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Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) 
Professions: Painter; Landscape painter; Illustrator; Water color painter
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RACKHAM, Arthur (1867-1939)
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Arthur Rackham, R.W.S. (1867-1939)
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ARTHUR RACKHAM R.S.W. 1867-1939
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ARTHUR RACKHAM R.S.W. 1867-1939
Biography: Rackham
(b Lewisham, London, 19 Sept 1867; d Limpsfield, Surrey, 6 Sept 1939). English illustrator. While earning his living as a clerk at the Westminster Fire Insurance Office (1885–92), he trained at the Lambeth School of Art under William Llewellyn (1858–1941), later PRA. Rackham gained early experience as an illustrator by working (1892–6) for the Westminster Budget and other popular magazines. He became widely known for his illustrations to the classic children’s stories and fairy tales commissioned primarily by Heinemann Publishers in special editions from 1900 to 1914. Books such as Grimm’s Fairy Tales (1900), his first popular success, and Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906) brought out his gift for characterizing fairies, gnomes and witches. Despite the fantasy of his subjects, Rackham maintained a strict sense of reality by giving his creatures human traits and foibles, and naturalistic, even known, settings. The heyday of the luxuriously printed and illustrated ‘gift book’ at the beginning of the 20th century coincided with Rackham’s greatest achievements as an illustrator.
Grove Art excerpts - Electronic ©2003, Oxford Art Online
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