Derek Hudson

“ You are full of enthusiasm & feel good for anything – that’s the best possible start but it will not be until you are much older & your art very fully developed technically that you can estimate your true powers. ”

“ And without a full, general art education you can hardly tell yet in what line you are likely to succeed. For the rest, you must keep yourself fit. You say you find it a strain – well you must do the best you can by sharing your spare time between art study & exercise & other recreations. ”

“ His first crude published drawings had appeared in Scraps of 4th October 1884, illustrating the thesis: ‘Mothers in Ceylon have a curious way of preventing their children from eating too much. A fine thread is tied round the child before it commences its meal, and when the thread breaks, the child is considered to have had enough.’ Rackham demonstrated this with the minimum of subtlety. ”

“ As you say you appear to be in much the same case as myself in having to go out into the world & earn your living at the age of 17; (and for the next seven years or so I worked as hard as I could out of business hours (9–5) to equip my self as an artist – not being able to embark on a professional career till was nearly 25, & then for many years getting the barest living from my profession & having to do much distasteful hack work.) ”

“ The standard of work that ensures a successful professional career is now technically very high and nothing but years of determined study can equip you for equal competition with the rest in the field. ”

“ Rackham provided admirable new frontispieces for both books and worked on many of the old colour plates. The 1907 Ingoldsby, in its vellum-bound limited edition, is valued by collectors, but the book as a whole lacks consistency of vision. Authentic Rackham is to be found in the frontispiece and occasionally elsewhere, but might seem to have been imposed on a medley borrowed from Beardsley, Hugh Thomson and the monkish slapstick of John Hassall. By 1907 Rackham had not only outdistanced his own earlier self but had also outgrown the coarse humours of Barham. ”

“ More interesting than any of these early efforts were Rackham’s four halftone illustrations and cover design for the first edition in book form of The Dolly Dialogues by Anthony Hope (1894) which had originally appeared without illustrations in the Westminster Gazette. These drawings, stilted as they were – the cover design (see page 41) is the best of them, being in the Beggarstaff manner – served to link Rackham’s name for the first time with a work of literary merit. Soon afterwards came drawings for Washington Irving’s The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. ”

“ But for your comfort I may say that I believe the brain goes on developing on artistic lines in an enthusiastic nature almost as quickly in spite of the shorter time given to actual performance. ‘Then in 5 or 6 years you may find that your proved ability justifies you in joining the ranks of professional artists. ”

“ The larger format of the Westminster Budget gave him new scope; his drawings of well-known contemporaries became a popular feature, and in retrospect form a remarkable record of life in the ’nineties. Ready to go anywhere and
‘With this ring I thee wed’: The Duke puts on the ring. Westminster Budget, 7 July 1893 (from a reproduction) .
The Patient. Westminster Budget, 15 June 1894 (from a reproduction) .
anything for his paper, Rackham portrayed many of the leading actresses, sportsmen, writers, and politicians of the day. The Queen and Mr Gladstone were among his most frequent subjects. ”