Derek Hudson

“ One does not know which to admire most – the superb artistry of his landscapes, the poetry of the scenes of Rip by the riverside, the charm of his children and fairies, or the grotesque groups of Henrick Hudson and his crew which so long anticipated the art of Walt Disney (see pages 63 and 65) . With Rip Van Winkle he began his fruitful association with the firm of William Heinemann, who issued the book in a limited edition and a trade edition, while American, French, German and other foreign editions were also called for, setting a pattern of publication to be followed for many years. ”

“ But it would be a mistake to suppose that as a young man he was untouched by the appeal of impressionism, for example, or that he fell into his career as an illustrator without any searching of his artistic conscience. In particular, he was well aware that by concentrating on illustration he was limiting his objectives and would be likely to take rank, save for the discriminating few, as a ‘minor artist’. ”

“ Edyth Starkie: a self-portrait in oils, probably aged about 20.
Arthur Rackham: a self-portrait in oils, aged 24.
Although her career was broken by ill-health, she was an artist to be remembered with honour. It will be readily understood, then, how much Rackham owed to his wife, who was married to him at St Mark’s, Hampstead, on 16th July 1903 (she was a lapsed Catholic, the Rackham family were Anglicans turned Unitarians) . His alliance with this gay artistic Irishwoman brought out the best in Rackham ”

“ Amateur theatricals were for many years a persistent interest; in 1900 he played Blore the butler in Pinero’s Dandy Dick, and he also designed the scenery and acted in performances of Gilbert and Sullivan. ”

“ Though he was completely faithful to his authors, there was nothing of slavish pedantry in his interpretations; the personal and imaginative always transcended the literal. A comparison between the first and the last editions of his Grimm emphasizes the remarkable progress that Rackham made in a decade; yet the earlier drawings that he allowed to stand can hold their own with the later ones. A reviewer of the enlarged book in the Westminster Gazette of 1909 enlisted the help of two small boys to make another point that ”