Other Fairy Artists from the 1900’s

I thought I would list some of the other fairy artists from the later 1800’s and early to mid 1900’s, contemporaries of Ida Outhwaite. These artists all influenced each other, and other lessor known artists of the times. These are brief introductions, with links to expanded information which can be followed if any particular artist catches your fancy. This list only covers some of the primary, most recognized artists. For a larger list of children’s books or fairy tale artists from the times, Wikipedia, List of 20th Center Fairy Tale Artists.

Mary Cicely Barker (1895 – 1973) was an author, illustrator and artist, best known for her ‘Flower Fairies‘ paintings and illustrations starting during the 1920’s and later published in a series of books from 1923 – 1985. Her imagery, like Outhwaite was well received due to the huge popular interest in fairies in England and elsewhere, with even Queen Mary sending postcards of fairies to her royal friends. She always used live models for her paintings, usually children from her sister’s kindergarten or close family members and friends, which she had stand holding flowers or plants for each pose. You can see more of her imagery from her first 1923 ‘Flower Fairies of the Spring’ book at https://www.printspast.com/flower-fairy-prints-spring.htm. Sadly, she claimed while she had accurately painted or illustrated all of her plants and flowers, she had never seen a fairy.

Arthur Rackam (1867 – 1939) was an English artist, and is considered one of the leading figures of story book illustrations, described by one source ‘Mr. Rackham stands apart from all the other illustrators of the day; his genius is so thoroughly original’‘. Like Outhwaite he relied heavily on pen and ink drawings, then working with watercolors to create his finished works. He illustrated a wide range of material for children’s books, and a fair number of fairies in the midst. Below is a small gallery of some of his fairies or fairy-esque work. Here also is a link to another fairy friend website, Fairest.com, The Fairy Investigation Society.

John Bauer (1882 – 1918) was a Swedish artist and illustrator. He is best known for his illustrations of trolls, gnomes and other images of Swedish fairytale settings and mythology. His best known works were done in watercolor, capturing the deep shadows an enhanced lights of the Swedish landscape, nature and folklore. He is best known for his illustrations in a series of books from about 1910 – 1915, ‘Among Gnomes and Trolls’, illustrated stories from prominent Swedish authors, which sold well at the time due to his artwork. Tragically he died with his wife and young son in a shipping accident, 1918.

Bauer’s work is similar to Outhwaite in the growing appreciation of his work. He himself did not consider the paintings he did for the ‘Among Gnomes and Trolls’ series to be much other than children’s pictures, but time and history has proved otherwise, as now his paintings are considered amongst the classics in fairy tales, and to me are simply the finest of art.

Margaret Tarrant (1888 – 1959) was an English illustrator, artist who created her body of work from about 1908 until the early 1950’s. Interestingly enough, she was born the same year as Outhwaite and died a year before Outhwaite. Her work also was very similar in spirit to Outhwaite’s work, perhaps on a somewhat lighter scale, but capturing the carefree and playful world of young adolescence much like Outhwaite. She illustrated some 15 or more children’s books, and her images were printed as postcards during the length of her career, and very popular. Of all the contemporaries of Ida Outhwaite, Tarrant’s life and work was the closest in similarity in terms of time, artwork, publishing and peak popularity during the 1920’s and 30’s, and continuing popularity today.

There are a number of other contemporaries of Outhwaite that while not focusing on fairies, did illustrate or paint fairies or fairy-esque settings as part of their overall work. These would include well known names such as Edmund Dulac (1882 – 1953), Warwick Goble (1862 – 1943), Dorothy Lathrop (1919 – 1967), Sulamiht Wolfing (1901 – 1989) and some lesser known artists such as Sybil Barham, Molly Brett, Alice Polson and others, many and more. Below is a random collection of fairy images from those artists. Also you can visit Art Passions for more images and information.