English illustrator Arthur Rackham was born in Lewisham in 1867, and became one of the leading figures of the Golden Age of book illustration during the Edwardian era. He studied at the Lambeth School of Art, where he was influenced by his fellow student Charles Ricketts.

Rackham joined The Westminster Budget in 1892, and from that time forward he concentrated on the illustration of books, particularly those of a mystical or legendary background. By the turn of the century, he had developed a reputation for pen and ink imaginative artwork with books such as The Ingoldsby Legends, Gulliver's Travels and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, while in the early 1900s colour printing first enabled him to use subtle watercolour tints.

Illustrating fairy tales, fables, Arthurian romances, Shakespeare and magical stories, Rackham created a world that was half reassuring and half frightening; richly detailed, Gothic and unsettling, but undeniably beautiful.

To view a selection of the hundreds of Rackham images we have at Mary Evans, please click here, and do get in touch either by email at pictures@maryevans.com or by telephone on 020 8318 0034 with any queries or for a quote.