THE IMPACT OF 1914
large sale, and at the time of writing are still in print. Unfortunately many of Rackham’s larger volumes published during these years now have to be sought in the second-hand book-sellers’ shops (where they are expensive to buy), among them the delightful Arthur Rackham’s Book of Pictures (1913), which is of particular biographical interest. For the most part this was a collection of unpublished work, though a number of the forty-four coloured illustrations had been previously published in magazines or periodicals, usually as first sketches in black and white. At least one of the water-colours, ‘Elfin Revellers’, which dates from 1900 and suggests the influence of Alma-Tadema, might have been better omitted; but Rackham did well to include several sketches, virtually unaltered, which had originated in the two-hour sessions on Friday evenings at the Langham Sketching Club. A single coloured drawing for one of his books would normally take him several days; but these Langham sketches show how quickly and effectively he could work against the clock when it was necessary for him to do so.
Arthur Rackham’s Book of Pictures brings together a number of drawings unrelated in theme. Most of them, it is true, are drawings of
‘This is the house that Jack built.’ A drawing of 16 Chalcot Gardens, reproduced in Mother Goose, 1913.
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