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of all the criminally neglected
illustrators who featured in this series
i think louis moe has to be one of the
most remarkable
there isn't much biographical
information available but fortunately
there is quite a lot of visual material
he was born in norway in 1857 and in his
teens he left a study at the royal
danish academy of fine arts in
copenhagen
he was there for a total of six years
which he followed up with another two in
1882
with the respected danish painter loris
tucson
and by this point moe was becoming
established as an artist in his own
right
he decided to stay in denmark and he
lived and worked there for the rest of
his life
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in 1890 at the age of 33 he branched out
into illustration
and created a series of remarkable
monochrome drawings for publication in
danish textbooks
with these meticulous dramatic images he
brought to life scandinavian history and
nordic mythology
and the complex scenes he produced
firmly established his reputation for
illustrative work
around the same time he was also
creating other more playful work aimed
at younger readers
this was most frequently created in
color and was engagingly frivolous in
nature
and in the years that followed it was
this aspect of his output which came to
dominate the commissions he undertook
from this point onwards he divided his
creative energies
between his art and his children's book
work both of which were enduringly
successful
at least in scandinavian countries
in his technical approach to
illustration there was nothing out of
the ordinary about his choice of media
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he used pen and ink to create finely
rendered expressive line work
some of which was reproduced as
monochrome
and when it came to color he again drew
with pen
but kept most of the modeling for his
application of tonal watercolour washes
but if the method was commonplace the
results were anything
but the images he created are surely
among the finest of their kind
and it's truly baffling that mo is
nothing like as well remembered as he
should be
among many successful picture books in
1921
he illustrated peter croak and this
remarkably engaging and visually
pleasing woodland tale
sold well enough to justify translation
and publication
in the coming years in other countries
including the usa
in his ongoing career as an artist mo
also had a pawnshop for the more erotic
and sinister aspects of fantasy
there were watercolours etchings and
lithographs which all featured some
disturbing surreal elements
but just like his children's work they
were executed with remarkably high
levels of finish and aesthetic
sensibility
as he continued to work into later life
his tireless imagination
humor and technical prowess never
diminished
and he didn't stop working until his
death at the age of 88
in 1945
charles donna gibson was a critically
important figure in the evolution of
american illustration
and his work and reputation resonated
for quite a few years after his death
he was born in 1867 in roxbury
massachusetts
and with an obvious youthful talent for
drawing he later studied for two years
at the art students league in new york
not yet 20 gibson sold his first work in
1886
to life magazine and his illustrations
would continue to appear weekly in its
pages
and on its covers for more than three
decades
despite the regular work coming in from
life he quickly established a wider
reputation
with other leading publications
including harper's weekly scribners and
colliers
gibson was one of the earliest american
illustrators to realize the creative
potential of the photolithographic print
technology
which had set illustrators free from the
constraints of wood engraving
consequently his energetic pen strokes
were able to build up an image
which seemed much more alive and
spontaneous than seen previously
in the later years of the 19th century
his images increasingly featured
elegantly attired demurely posed young
females
they were quickly christened the gibson
girls and over the coming decades the
immense popularity of these evocations
of beauty
made him a very wealthy man
throughout his career gibson remained a
dedicated linear illustrator
there were some images created in colour
but they were usually basic colour
washes
added to already completed monochromes
during the first world war he used his
platform at life magazine
to encourage america to join the allies
and he also produced patriotic posters
and when life's original owner died in
1917
gibson invested 1 million dollars of his
accumulated fortune
to buy the magazine but his lack of
business sense led to a sharp downturn
in the magazine's fortunes
and close to bankruptcy he sold it to
the loss only two years later
but even with the loss he had made from
his investment in life
gibson had made so much money from his
illustration he bought his own island
off the coast of maine
in the 1920s the popularity of the
gibson girls declined sharply
and although he was still in demand for
his expressive pen illustrations
he rather perversely took to working in
oils for his own pleasure
and some commissioned portraits but they
were far less appealing than his usual
technique
and wisely he stuck with line for his
commercial work
he continued to work in books and
magazines into the 1930s
and he retired to live out his days on
his island with his wife
in 1936
and gibson died eight years later in
1944
aged 77
the not totally dissimilar british
cartoonist and illustrator frank
reynolds was born in london in 1876
the son of the painter william reynolds
and so it was almost inevitable that he
would go on to study at hedley school of
art in london he began his career as an
artist and he had some success
but his first illustration work was
published in 1901 in the graphic
magazine
soon after commissions started to come
in from other popular magazines
including the illustrated london news
in 1906 he began contributing to punch
magazine
and his good-natured remarkably
well-observed drawings soon became a
regular feature
around this time he took a trip to
france and subsequently published an
album
which featured a series of affectionate
observational sketches and drawings
titled paris and some parisians
in 1910 he began working on illustrated
novels
and the first to be published was
charles dickens david copperfield in
1911.
the book featured a large number of
watercolors by reynolds
and this was his first opportunity to
demonstrate his undoubted skill
with the medium in his illustration work
this was followed by an equally lively
and plausible edition of the pickwick
papers
and he brought to life a collection of
characters who came to be everyone's
vision of the larger-than-life figures
who populated the book
in 1913 the third in the series the old
curiosity shop was published
and this too met with similar success
when war began in 1914 the subject
naturally became a dominant feature of
his work
but even so he stayed clear of
propaganda and stuck with his usual
light humorous
touch in 1920 he was appointed art
editor at punch
and he continued in this role for a
decade at which point he gave it up
and returned to producing more of his
own illustration for punch and other
clients
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by the 1930s punch had begun to use
occasional full-colour printing
and reynolds happily took advantage of
this with a series of cheerful
watercolour pages
some of which demonstrated a talent for
sequential comedy
and all of which were charming
evocations of british life in this
period
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he also had some success with humorous
books including the golf
book in 1932 and another golf themed
collection hamish mcduff in 1937.
war erupted again in 1939 but as in the
earlier conflict
reynolds generally left the harsher
realities to his colleagues
while he concentrated on lighter
everyday humor
which served as morale boosters to the
civilian population
once the war ended in 1945 all evidence
of reynolds work disappears
but in that year he would have been 69
so it's most likely he just retired
and after a lifetime as one of britain's
greatest humorous illustrators
frank reynolds died in 1953 at the age
of 77.
although now fairly unknown clara elsen
peck
was one of the earliest and most
successful female illustrators in
america
she was born in michigan in 1883 and
studied at the minneapolis school of
fine arts
her career as an illustrator began in
1904 when she was 23 years old
with the book phases mazes and crazies
of love
written by mina thomas antrim the book
sold well and peck soon became a popular
choice with other publishers
shakespeare's sweetheart by sarah
sterling was published in 1905
and a couple of years later in 1907 a
lady of king arthur's court
also by sterling followed
in addition to producing all the
illustrations for these tales
she was also responsible for the whole
graphic style of the books
creating pages reminiscent of medieval
times
with deliberately irregular hand
lettering which she integrated with the
woodcut styling of the images
in 1906 she married british artist john
scott williams
and occasionally they even collaborated
on the same project
but a decade later they divorced and
went their separate ways
in 1908 she was commissioned by
collier's magazine
to illustrate rudyard kipling's story
the adventures of melissa
and the delightful delicate pictures she
created for this project were a striking
example
of a perfect match between the text and
the illustration
a year later she had another major
success with her work for in the border
country written by josephine bacon
and by this point she'd become one of
the most successful american
illustrators of the time
either male or female over the next
decade she regularly contributed
illustrations to quite a few of the
higher profile magazines
and in addition to her ongoing work for
colliers she also featured regularly in
the pages of cosmopolitan good
housekeeping
and ladies home journal
she also created several cover
illustrations for theatre magazine in
the early 1920s
this charming series in particular
showed her to be an illustrator of both
skill and aesthetic judgment
and was another in a long line of
creative successes
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by this time she had become an
attractive proposition for advertising
agencies
and she worked as a commercial artist on
campaigns for procter and gamble among
others
in the years of the great depression
peck fared much better than most and she
continued to create illustration work
throughout the 1930s
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in the 1940s she started working as a
comic book illustrator for publishers of
religious stories taken from the bible
whether this was because her usual
commissions had dried up or she simply
wanted to spread a religious message i
don't know
but it didn't measure up to her earlier
output
and as the 1950s approach she
increasingly focused on
painting and she retired from
professional illustration
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in 1968 clara el senpek died at the age
of 85.
and all being well i hope we'll meet up
again when the next batch is ready
so goodbye for now
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you