The Collected Arthur Rackham Line Art edited by Leonard Stevens (book review)
There are two books published by Redcrest focusing on the works of Victorian fantasy artist Arthur Rackham (1867-1939). The second is ‘The Collected Arthur Rackham Line Art’, which features work from 43 books and 1000 black and white illustrations. Many of them are portrait-sized, including some frontispiece full pages and only a couple pages of landscape-sized. There are also a lot of titles and chapter headings artwork, hence the big number of illustrations. As I said previously, Rackham was prolific would be an understatement. I’d love to know what scale he did these and in which years because he tended to be consistent.
If there is a criticism here then I wish the frontispieces with the titles were at the front of each book section. Some are, but mostly aren’t, because it would have been more effective than just move from illustration to illustration.
Pragmatically, Rackham doesn’t really repeat himself, even when he does a couple stories again with the same stories. His linework focuses on getting into the action and nothing is a stock pose for the camera. Strong lessons to be learnt here for any artist. His texturing is selective, aiming to where it would be needed rather than for scale. He also never steered away from doing something like a hanging or an ogre out for blood.
If you can lay your hands on both books and they are still relatively easy to get, they should be a welcome addition to your artbook collection.
GF Willmetts
February 2026
(pub: Redcrest Publishing, 2020. 260 illustrated page large softcover. Price: varies. ISBN: 978-1-83814870-6)
check out website: https://bookscouter.com/publisher/redcrest-publishing
