Mother Goose: illustration to the foreword for 'Mother Goose - The Old Nursery Rhymes'

This robust pen and ink drawing, combined with watercolour, was originally printed on the front page of Rackham’s ed. Mother Goose - Old Nursery Rhymes (1975). ‘Mother Goose’, the imaginary author of a collection of French fairy tales, and later of English nursery rhymes, injects this accompanying work with a playfulness, and theatricality. ‘Mother Goose’ first found her feet in England after Charles Perrault’s (1628-1703) Contes de ma Mère l'Oye fairy tale collection (1695) was translated into English, as Tales of My Mother Goose (1901). Perhaps it is in this very piece that we witness Mother Goose’s venture across the continent. There is an amusing duality set within the drawing; Rackham dresses Mother Goose in an almost witch-like attire, her pointed hat, and broom-like goose allude to many of the antagonists within the tales. Yet, pairing this with our knowledge of Mother Goose’s mission, to tell children's stories and capture children's attention, her smile becomes cunning with an underlying benevolence - of entertainment and light sarcasm. James Hamilton picks up on Rackham’s many intricacies where he lauds Rackham’s 'renewed sense of excitement to book illustration that coincided with the rapid developments in printing technology in the early twentieth century' (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edition). Rackham’s watercolour technique was made possible to re-print via photographic reproduction methods new to the century - he is, in this regard, a pioneer as well as a fine illustrator. It is this that forments his title as one of the leading figures during the Golden Age of British Book illustration; a period in which ‘there was a strong market for high quality illustrated books which typically were given as Christmas gifts’. Rackham’s other best-known works include the illustrations for Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1975), and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm (1973).