Friday, February 2, 2007

Mr. Rackham




I wanted to share with the universe one of my favorite artists. Arthur Rackham was a truly wonderful illustrator. I first discovered his work through an ex-girlfriend. She had a love for Brian Froud which eventually led to a love of fairy paintings and drawings. So every year, I would buy her a "fairy calendar". The calendar I would get her always had a painting or two of Arthur Rackham's. I just love looking at his paintings. I love his color schemes...shades of brown, black, and other more melancholy colors. Almost sepia toned paintings. They always remind me of the classic childrens books and fairy tales; Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, the Brothers Grimm. He did illustrations for all of these books. His paintings are magical in themselves and go well with the above mentioned stories. They are very antiqued looking and a perfect match for what a fairy tale painting should be. Enjoy.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love Arthur Rackham's work. The Mother Goose illustrations are wonderful. My favourites have to be his Alice in Wonderland illustrations though.

jenclair said...

Arthur Rackham's work is, indeed, magical. Love the illustrations you included.

Carl V. Anderson said...

Rackham is indeed fantastic. I have some postcards with his illustrations on them. John Tenniel is my favorite Alice in Wonderland illustrator, but Rackham would be a close second. His work is notably better in detail, etc. but I associate Alice with Tenniel. Great stuff!

chrisa511 said...

Glad to see there are so many other Rackham fans out there, though that's no surprise.

Quixotic, I love his Alice illustrations as well (obviously). Very suiting to the story.

Jenclair, Hi there! Glad you like the illustrations. He is very magical indeed.

Carl, I have to agree with you that I associate Alice with Tenniel, but I have to disagree just a little in that I like Rackhams illustrations better. But of course, Tenniel was a wonderful artist as well.