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exhibition of his work reveals a gradual tendency to make his colours more intense, and we frequently find him accentuating his warm browns and tone of ivory, with slight accents of gay colour. Even his inimitable silhouettes for Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, are cleverly spotted with green or scarlet. When we arrive at his most recent drawings like those for Phillpotts’ Dish of Apples, we find them light and sparkling with passionate rose, glowing greens and primrose yellow. Instead of his early harmony of tone, he now secures a harmony of colour. This fresh note, happily struck in his fine Coming of Spring, will be hailed with delight by all his admirers, and with amazement by the vast group of his indifferent imitators. The favour which most artists enjoy gradually dwindles, and memory must supply them with consolations, but Arthur Rackham’s ardour is still like a flame. His ingenuities and his whimsies are mellower than ever before and the new drawings and paintings, many of which are his choicest works technically and artistically, are bound to enhance his reputation and widen his popularity.
Martin Birnbaum
September, 1922
