Arthur Rackman: A Leading Illustrator

"Brünnhilde the Valkyrie" by Arthur Rackham 

"On 31st January 1910, the Authors’ Club paid Arthur Rackham the compliment of entertaining him at dinner in Whitehall Court. The occasion served to emphasize his standing as the leading illustrator of the day, and was reported to the extent of a column and a half in the 'Morning Post.' A large gathering applauded his ‘random thoughts of an illustrator’. The artist knew, said Rackham, that ‘for his illustrations to be worth anything he must be regarded as a partner, not as a servant’.

‘…An illustration may legitimately give the artist’s view of the author’s ideas; or it may give his view, his independent view, of the author’s subject. But it must be the artist’s view; any attempt to coerce him into a mere tool in the author’s hands can only result in the most dismal failure. Illustration is as capable of varied appeal as is literature itself; and the only real essential is an association that shall not be at variance or unsympathetic. The illustrator is sometimes expected to say what the author ought to have said or failed to say clearly, to fill up a shortcoming, and not infrequently he has done so. Sometimes he is wanted to add some fresh aspect of interest to a subject which the author has already treated interestingly from his point ​of view, a partnership that has often been productive of good. But the most fascinating form of illustration consists of the expression by the artist of an individual sense of delight or emotion aroused by the accompanying passage of literature.’ 

His work was exhibited almost annually at this time in one or other of the cities of Europe. He won a gold medal in Milan as early as 1906. In 1912 he won a medal at Barcelona and held a special exhibition in Paris of his Wagner drawings at the invitation of the Société Nationale des Beaux Arts, which made him an Associate and awarded him another gold medal. Works by Rackham were acquired for the galleries at Vienna and Barcelona, and for the Luxembourg, Paris. He had admirers from all over the world."

To be continued

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