
Rackham’s use of light colors around the princess shows her in an almost ethereal glow while the dark, heavy-handed background shows the true dark setting of the scene. The darkness of the background continues across the princess, trapping her to the bed, possibly to depict the hold of the witch’s curse. A crown is shown on the floor, just out of arm’s reach of the princess. This work is a prime example of Rackham’s renowned watercolor illustrations.
Carol Lewis, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (London: W. Heinemann, 1907)
Courtesy of Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University
PZ8.D666
[Alice stuck in a tree]
The illustration depicting Alice stuck in a tree exemplified Rackham’s signature pen work. Through the use of dark, heavy pen strokes he creates a moody and whimsical scene. Alice is depicted as being consumed from neck to toe by a magical tree in a forest. Heavily shaded branches connect the trees and reach out like limbs. Alice’s head is one of the only parts of the photo drawn simply with little shading.
To create his ink and pen drawings, he first sketched with a soft pencil, then added bold and intricate pen and ink work on top. Rackham was commissioned to work on a controversial reprint (1907) of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by publisher William Helmand. Although many were upset that anyone would try to revise the original version from 1865, the book still proved to be extremely successful.
Georg Barthold, The Greek Heroes (London: Cassell and Company, 1910)
Courtesy of Howard Tilton-Memorial Library, Tulane University
PA363 .N542
”Hercules seized her by the neck, out of which the nine heads grew”
This illustration depicts the famous myth of the Greek demigod, Hercules, cutting off one of the heads of the nine-headed Hydra, the snake-like mythological monster whose heads grow back when they are cut off. Hercules is depicted in a fierce battle with the monster.
Rackham uses bold highlights and deep shading to show the strain of the fight, in both Hercules and the Hydra. Hercules is also shown to be in a bright light while the Hydra is mostly in shadow, possibly to represent the heroism of Hercules and the evil of the Hydra.