A (New-to-Me) Rackham

Arthur Rackham. From Poor Cecco, by Margery Williams

I've studied Rackham's work since I was 16, and I'm not alone in the fascination--

his work is everywhere on the internet, and rightly so.

Many of his images are reproduced over and over, and I sometimes have to force myself to study those with fresh eyes in order to re-appreciate them. That's always worth the effort, because those pieces have become classics for a reason. 

When I find one I hadn't previously seen though--what a pleasure! This one, from 1925, is more colorful than many of his works. There's a lot to check out here--the use of the black silhouette, the wooden dog and crate which keep the eye from wandering out the corners of the page, and the sweet watercolor work on the up-turned bottle. But I most love his use of the faded characters in the background. The delicate greys and those spider-webby ink-lines are pure genius.

Thanks for the visit!