Mabel Lucie Attwell
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Mabel Lucie Attwell
(1879–1964), English illustrator. Born in London into a large family Attwell started drawing early. By the age of sixteen she found that her drawings of fairies and small children were already salable. Consequently, even though she had enrolled at both the Regent School of Art and Heatherley's School of Art, she had little motivation to continue with a training that seemed to involve no more than copying. Most of her work was done in watercolor and pen and ink.
Attwell's “Chubbies,” the round-bodied, rosy-cheeked toddlers that were her usual subjects, had great appeal and began to appear on cups and plates, reportedly including those used in the nurseries of British royalty. They appeared on calendars, London Underground posters, and thousands of postcards, as well as in books. Attwell was the inventor of fantasy figures she called Boo-boos: these “fairies” mingle freely with children in Attwell's drawings, wearing green pixieish clothing. In 1921 and 1922 she wrote a series of six books about the Boo-boos. Attwell wrote and illustrated her own books, including many annuals, some of them simply called The Mabel Lucie Attwell Annual. Fifty-three annuals were published, some of them posthumously. In spite of her tendency to stick to her toddler stereotype, something about Attwell's illustrations caught the eye of some established authors, who asked her to illustrate their books. J. M. Barrie was one of the most enthusiastic, and Attwell's illustrations for Peter Pan and Wendy (the 1921 edition) show her ability to go beyond her usual style. Attwell also illustrated the queen of Romania's Peeping Pansy (1918), Raphael Tuck's edition of Alice in Wonderland (1910), and many volumes of fairy tales. She considered her best work to be the illustrations to Charles Kingsley's The Water Babies.
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Mabel Lucie Attwell
| Mabel Lucie Attwell | |
|---|---|
| Born | Mabel Lucie Attwell 4 June 1879 Mile End, London, England, UK |
| Died | 5 November 1964 Fowey, Cornwall, England |
| Nationality | English |
| Education | Coopers' Company Regent Street Art School Heatherley Art School |
| Occupation | Author and illustrator |
| Years active | 1900–1962 |
| Employer | Various publishers |
| Known for | Illustrations depicting children |
| Notable work(s) | Peter Pan (1921) Children's books Ephemera (postcards, greeting cards, etc.) |
| Spouse | Harold Cecil Earnshaw (d. 1937) |
| Children | One daughter, Marjorie Two sons |
| Parents | Augustus and Emily Ann Attwell |
Mabel Lucie Attwell (4 June 1879 – 5 November 1964) was a British illustrator. She was known for her cute, nostalgic drawings of children, based on her daughter, Peggy. Her drawings are featured on many postcards, advertisements, posters, books and figurines. In 1908, she married painter and illustrator Harold Cecil Earnshaw and became the mother of one daughter and two sons.
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Contents
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Biography
Atwell was born in Mile End, London, 4 June 1879,[1] the sixth child of butcher Augustus Atwell and his wife Emily Ann. She was educated privately and at the Coopers' Company School and at the Regent Street school. She studied at Heatherley's and St Martin's School of Art, and but left to develop her own interest in imaginary subjects, disliking the emphasis on still-life drawing and classical subjects.[1]
After she sold work to the Tatler and Bystander, she was taken on by the agents Francis and Mills, leading to a long and consistently successful career. In 1908, she married painter and illustrator Harold Cecil Earnshaw (d. 1937) with whom she had a daughter, Marjorie, and two sons. She died at her home in Fowey, Cornwall, in 1964, after which her business was carried on by her daughter, Marjorie.
Works
Mabel Lucie Attwell's initial career was founded on magazine illustration, which she continued throughout her life, but around 1900 she began receiving commissions for book illustration, notably for W & R Chambers and the Raphael House Library of Gift Books. She illustrated children's classics such as Mother Goose (1910), Alice in Wonderland (1911), Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales (1914), The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley (1915), and Peter Pan and Wendy by J.M. Barrie. Attwell contributed illustrations to popular periodicals such as The Tatler, The Bystander, Graphic, and The Illustrated London News. She produced advertising illustrations for clients such as Vim (cleaning product), and illustrated greeting cards as well.[2]
Her early works were somewhat derivative of the style of artists such as her friend Hilda Cowham, Jessie Willcox Smith, John Hassall, and the Heath Robinson brothers. From 1914 onwards, however, she developed her trademark style of sentimentalized rotund cuddly infants, which became ubiquitous across a wide range of markets: cards, calendars, nursery equipment and pictures, crockery and dolls. In 1921, J.M. Barrie personally requested her to illustrate the gift-book edition of Peter Pan. The Lucie Attwell Annual was published from 1922 to 1974, its continuance ten years after her death being made possible by extensive re-use of images, a practice established in 1920s picture books of her work.
Books by Attwell
- The Boo-Boos Series, Valentine, 1921-22.
- Lucie Attwell’s Annual, Partridge, 1922-1926.
- Baby’s Book, Raphael Tuck, 1922.
- Lucie Attwell’s Children’s Book, Dean, 1927-1932.
- Lucie Attwell’s Annual, Dean, 1933-1974.
- Lucie Attwell’s Painting Books, Dean, 1934.
- Lucie Attwell’s Great Big Midget Books, Dean, 1934-35.
- Story Books, Dean, 1943-45.
- Jolly Book, 1953.
- Nursery Rhymes Pop-up Book, 1958.
- Book of Verse, 1960.
- Book of Rhymes, Dean, 1962.
References
- Brian Alderson, "Attwell, Mabel Lucie (1879–1964)", rev. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2007 accessed 2 Dec 2007
- ^ a b Dalby, Richard (1991), The Golden Age of Children's Book Illustration, Gallery Books, pp. 132–3, ISBN 0-8317-3910-X
- ^ Souter, Nick and Tessa (2012). The Illustration Handbook: A guide to the world's greatest illustrators. Oceana. pp. 119. ISBN 978-1-84573-473-2.
External links
- Mabel Lucie Attwell Background
- Women Children's Book Illustrators at Ortakales.com
- Children's Book Illustrators Gallery - Large Archive of Atwell's illustrations
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