Arthur Rackham: Consistent Excellence through the Years

Illustration for the fairytale "Catskin"
by Arthur Rackham

"The most remarkable thing to note is that Arthur Rackham was maintaining such a consistent standard of excellence at the age of sixty-five. His methods had nevertheless undergone a subtle and almost imperceptible change. There was slight tendency away from over-all pre-Raphaelite fidelity to detail, and towards a measure of impressionism, at least in the backgrounds. 

A. S. Hartrick has described a typical example of Rackham’s method in Edwardian days: how he would run a fairly strong tint of raw umber over his pen drawing – except for a few whites when he needed some accents of pure colour in the end. ‘This warm tone he lifted with a wet brush as he went along, working in local colour as wanted, while carefully watching the main gradations – warm to cold, and vice versa.’ It had been a method helpful to reproduction, giving a pleasing general tone ‘like old vellum’, and with variations it had served Rackham well. 

In later years, however, his approach was more flexible and adaptable; a little influence may perhaps be allowed to weakened eyesight; we notice him using cleaner, brighter colours (and his elves and goblins have sharper noses!). Conscious of working for a new generation, Rackham intended to please them as he had pleased their ​fathers. Although he would probably have wished posterity to judge him by books such as 'Rip Van Winkle' and 'Peter Pan,' he was too consistent a craftsman for anyone to be able to speak of a ‘falling-off’ in the high standard he had set himself.

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Arthur Rackham: His Life and His Work" by Derek Hudson.)