The Golden Age of Illustration (1880s - 1920s) produced some wonderful female artists from England that we're featuring here, starting with Beatrix Potter:
Beatrix Potter
Beatrix Potter (July 8, 1866 - December 22, 1943) was an English illustrator, writer, natural scientist, and conservationist. Her children's books featuring animals, such as The Tale of Peter Rabbit, are what she is best known for.
Growing up, Potter's love of landscape, flora, and fauna, is what led her to develop her talents as a painter. She was thirty years old when she published, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, and after the success of that book, she began writing and illustrating children's books full-time.
Potter wrote about 30 books during her lifetime - 24 of those being children's tales such as The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, The Tale of Tom Kitten, The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck, The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher, and others.
Her charming illustrations were always some of my favorites growing up, and I still have the books I originally read on my bookshelves today. Check out some of her art below:
Her charming illustrations were always some of my favorites growing up, and I still have the books I originally read on my bookshelves today. Check out some of her art below:
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| from The Tale of Tom Kitten 1907 Beatrix Potter |
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| from The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck 1908 Beatrix Potter |
from The Tale of Peter Rabbit 1907
Beatrix Potter
Special thanks to our guest art editor:
Brita Long
Millicent Sowerby
Amy Millicent Sowerby (1878 - 1967) was an English painter and illustrator and was one of the first women to illustrate Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 1907.
Sowerby took some art classes, but was largely self-taught. Her work was initially influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, along with artists such as Thomas Crane and Kate Greenaway.
She is also known for her illustrations for A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1911, her postcards featuring nursery rhymes, children, and Shakespearean scenes, and children's books created with her sister, Githa Sowerby.
Sowerby's art is beautifully fanciful and detail oriented. Check it out below:
Fairy Babies 1910
Millicent Sowerby
Little Bo Peep 1908
Millicent Sowerby
from Alice in Wonderland 1907
Millicent Sowerby
from Alice in Wonderland 1907
Millicent Sowerby
Special thanks to guest art editor:
Stephanie Goloway
and Deby Fredericks
Kate Greenaway
Kate Greenaway (March 17, 1845 - November 6, 1901) was a Victorian children's book illustrator and writer whose work influenced the children's style of the day.
Her first book, Under the Window, was an instant best seller and was followed by other successful books, including Mother Goose (1881) and Little Ann (1883.) She also developed a career as a water-colorist with illustrators Walter Crane and Randolph Caldecott.
Greenaway illustrated over 150 books, and two of them were ones that she both wrote and illustrated: Under the Window and Marigold Garden. By the late nineteenth century, her illustrations of children were so popular that Liberty of London adapted her drawings as designs for actual children's clothes.
Her graceful art evokes a nostalgia to read old nursery rhyme books with a cup of tea on a Sunday afternoon. Check out her lovely art below:
Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes 1910
Kate Greenaway
December 1890
Kate Greenaway
from The Baby's Opera 1877
Kate Greenaway
from Marigold Garden 1885
Kate Greenaway
Special thanks to our guest art editor:
Lissa Sloan
Let us know your favorites in the Comments section below.
Lissa Sloan
Let us know your favorites in the Comments section below.
2 comments:
I appreciate this feature on female artists! I love learning about women in history.
Another interesting article on female artists. My favorite by far is Beatrix Potter, for reasons of her style and sentimental favorite from my childhood reading Peter Rabbit. I loved seeing those illustrations again, and appreciate learning about Sowerby and Greenaway. I recognized their work even if I didn know their names.
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