RACKHAM & NIELSEN
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THE GOLDEN AGE OF BOOK ILLUSTRATION
The early years of the twentieth century heralded a new era of book illustration, referred to as the "Golden Age of Book Illustration". The development of photomechanical line block printing and the use of the three-color printing processes gave publishers the opportunity to produce lavish colour illustrated books of great quality for a modest cost, books of the like we are unlikely to see published again. These books were published in the most part by Hodder & Stoughton and William Heinemann and were distributed as 'Signed Limited Editions' with fine leather bindings and subsequently reprinted as 'Cheap Editions' both editions included beautiful reproductions of the Illustrators artwork. The release of these books usually coincided with an exhibition of the original artwork at galleries in London, often the Leicester Galleries.
The artists at the forefront of these Illustrations were: Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac & Kay Nielsen.
Arthur Rackham was born in England in 1867, the fourth of twelve children, his love of drawing and dedication to it got him through eight long years working as a clerk whilst studying evenings at the Lambeth School of Art. He painted in watercolour and his passion was certainly for line and form, this lead to its application for fairytale drawings and capturing the mystical worlds of fantasy. His world was mysterious and ethereal, populated by fairies, goblins and elves surrounded and immersed in a background of tendrils, magical forms and mushrooms. The books illustrated by Arthur Rackham were numerous, but he will be best remembered for one of his earliest commissions of "The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm" and the children’s classic "Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens".
Edmund Dulac was born in France in 1882, in Toulouse, similarly to Rackham his parents thought it unthinkable that he should make a career as an artist, so studied evening classes in art in the mean time studying law by day. He achieved his break when Rackham had just published "Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens" and subsequently had a highly successful exhibition at the Leciester Galleries; Edmund Dulac presented the directors with his portfolio and made him an immediate offer to illustrate the stories from the "Arabian Night"s. Dulac was also a watercolour artist, but his style quite different to that of Rackham, he was fascinated by color and above all with pigment and pattern - his style of painting, inspired by Eastern tradition, was drawn to mysticism and the occult, this lent itself to titles such as the "Arabian Nights" and "The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam". In the years that followed up to the first world war he produced a gift book a year and was one of the highest paid illustrators of the time. None will be remembered more than the children’s classic of Sleeping Beauty in 1910.
Kay Nielsen was born in Denmark in 1886, born to prosperous parents both in eminent positions in the Danish theatre. Nielsen studies in art were immersed in the fashion of Art Nouveau, with the line art of Aubrey Beardsley being of particular interest to him and a love for oriental imagery; thus his style developed using similar ideas of asymmetrical composition, flattened perspective, vacant areas and sinuous line work. He arrived in England in 1912, by this time both Dulac and Rackham were already famous illustrators, although they had only been published for a few years, his works displayed at the Dowdeswell Galleries were received with enthusiasm and hence not long afer the Leicester Galleries approached him. Although he only published five books he is considered the third great illustrator of this Golden era of book illustration. His most famous book is "East of the Sun and West of the Moon", first published in 1914 by Hodder & Soughton. Sadly for Nielsen his successful career as an illustrator commenced towards the end of this era of deluxe book production, which had all but vanished post world war one.
