The Golden Age of Children's Book Illustration

Kay Nielsen

The origins of what has come to be known as The Golden Age of children's book illustration can be traced back to the work of George Cruikshank, now recognized as the first artist to set a standard and form in children's book illustration. Working in the early part of the 19the century, he laid the framework for the great flowering of the illustrator's art that began in the mid-19th century. 

George Cruikshank

With these illustrators, nursery rhymes, fairy tales, animal stories and children's picture books entered upon a new and 'modern' era of artistic refinement. 

W. Heath Robinson

The last years of the 19th century saw a great awakening of interest in folk tales from all parts of the world. The revival in the appreciation of old fairy tales and children's stories coincided with the threat to traditional cultures posed by the advance of he industrial world. The incredible wealth of talent contributing to book illustration resulted in innumerable fine drawings and paintings combining fantasy, humor and sheer beauty. The array of illustrated book cover designs from the era, richly adorned and gilded, have never been equaled. 

Edmund Dulac

 Although the overall quality of book production never recovered its former grandeur 

after the First World War, Arthur Rackham and many of his younger contemporaries helped to sustain the Golden Age during the 1920s and 1930s.

Arthur Rackham

The death of Rackham 
and the appearance of his 
last illustrated book, 

The Wind in the Willows coincided with the Start 
of the Second World War, which

 marked the final end of the Golden Age.

 

-The Golden Age of Children's Book Illustration by Richard Dalby-