Arthur Rackham prints
Magical art illustrations and biography
from fairy princess to mermaids

Arthur Rackham was a British illustrator and watercolorist who lived in the golden age and illustrated many children's classics.

Many of the children's classics fairy tales Rackham illustrated were the same titles as Edmund Dulac .

He was one of twelve children and he was born in Sept. 19, 1867, London. He started out as a non-fantasy artist and made occasional sales to the illustrated magazines of that time, such as the Scraps and Chums.

He was a clerk at age 18 but he studied at the Lambeth School of Art in his spare time. His early work lacked personal qualities and he had yet to find his own style.

In 1892 he left his work to pursue a career as an illustrator and he eventually specialized in illustrating fantasy. He worked as an artist for a London newspaper and he also began illustrating books.

His first book illustrations were published in 1893 but this was a stage where it would be quite difficult to find any similarities with any of his later work. He improved stylistically and came to produce the most captivating illustrations both delicate and charming.

His work was inspired by the goblins, fairies and weird beasts of folk tales, for books like The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm in 1900 done with pen & ink drawings and Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens in 1906.

In 1907 he also produced work for an edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland from Heinemann and in 1908 - A Midsummer-Night's Dream all of which are masterpieces.

He was very imaginative and by then he was at the peak of his career. Even though it was a time of rapid industrial advance, he kept that cheerful and fanciful approach, especially for children's books, right up until he died in 1939.