ARTHUR RACKHAM

Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) sits in the upper echelon of children's book illustrators. His ripe imagination and effortless expression created engaging images which delight children and adults alike.  He viewed children with respect and seemed cognisant of the eager minds consuming his pictures:

I can only say that I firmly believe in the greatest stimulating and educative power of imaginative, fantastic, and playful pictures and writings for children in their most impressionable years -- A view that most unfortunately, I consider, has its opponents in these matter of fact days. Children will make no mistakes in the way of confusing the imaginative and symbolic with the actual.  Nor are they at all blind to decorative or arbitrarily designed treatment in art, any more than they are to poetic or rhythmic form in literature.

 

Images from: Meyer, Susan E. A Treasury of the Great Children's Book Illustrators, Abradale Press, New York, 1983