#arthur rackham

[vintagerpg]

Seems strange that I’ve not written about any of the artists associated with the Golden Age of Illustration, considering how foundational they are to our concept of fantasy as a genre (which didn’t really exist, per se, until the ’70s). The period began around 1890, fueled by new printing techniques and a demand for beautiful storybooks to be given as Christmas gifts, and ended with the Great War (this is really a commercial market designation, as most of the illustrators continuing to produce work well after the war).

The artist probably most associated with the Golden Age is assuredly Arthur Rackham. And he’s great! David Larkin’s Arthur Rackham (1975) is an excellent overview of the artist’s entire body of work (which get’s increasingly realistic over time). His style of figure poses, the rich textures of his watercolor backgrounds and his whimsy all reverberate in the work of other artists of the period. He had a great talent for depicting faeries and giants in a believable rural setting. The image of the fairy ring is probably one of his most famous, but the two-headed Welsh giant is a personal fave. He wasn’t really one for monsters — odd looking people, sure, animals, sure, combinations of the two, sure, but aside of that excellent Chimera and the occasional dragon, I can’t really think of any other Rackham beasties.

He’s an obvious influence on Tony DiTerlizzi’s work — some of TD’s later Planescape illustrations really experiment in the deep, textured watercolors of Rackham’s landscapes. I think folks would say he’s an influence on Charles Vess, too, and I don’t disagree, really, but I think Nielsen and Dulac more strongly inform his work.

Oh, I will say, I find most of Rackham’s children extremely creepy and doll-like. They look like they bite. Maybe they’re the monsters!

[illustratus]

Brünnhilde the Valkyrie by Arthur Rackham

[enchantedbook]

'Stories of King Arthur' illustrated by Arthur Rackham, 1902.

[adeliuna]

The Sleeping Beauty by Arthur Rackham.

[venustapolis]

Fall of the House of Usher - Illustration from Poe's Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Arthur Rackham, 1935)

[alifeoffairytales]

Details from Arthur Rackham’s illustration "And now they never meet in grove or green," (1908) from A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare

[mysterious-secret-garden]

Arthur Rackham - The Maiden fetched the magic wand, and then she took her step-sisters head, and dropped three drops of blood from it, from 'The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm', pub. 1909.

[dreamsrecurring]

[lionofchaeronea]

How Sir Launcelot fought with a fiendly dragon, illustration by Arthur Rackham from The Romance of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table, adapted from Sir Thomas Malory by Alfred W. Pollard and published by Macmillan in 1917

[thefaeriefolk]

[lepetitdragonvert]

COMUS par John Milton

1921/24

Paris : Librairie Hachette

Artist : Arthur Rackham

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Rip Van Winkle - art by Arthur Rackham (1904, 1905)

[illustratus]

Andromeda by Arthur Rackham

[enchantedbook]

'A Midsummer Night's Dream' illustrated by Arthur Rackham, 1909

[michaelmoonsbookshop]

Arthur Rackham design endpapers Ingoldsby Legends

[thefugitivesaint]

Arthur Rackham (1867-1939), 'Thyl Ulenspiegel and The Seven', ''The Allies Fairy Book'', 1916 Source