Women Illustrators of the Golden Age

by Mary Carolyn Waldrep (Editor)

Overview

At the turn of the twentieth century, the demand for magazine and book illustrations was at an all-time high, offering women artists an unprecedented number of professional opportunities. This unique anthology features 120 color and black-and-white artworks by the Golden Age of Illustration's finest female illustrators, including Beatrix Potter, Kate Greenaway, and Jessie Willcox Smith.
A career in illustration represented an ideal opportunity for women in post-Victorian society. Every well-bred girl was schooled in the arts of sketching and drawing, and by working at home, a woman's modesty could remain uncompromised. Successful competition in a world dominated by male artists, however, called for determination as well as talent. This compilation celebrates the accomplishments of twenty-two female illustrators, including Elenore Abbott, Mabel Lucie Attwell, Elizabeth Shippen Green, Ruth Mary Hallock, Jessie Marion King, Dorothy Lathrop, Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, Margaret Winifred Tarrant, and others.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780486472522
Publisher:	Dover Publications
Publication date:	06/17/2010
Series:	Dover Fine Art, History of Art Series
Edition description:	Green ed.
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	8.30(w) x 10.90(h) x 0.30(d)

Read an Excerpt

By a Woman's Hand

Illustrators of the Golden Age

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By Mary Carolyn Waldrep

Dover Publications, Inc.

Copyright © 2010 Dover Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-486-13188-7

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CHAPTER 1

Kate Greenaway

1846–1901

One of the first women to earn a living as an illustrator, Kate Greenaway was born in London. Her father was a wood engraver, and she studied art at the National Art Training School, Heatherley's School of Fine Art, and the Slade School. She did a great deal of magazine work in the 1870s, several books for the publishers, Griffith and Farran, as well as books, greeting cards, and calendars for Marcus Ward.

In 1877, her father showed her sketches and verses to Edmund Evans, who, in association with George Routledge, published them as Under the Window in time for Christmas, 1878. The book was an immediate success. Taking the past as her inspiration, Greenaway created a idealized vision of childhood that captured the imagination of the public. By the mid-1880s, she was at the height of her success and Greenaway dolls, wallpaper, fabrics, christening sets, fashions, and other items were manufactured at home in England and abroad.

CHAPTER 2

Florence Harrison

Active 1887–1937

Florence Harrison is best known for her work for the Scottish publishing firm of Blackie and Sons for whom she illustrated some fifty books. When she began her association with the firm, she incorporated elements of the Glasgow decorative style into her own Pre-Raphaelite work.

Harrison was the first woman to illustrate a commercial edition of Christina Rossetti's work. Living in Chelsea in London when she received the commission, she was commissioned to produce twenty-four full-page color plates, forty-eight full-page black-and-white plates, 120 headpieces and incidental pieces, and a cover. After two years of work, she produced thirty-six color plates and thirty-six black-and-white plates.

Little is known about her personal life, although she is known to have exhibited at the Royal Gallery in London from 1887-1891. Until recently, she was believed to be Emma Florence Harrison, who studied painting at the Glasgow School of Art, but recent evidence discovered by Mary Rosalind Jacobs of England suggests that she was an Australian artist named Florence Susan Harrison.

CHAPTER 3

Beatrix Potter

1866–1943

Beatrix Potter, an only child, was born in Kensington in London. From an early age, she loved painting and drawing, particularly animals and plants.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit, complete with pen-and-ink drawings, first appeared in a letter to a friend. In 1901, unable to find a publisher for the work, she redrew Peter Rabbit and printed 250 black-and-white copies privately. A second edition, with a slightly amended text, appeared a few months later. The publishing firm of Frederick Warne became interested in the book, and released a color edition in 1902. Over 50,000 copies were sold within a year. By 1913, she had produced eighteen books.

CHAPTER 4

Helen Stratton

Active 1892–1924

British illustrator Helen Stratton worked primarily with fairy tales and legends. Her bold Art Nouveau style is often compared to that of Arthur Hughes, W. Heath Robinson, and J. D. Batten. She produced at least five editions of Hans Christian Andersen's tales for Blackie and Son between 1896 and 1908, the most notable being the 1899 edition, featuring more than 400 pen-and-ink illustrations.

Other books illustrated by Stratton include 1899's The Arabian Nights Entertainments (on which she collaborated with Robinson and other artists), Grimm's Fairy Tales (1903), George MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin (1911) and The Princess and Curdie (1912).

CHAPTER 5

Elizabeth Shippen Green

1871–1954

One of the most successful illustrators of her time, American artist Elizabeth Shippen Green studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts under Thomas Eakins, Thomas Anshutz, and Robert Vonnoh. She sold her first illustration at age eighteen to the Philadelphia Times, and was working at the Saturday Evening Post and Ladies' Home Journal when she began her studies with Howard Pyle at the Drexel Institute. While at Drexel, she met fellow artists Jessie Willcox Smith and Violet Oakley, with whom she would share a home for fourteen years.

In 1901, Green became the first woman staff artist for Harper's magazine, an association that lasted until 1924. She married artist and educator Huger Elliott in 1911, and moved with him several times as his career dictated. Despite these moves, Green's career never faltered. In fact, she actually produced more art after her marriage than before. Her career spanned over forty years and her work appeared in over thirty books and countless magazines.

CHAPTER 6

Jessie Willcox Smith

1863–1935

American artist Jessie Willcox Smith was destined for a career as a kindergarten teacher when she discovered her artistic talent while chaperoning a friend at an art lesson. In 1884, she entered the School of Design for Women in Philadelphia, concentrating her studies on commercial art. She transferred to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1885, where she studied with Thomas Eakins and Thomas Anschutz. She published her first drawing in St. Nicholas magazine in 1888. She then joined the advertising department of Ladies' Home Journal, where she worked until 1898. In 1894, she joined Howard Pyle's first class at Drexel Institute of Arts and Sciences, where she first met Elizabeth Shippen Green and Violet Oakley, with whom she became lifelong friends.

During her career, she illustrated nearly forty books, including Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses (1905), and Charles Kingsley's The Water Babies (1916), a book that is considered by many to be her masterpiece. She also created numerous advertisements, worked for all of the major periodicals of the day, and accepted private portrait commissions. From 1918 to 1933, her paintings appeared on every cover of Good Housekeeping Magazine, earning her a quarter of a million dollars.

CHAPTER 7

Jessie Marion King

1875–1949

Jessie Marion King entered the Glasgow School of Art in 1891, where she came in contact with the work of Charles Rennie Macintosh and other Arts and Crafts artists. She traveled to France and Italy on a scholarship from the school, and, while in Italy, first encountered the paintings of Botticelli, which were to have a strong influence on her work. Although definitely in the Glasgow style, her delicate pen-and-ink drawings, often with color washes, were highly individual.

In addition to being a talented illustrator, King was an accomplished designer of books, jewelry, textiles, and costume. In 1899 she received a commission from a Berlin department store to design items in the new "Scottish style." In 1902, she received a gold medal for her book design of L'Evangile de l'Enfance in the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Turin. That same year she began teaching book design at the Glasgow School.

She married fellow artist E. A. Taylor in 1908, and moved with him to Paris in 1910, where they ran a studio gallery. They returned to Scotland at the outbreak of World War I and settled in the artist community of Kirkcudbright, where King started a center for women artists.

CHAPTER 8

Elenore Plaisted Abbott

1875–1935

Elenore Plaisted was born in Maine and studied at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and in Paris. She was already an established illustrator when she entered Howard Pyle's class at Drexel Institute in 1899. Her work appeared in Leslie's Monthly Magazine, Scribner's, Saturday Evening Post, Harper's, and other magazines. She illustrated numerous books including Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island (1911) and Kidnapped (1915), Louisa May Alcott's An Old-Fashioned Girl, two volumes of fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen, and her bestknown work, Grimm's Fairy Tales (1920).

She was a member of and exhibited with the Plastic Club of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Water Color Club. She was married to fellow artist C. Yarnall Abbott. In addition to illustration she also did scenic design for what is now the Hedgerow Theatre in Wallingford, Pennsylvania.

CHAPTER 9

Mabel Lucie Attwell

1879–1964

Born in London, Mabel Lucie Attwell studied at both the Regent School of Art and Heatherley's School of Art. She began her professional career at sixteen when she submitted several drawings to an artist's agency in London. Her early career concentrated on magazine work, but by 1900, she had begun to illustrate books. From 1905 to 1913, she illustrated ten books for W. & R. Chambers. One of her most successful books was Alice in Wonderland in 1910 for Raphael Tuck, for whom she also illustrated Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales (1914), and Charles Kingsley's The Water Babies (1916), among others. J. M. Barrie was an admirer of her work, and personally asked her to illustrate Hodder & Stoughton's gift edition of his Peter Pan and Wendy in 1921.

Like many female illustrators, Attwell specialized in drawing children. Her chubby-cheeked toddlers proved extraordinarily popular with the public and she became a household name in the 1920s, '30s, and '40s. In addition to books and magazines, Attwell designed postcards and greeting cards for Valentine & Sons as well as plaques, posters, calendars, tea sets, dolls, figurines, and dozens of other products.

CHAPTER 10

Ida Rentoul Outhwaite

1888–1960

Ida Rentoul Outhwaite was born near Melbourne, Australia. She and her elder sister Annie began contributing stories to local magazines in 1903 and published their first book, Mollie's Bunyip, in 1904 when Ida was just sixteen years old. Her books were among the first children's books to be set in Australia. She married Grenbry Outhwaite in 1909. Much of her success is due to his efforts in managing her career and he wrote the texts for several of her books.

Elves and Fairies (1916), written by Annie and illustrated by Ida, was one of the first color books published in Australia, and the first major Australian gift book to equal the quality of the British deluxe editions.

In 1920, Outhwaite held an exhibition of her work in London, and began her association with the publisher A. & C. Black. Black published five gift book productions of her fairy paintings between 1921 and 1930: The Enchanted Forest (1921), The Little Green Road to Fairyland (1922), The Little Fairy Sister (1923), all with accompanying texts by her sister and husband, and Blossom, and Bunny and Brownie, which Ida wrote herself. The Little Green Road to Fairyland was one of the best-loved Australian children's books from the 1920s through the 1950s.

CHAPTER 11

Ruth Mary Hallock

1876–1945

Ruth Mary Hallock was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, and attended the Art Institute of Chicago. There she studied under Matilda Vanderpool, Frederick W. Freer, and Robert Blum, and was a participant in the school's Ninth Annual Exhibition in March of 1903. By 1904, she had a number of illustrated books to her credit—for example, Stony Lonesome by Arthur J. Russell, The Story of a Short Life by Juliana H. Ewing, and Everyday Essays by Marion Forster Washburne. Much of her work was done for the education market and she contributed illustrations to numerous readers and primers. Although she had an active career through the 1930s, Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses, published in 1919, is her best-known work.

CHAPTER 12

Henriette Willebeek Le Mair

1889–1966

Henriette Willebeek Le Mair was born in Rotterdam to a wealthy family. Her parents were artists and often wrote verses for her to illustrate. Her first book, Première Rondes Enfantines, was published in France in 1904, when she was fifteen. In her early twenties, she opened an art school in her home and many of her students became models for her watercolor drawings.

Beginning in 1911, she published a number of books with the music publishers Augener, including Our Old Nursery Rhymes (1911), Little Songs of Long Ago (1912), The Children's Corner (1914), Little People (1915), and Old Dutch Nursery Rhymes (1917). She also illustrated A Gallery of Children with a text by A. A. Milne in 1925 and Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses in 1926.

Le Mair had a great interest in Eastern philosophy, and she and her husband, Baron van Tuyll van Serooskerken, converted to Sufism in the 1920s.

CHAPTER 13

Margaret Winifred Tarrant

1888–1959

Margaret Tarrant was the daughter of landscape painter and illustrator Percy Tarrant. She followed in her father's footsteps and began illustrating Christmas cards at age eighteen. Her first book commission was Charles Kingsley's The Water Babies in 1908 when she was twenty, and she was already an established illustrator when she began her art studies at Heatherley's School of Art. She illustrated books for a number of different publishers, and also produced postcards, calendars, greeting cards, and prints. Books illustrated by her include Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland (1916), Robert Browning's The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1912), and Harry Golding's Zoo Days (1919). In 1920, she began an association with the Medici Society, for whom she produced a very popular series of flower fairy books.

CHAPTER 14

Margaret Evans Price

1888–1973

Margaret Evans Price was a painter, illustrator, writer, and muralist. She was born in Chicago, but lived most of her life in the eastern United States and Canada. She became interested in art at a very early age and sold her first illustrated story to the Boston Journal in 1900. She attended the Massachusetts Normal Art School and the Boston Academy of Fine Arts, and also studied in France. After she completed her studies, she worked as an illustrator for several magazines in New York City.

She married Irving L. Price in 1909. In 1930 her husband, together with Herman G. Fisher, founded the Fisher-Price Toy Company. Margaret became its first Art Director and designed a line of pull-toys based on characters from her children's books.

Her books include A Visit to Santa Claus (1916), Mother Goose Book of Rhymes (1917), Once Upon a Time (1921), Enchantment Tales for Children (1926), and Goody Naughty Book (1935).

CHAPTER 15

Anne Anderson

1874–1930

Anne Anderson was born in Scotland, but spent much of her childhood in Argentina. During her career, she illustrated over one hundred books as well as designing greeting cards. Both Jessie King and Mabel Lucie Attwell were major influences on her work. She married the painter Alan Wright in 1912 and collaborated on several books with him.

Among the books she illustrated are Aucassin and Nicolette (1911), Old French Nursery Songs (n.d.), the Cosy-Comfy Book (1920), Grimms'Fairy Tales (1922), and The Water Babies (1924).

CHAPTER 16

Clara M. Burd

1873–1933

Clara Burd was born in New York City at the home of her paternal grandparents. She attended the National Academy of Design in New York and, in 1898, went to Paris to continue her studies. When she returned to the United States she studied stained glass design at the Tiffany studios in New York and designed numerous church windows as well as a memorial window for President McKinley.

She is best known for her children's book illustrations, but her work also appeared in the leading magazines of the day, such as Woman's Home Companion, Woman's World, Modern Priscilla, and Literary Digest. Her books include Threads of Grey and Gold (1913), Stories of Great Adventures (1919), Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates (1925), Little Women (1926), The Animal Story Book (1928), and A Child's Garden of Verses (1930).

(Continues...)

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All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents

Contents

Title Page,
Copyright Page,
Publisher's Note,
Bibliography,
Kate Greenaway,
Florence Harrison,
Beatrix Potter,
Helen Stratton,
Elizabeth Shippen Green,
Jessie Willcox Smith,
Jessie Marion King,
Elenore Plaisted Abbott,
Mabel Lucie Attwell,
Ida Rentoul Outhwaite,
Ruth Mary Hallock,
Henriette Willebeek Le Mair,
Margaret Winifred Tarrant,
Margaret Evans Price,
Anne Anderson,
Clara M. Burd,
Blanche Fisher Wright,
Dorothy Pulis Lathrop,
Lois Lenski,
Virginia Frances Sterrett,
Eulalie Bachmann,
Fern Bisel Peat,