“They crowded round him, eyeing him from head to foot with great curiosity.”
©Public Domain
Arthur Rackham’s illustrations for Rip van Winkle were the first major works of his career as a book illustrator, and established Rackham as “the leading decorative illustrator of the Edwardian period.”1 These illustrations were the first of many to be displayed at Leicester Galleries in London, an opportunity which both allowed Rackham to earn extra money from the sale of his prints, and also “established illustration as a notable work of art in its own right rather than mere adornment of a literary masterpiece.”2
1. Derek Hudson, Arthur Rackham: His Life and Work (London: Heinemann, 1960), 57.
2. Popova, Maria. “How Arthur Rackham’s 1907 Drawings for Alice in Wonderland Revolutionized the Carroll Classic, the Technology of Book Art, and the Economics of Illustration,” BrainPickings. https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/02/01/arthur-rackham-alice-in-wonderland/.
