** individual illustrators: boys fashions A-L








Individual Illustrators: Information on Boys' Fashions A-L


Figure 1.--.

HBC has collected quite a bit of information on illustrators who have drawn images of children over the years. The earliest illustrator od children's images os probanly Kate Greenway and her classisal drawings. One of the first important Anmericam illustrators is Reginald Birch and his illustrations for Little Lord Fauntleroy. By the turn of the 20th century, advances in color lithograpy provided illistrators to present thir wotk ditrectly to the public. The result was some of the most beautiful illustrations of childhood ever produced--the Golden Age of Illustrtions. Some of the illustrators provie rather mundane drawings. Others illustrations provide wionderful insights into childhood and the clothes worn by children. Unfortunately, relatively little information is available on may of these artists. This is in part because illustrators are not often regarded as serious artists by art historians. The images that they produce, however, have in many cases had a greater cultural impact than that of the great masters.

Charles Addams

A HBC reader reports that sometime around 1921, Adams won a contest by drawing a cartoon for Rogers Peet Magazine. The cartoon, it is said, shows a man being electrocuted on high tension wires; below there is a boy scout in a rubber coat and standing on a rubber mat; the caption is, "Be Prepared."

Christian Wilhelm Allers (Germany, 1857-1915)

We have noted one very impressive and prolific German illustrator--Christian Wilhelm Allers. He is often referred to as just C.W. Allers. He was active at the turn of the century. Unfortunately we have little information about him at this time. His illustrations cover a wide range of topics, but we note that the drew clothing and hair styles in meticulous detail. Unfortunalely we know very little about him. He was born in Hamburg during 1857 and died in 1915 at Karlsruhe. He was an iIllustrator and painter. He lived and worked in Berlin between 1902 and 1914. We have also noted some work from Australia and New Zealand under the name of William Andreson. He portrayed the Earl of Ranfurly, Governor of New Zealand, in 1903. He is perhpas best known for his many sketches of Berliners and also of the German aristocracy, including the children.

Lewis Baumer (1870-1963)

The illustrations are by Lewis Baumer are wonderful and I think of great interest. Baumer was an established illustrator with a consideranle reputation. He was born in St. John's Wood, London during 1870. He was educated at South Kensington School and the Royal Academy School. His early work consisted primarily on water-color, pastel and oil portraits. Baumer during World War I contributed his destinctive illustrations to several periodical magazines, usualy as often quite biting satirical cartoons. The most important publicztion he contributed to was Punch Magazine. He also contributed to several lesser known publications, including The Bystander, The Idler, The Illustrated Bits, The London Magazine, The Strand Magazine and The Royal Magazine. Baumer also illustrated several books. These included The Perfect Gentleman (1912), Vanity Fair (1913), The Complete Sportsman (1914), The Shallow End (1924), Silver and Gold (1925) and Bright Young Things (1928). We are unsure to what extent he illustrated children's books or school stories. We do know of one children's book that he helped illustrate, E. Nesbit's New Treasure Seekers. The only school book that we know Baumer illustrated was The Lighter Side of School Life. Ther may well have been more. Baumer died in 1963.

Reginal Birch (English/American, 1856-1943)

One of the best known 19th century illustrators is Reginal Birch who drew the classic illustrations for the first edition of Little Lord Fauntleroy. Famed Anglo-American illustrator Reginal Birch was born in London during 1856. His family moved to America at 6 years of age and he grew up in San Francusco. He returned to Europe for studies in Germany (Munich) and Italy. I have few details, however, on his childhood or how he was dressed as a boy. Birch was a noted illustrator of the day, regularly illustrating stories in America's legendary St. Nichlos Magazine. On l'appela le "Gibson des enfants" pour ses innombrables dessins � la plume parus dans le Saint-Nicolhas am�ricain. Presumably Birch met Mrs. Burnett through their work at St. Nicholas. He was personaly chosen by her to illustrate her immensly popular book.

Maurice Boutet de Monvel (France, late 19th century)

Maurice Boutet de Monvel was the most successful illustrator in France during the late 19th century.

Hilda Boswell

A HBC reader suggests hat Hilda Boswell should be included in the HBC illustrator list. To see the covers of some of her works, look at covers.

Charles. E Brock (English, ??)

An edition published by Warne in 1925 had beautiful illustrations by C E Brock (brother of another story illustrator, H M Brock). A few of the pictures are color plates, showing a royal blue velvet suit, the remainder are monochrome sketches.

Clara M. Burd (American, 1910s-30s)

We note some beautiful images by Clara M. Burd from the 1910s and 30s. We know very little about her at this time. She was an art student at the Chase School and National Academy of Design in New York. She then went to France and studied at Courtois and Colarossi in Paris. Later she pursued portrait painting with Renardo and her work was received including awards. Her professional career pursued illustrating children's books, designing stained glass, and painting children's portraits.

J.R. Burgess England, 18??-19??)

J.R. Burgess illustrated several school stories. One example was Jefferson Junior which was written by Meredith Fletcher and published by Blackie and Son Limited. There is no publishing date but it seems to be from the 1900s. J.R. Burgess' illustrations are very similar to Harold Copping but Burgess seems to focus on the zenith of the moment in a far more dramatized fashion.

George Reiter Brill (American, early 20 century)

George Reiter Brill was one of the best known American illustrators in the late 19th and early 20th century. His drawings were often featured in major northeastern newspapers, especially New York and Philadelphia newspapers. Unlike many of the illustrators that we have chosen here, he was not particularly known for his drawings of children. Even so, we have noted some particularly beautiful drawings of early 20th century children.

George Brook (English)

George Brock illustrated some of Enid Blyton's, including the Secret Seven series.

Wilhelm Busch (German, 1832-1908)

I had always thought that the comic strip was an American creation, but it is the German illustrator and humerous poet that apparently is created weith inventing the comic strip. Wilhelm Busch was born in 1832, in the village of Wiedensahl near Hannover, Germany. His goal was to be a master painter, but instead his career took a very different path.

Randolph Caldecott (American)

Randolph Caldecott was a noted illustrator of children's books. His name is best known today for the prestigious Caldecott Award for illustrating children's literature.

Harold Copping (English, 1863-1932)

Harold Copping was a prolific illustrator who worked on a wide range of subjects, but is best known for his religious and school illustrations. He was born in England during 1863. He recerived his art training at the Royal Academy School and was able to study in Paris on a Landseer Scholarship. He was perhaps the most popular English illustrator of the late Victorian and Edwardian era. Some of his best known works include illustrations for Hammond's Hard Lines (1894), Miss Bobbie (1897), Millionaire (1898), A Queen Among Girls (1900), Pilgrim's Progress (1903), Westward Ho! (1903), Grace Abounding (1905), Three School Chums (1907), Children's Stories from Dickens (1911), Little Women (1912), Good Wives (1913), A Christmas Carol (1920) and Character Sketches from Boz (1924). Many associate Copping with religious illustrations. Having obtained a commissioned to produce illustrations for the Bible he decided to visit Palestine, at the time a part of the Ottoman Empire. The resulting work, The Copping Bible (1910), was extremely successful, proving to be a best-seller and more Bible commissions followed. These illustration were extremely influential and in alrge measure craeted the visual images in the minds of several generations of American and Brtish children. Copping also did illustrations for many magazines, including The Leisure Hour, Little Folks, Pearson's Magazine, The Royal Magazine, The Temple Magazine, and the Windsor Magazine. He illustrated many children's books and is especially well known for his drawings books set in English schools, a popular genre at the time.

Palmer Cox (Canadian/United States, 1840-1924)

Palmer Cox was born in Quebec, Canada, but his career is primarily associated with the United States. He began life working for the railroad, but then decided to become an illustrator and studied drawing in San Francisco. He is best known as a children's writer and illustrator, creating the famous Brownie characters. The Cox Brownie stories appeared in the famous St. Nicholas Magazine and the Ladies Home Journal. His his series of funny verse cartoons about the mischievous, but kind-hearted Brownies proved enormously popular. The Brownie stories are meant for younger children to introduce nooks to them. They are meant to be read aloud. Thus they are great for both teachers as well as parents reading stories at bed time. Many American children webt to sleep with these warmheated, but fun creatures in their heads. There are many characters in each Cox Brownie picture. The children have fun follow the adventures of their favorite Brownies. The Brownies are today virtually unknown to modern children and their parents. They were, however enormously important to earlier generations grom the 1880s into the 1930s. Cox's importance is more related to his genius in advertising and marketing.

Ronald Embleton (English)

Ronald Sydney Embleton (1930-88) was a British illustrator who was primarily involved with comics. He at first pursued serious art, painting in oil (1950s-60s). He exhibited in Britain, Germany, Australia, Canada and the United States and gazined somecrespect. He was a member of the London Sketch Club and the National Society of Painters, Sculptors and Printmakers. He was elected a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (1960). He drew covers and comis that depicted the kind of action appealing to boys. Many were history based focused on war and warfare. There were also lot of American themes, especially Indian imeges. He has been decribed as 'responsible for some of the finest full-colour adventure series in modern British comics ... a grandmaster of his art.' [The Times] He is best know for his comics, but he illusrated books and magzines as well.

Thomas Henry Fisher (English, 1879- )

Crompton's Just William books were profusely and beautifully illustrated by Thomas Henry Fisher, although they are usually signed Thomas Henry. Fisher was born at Nottingham in 1879. He had a perfect grasp of the hero's character and foibles. The illustrations also contain a great deal of period information about boys' clothing. Fisher was selected by the publisher Newnes to illustrate the William books. He succedded in creating the perfect visual immage drawn by Crompton in her books. Amazingly, Fisher and Crompton did not meet until 1958 and it is not clear if they even corresonded before that. If so, the correspondence is now lost. Thomas Henry's illustrations with their distinctive facial expressions of mischief drawn with the minimum of lines has always been greatly admired. While Heney is best know for his William drawings, he also illustrated many children's books as well. Unfotunately, I have been able to find very little biographical information about him.

Willaim Ford (English)

Some of the later Just William books were illustrated by Henry Ford, who endevored to portray William in much the same way as Fisher.

Michel Gourlier (France, 19??--??)

A French reader has suggested Michel Gourlier as an important French illustrator, but HBC at this time knows nothing about him.

Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone (English, 19??- )

Another illustratotr (really illustrators), since they worked as a team, are the sisters Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone. HBC does not know a great deal about them, but we have noted their delightful drawings in many wonderful children's books. The fashions in thir drawings are not, of course, historically accurate. The are largely wonderfully imaginative for children. The fashions are based, however, on a varity of actual historical styles.

Gordon Grant (American, 1875- )

A prominent Americam illustrator in the early 20th century was Gordon Grant. He was the illustrator in the initial printing of Penrod. Grant was a painter, printmaker, illustrator and writer. He was born San Francisco, Calif. in 1875. He studied at the Lambeth & Heatherley Art School, London. His Penrod illustrations were wonderfull illustrations, beutifully capturing Penrod and his friends as written. Penrod's face, however, vary greatly from drawing to drawing. Penrod was always drawn wearing knickers. The knickers were drawn as both over- and below-the-knee styles.

Kate Greenaway (English, 1846-1901)

Kate Greenaway is the authoress of many charming children's books which she illustarted herself. Many of the drawing are about animals, but she did many wonderful drawings of children in early 19th century outfits, including Empire dresses, smocks, pinafores, tunics, and skeleton suits. A HBC reader wonders about the children she drew in dresses. He asks, "Kate Greenaway did a lot of drawings featuring children in quaint costumes. I think some of the children in dresses are boys. The only thing I have to base this on is the hats, very elaborate for the girls and plain for the boys with a single ribbon band. Given artistic license, how accurate do you think her depictions are?" HBC does not know. Given that boys were not usually breeched until 4-6 years throughout the 19th century, it seems likely that she would have drawn the younger boys in dresses and smocks. HBC can not, however, confirm this.

Gutman, ??? (American, early 20th century)

We at first thought this illustrator was Israeli illustrator Nachum Gutman, but we see this unidentified Gutman's work appared in the early 1900s, while Nachum Gutman was still a boy. We notice some of his work published as cards by the B & B company, apparently a printing company located in St. Paul, Minnesota. The cards were printed in 1909 showing charming scenes of boys and girls. The boys wear a variety of sailor and tunic suits which were populasr at the time for younger boys.

Nachum Gutman (Russian/Israeli, 1898-1980)

Russian born Nachum Gutman studied to be an artist, but is best known as a illustrator of children's books. He also wrote children's stories. His father was a writer. He was born in Bessarabia when it was still part of Tsarist Russia. The family migrated to Eretz Yisrael before World War I when Nachum was still a boy. Palestine at the time was part of the Ottoman Empire. He grew up in Yaffo, a small village which was to become Tel Aviv. His childhood experiences are described in A Small City with Few People and Between Sands and Blue Skies.

Ruth Mary Hallock (American, early/mid 20th century)

We know little about Ruth Mary Hallocks. We know she illustrated illustrated children's books in the 1940s and 50s, but apparently much of her work was earlier. We have noted her dreamy illustrations in Storyland--Stories in Music Appreciation (1939) and Conrad's Magic Flight (1950), on which she worked with another illustrator--Kevin Royt. One sorce reports her as active from 1903-36. The image here shows a little boy with longish hair wearing a blue tunic suit with above the knee bloomer knickers. The drawing depicts a 1900s scene but was done by Hallock in 1940.

Hansi (France, 1873-1951)

Hansi or Jean Jacques Waltz was born in Colmar, an Alsatian city that had just been annexed by Germany as a result of the Franco Prussian War. He disliked having to persue his eduction in German under the Kaiser and drew sardonic illustrations of Alsatian school life. He was an ardent French patriot. He was a prolific artist and writer. He loved drawing Alsatian folk costume and is perhaps best known for his book on an Alsatian village under German rule, Moi Village published in 1913 just before the onset of World War I which infuriated the Germans. When the Germans entered Alscae again in 1941, he had to flee to Vichy. The Gestapo caught up with him and beat him senless. He spent the rest of te War a refugee in Switzerland.

Georgina Hargreaves (English)

Georgina Hargreaves illustrated Adventures of the Wishing Chair. We had thought that she allso illustrated The Enchanted Wood (1988 reprint). Georgina tells us, however, that the Johnstone sisters illustrated The Enchanted Wood, but did the next four in that series, gift books by Dean and Son. She also illustrated The Little Witch Dog and The Green Elf.

Gerry Haylock (English?)

Several of the reprinted Just William books had new covers by Gerry Haylock. Haylock portrays William as a somewhat more orderly boy and updates the clothing--some of William's mates even wear jeans.

Albert Hendschel (Germany, 18??-19??)

A German reader has suggested adding Albert Hendschel to our list of illustrators who have drawn childre, providing interesting historical images. Many of his sketches were never published because in the 19th century they had to be engraved and he flet this would spoil them. He became more interested in publishing once publication was possible through photolithography. The line drawings we have seen are very senitively drawn with a lot of useful details on clothing.

Thomas Henry (English, 1879-19??)

Thomas Henry is best known as the wondeful illustrator for Richmal Crompton's 'William' series of books. Although he signed his drawing Thomas Henry, his name was Thomas Henry Fisher. See listing above.

Herg� (Belgium, 1907-83)

Georges Prosper Remi (1907 � 83) is better known by his pen name -- Herg�. He is the most famous Belgian cartoonist celevrated for creating 'The Adventures of Tintin'. It was a series of comic books which were easily the most popular European comics. He also created two other well-known series: 'Quick & Flupke' (1930-40) and 'The Adventures of Jo, Zette and Jocko' (1936-57). It is Tintin, however, for which he is best known. He was born in Etterbeek in central Brussels (1907). He was born into a middle-class family of limited means. Belgian is diviuded ethnically and linguistically as so was the Remi family. His Walloon father, Alexis Remi, worked in a candy factory. His Flemish mother, Elisabeth Dufour, took care of the home. He had a younger brother, Paul. The family was Catholic, but not especially devout. He saw his boyhood as rather dull. He especially enjoyed the movies which by the 1920s was becoming a major industry. American films were his favoites. Drawing was a boyhood hobby. He drew scenes in the margins ofvhis school books. Here we see German soldiers as his four years of primary schooling at the Ixelles Municipal School No. 3 were during the first World War I German occupation (1914-18). He got into trouble during the World War II German occupation because a pro-NAZI newspaper ran his Tintin comic strips.

George Hughes (American, 19??-??)

George Hughes drew covers for the Saturday Evening Post between 1948 and 1962.

Janet and Anne Johnstone (England, 1928-79/98)

nother illustrator (really illustrators), since they worked as a team, are the sisters Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone. HBC does not know a great deal about them, but we have noted their delightful drawings in many wonderful children's books. The fashions in their drawings are not, of course, historically accurate. They are largely wonderfully imaginative for children. The fashions are based, however, on a variety of actual English historical styles--19th century styles. Their favorite period appears to be the early 19th century, especially for boys. The tunics, skeleton suits, and peaked caps worn during this period often appear in their drawings. The Grahame drawings do not, however, exclusively draw from this period. We also note notes clothes based on kilts, sailor suits, Fauntleroy suits, white socks, stripped stockings, and other fashions from the mid-19th century as well. We note far fewer 20th century garments like short pants. While some of the fashions illustrated are based on actual historical styles, there are some largely fictitious creations. Notice the lederhosen-like halter on the boy at the right (figure 1). HBC has never noticed boys wearing skeleton suits with anything appraoching a halter like this. The pom on the boy's peaked cap is another style that we can not confirm with actual historical styles--especially English styles.

Pierre Joubert (French, 1910-2002)

A French illustrator during the 1950s and 60s executed hundreds of drawings of French youth. Some were drawn in the 1930s and 40s, but most were produced in the 1950s and 60s. He draw numerous pictures for Boy Scout literature. He also illustrated many "Signe de piste" publications which was most popular in the 1950s and 60s. He illustrated the covers of many books with historical settings, but he also drew to illustrate ordinary activities of French boys.

Bruno Kay (English?)

Bruno Kay illustrated some of Enid Blyton's, incliding the Secret Secen series.

Maria L. Kirk (America, 1900s-20s)

Maria L. Kirk is another woman illustrator from the early 20th century. She did some lovely book illustrations, but we know verey little about her at this time. One of her best know commission was an edition of Alice and Wonderland (1904-07). Notavly Alice wears a gold and not a blue dress.

H.W. Willebeek Le Mair (Dutch, 1889-1996)

H. (Henriette) W. Willebeek Le Mair drew evocative drawings for children's books in the early-20th century. This interesting artist drew children with tremendous flair an imagination. Her style and soft colors are very destinctive. She appears to have peaked as an artist from 1905-15. A few of the many books she illustrated include: Little Songs of Long Ago (1912), an edition of Dutch fairytales (1917), an edition of Robert Lewis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Versus (1931), and Twenty Kakata Tales about Tibet (date unknown). Her drawings are very simple rather like cartoons, but are wonderfully imaginative. We know, however, little avout her at this time.

Derek Lucas (English, 19??- )

Derek Lucas illustrated some of the Secret Seven books in the 1970s. He attempted to update the clothing the children were wearing. The boys still had caps and blazers in some of the illustrations, but thy were all wearing long trousers. Some boys still wore school sandals. I did not notice any sneakers or American inovations like baseball caps. We have few other details on Lucas' other illustrations.







HBC






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Created: December 10, 2001
Last updated: 4:24 AM 6/16/2021