RACKHAM, Arthur (British, 1867-1939).
Spring.
Watercolor and pencil on paper.
Signed lower left: "Arthur Rackham"
c.1905.
5 6/8” x 8 1/2” sheet; 13 x 17 1/4” framed.

Provenance: Mrs. Lucy Stephens, artist and fellow resident of Primrose Hill Studios (according to a typed label on the frame verso. This picture was obtained from her descendant).

An unpublished allegory of springtime. Notes on the verso give it the title “Spring” and include the address of Primrose Hill Studios where Rackham lived from 1905-1906 and where he later leased studio space.

Born in London, Arthur Rackham took an interest in illustration early on. He studied at the Lambeth School of Art. He began working as an illustrator and reporter for The Westminster Budget in 1892, and by 1893, he was already finding work illustrating books.

Arthur Rackham illustrated over ninety books in his lifetime, primarily classics and fairy tales. In his illustrations, Rackham sought to combine elements from works by Northern Renaissance artists he revered like Albrecht Dürer and Albrecht Altdorfer as well as popular contemporary motifs like that of the Art Nouveau movement.

Among his other famous book illustrations are Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm (1900), Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906), Alice in Wonderland (1907) and The Romance of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table (1917). He won awards at expositions in Milan and Barcelona in his lieftime, and his imaginative works were even exhibited at the Louvre in 1914.