Frederick Coykendall

“ Frederick Coykendall’s list,—which does not include occasional drawings,—has been quite stupendous, and it is extraordinary that his spontaneity, fancy and sense of beauty have never become stale. Not only does he always enter completely into the spirit of an author, but his whimsical imagination is always introducing happy original details into his interpretations and adding marginal improvisations. No better examples of sympathetic collaboration by artist and author need be mentioned than Rackham’s drawings for Barrie’s delicious works, or for Washington Irving’s immortal Rip Van Winkle. ”

“ Rackham is happier, however, when he forsakes ordinary human habitations, for the paradise of children or magical realms not meant for mortal feet to tread. He seems to possess the mythopoeic sense of the artists of ancient Hellas, personifying natural forces and creating landscapes which stir our sense of hidden mysteries and suggest weird thoughts. ”

“ In this peaceful spot, far from the more exciting bohemian atmosphere of Chelsea, fragrant with the sweet odours of lilac and laburnum, and at Houghton, Arundel, his country home, he works patiently, like one of those quaint, keen-eyed, good-natured gnomes he loves to draw and which he in many ways resembles. ”

“ Mysterious mountain fastnesses where fearless knights seek adventures, dark defiles where dragons love to hide, spirits armed with a disquieting beauty, wrinkled old crones and many-headed ogres, wizened dwarfs and forbidding spectres with curious shifty eyes, grottoes where the Norns weave, and all the phantasmata of the little Dutch masters, constitute the sombre side of his subject matter. ”

“ The gnarled trunks, tortured and twisted, have a thousand emergent eyes frowning down upon you. The labyrinths of their forked branches are the habitations of bats and disfigured beasts, and they stretch their long-reaching arms amidst the decaying foliage in every direction, like troubling hallucinations. ”

“ As often happens in art schools, the teachings of the master are not as potent or effective as the association of gifted classmates and Rackham feels particularly indebted to Charles Ricketts, who even in those early days was a dominating and inspiring influence, distinguished for his rare taste. ”

“ Being primarily a graphic artist, and not a water colourist like Brabazon or Dodge Macknight, his colour hitherto merely enhanced the beauty of his drawings, and his development as a painter in oils will therefore be followed with special interest. We may even hope that he will not always be forced to exercise his incomparable fancy in an effort to bring an author’s word painting before the vision of a reader. ”

“ N. D. [1907] London, William Heinemann; New York, Doubleday, Page & Co.; Large Paper Edition; 1130 copies for Great Britain and Colonies; bound in white cloth; also a Large Paper Limited Edition for America; published by Doubleday, Page & Co.
The Ingoldsby LegendsThomas Ingoldsby
1907, London, J. M. Dent & Co.; New York, E. P. Dutton & Co.; Large Paper Edition; 560 copies signed by the artist; bound in vellum. [Reprinted from edition of 1898 with added illustrations.]
Fairy TalesThe Brothers Grimm
1907, London, Constable & Co. ”