Illustrator Research - Arthur Rackham

Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) was an English book illustrator. At the age of 18, he became a clerk and eventually began studying art part-time at the Lambeth School of Art. Rackham's early work showed facility but little else. The humor and romance and soul that were to make him the premier illustrator of the early twentieth century had not manifested themselves yet. When he quit his clerk job and became a reporter for the Westminster Budget, his work showed that he was still trying to find his style. Many of his pieces were quite different from each other, and it was hard to tell that they were done by the same artist. After quite some time, in 1905, his style began to flower when he did an edition of Rip van Winkle by Washington Irving.