Illustrator and watercolorist, Arthur Rackham was born at Lewisham and after being educated at the City of London School, studied art at Lambeth School where was influenced by his fellow student Charles Ricketts. Rackham joined the staff of The Westminster Budget in 1892 and from that time forward concentrated on the illustration of books and particularly those of a mystical, magic or legendary background. He very soon established himself as one of the foremost Edwardian illustrators and was triumphant in the early 1900s when colour printing first enabled him to use subtle tints and muted tones to represent age and timelessness. Rackham’s imaginative eye saw all forms with the eyes of childhood and created a world that was half reassuring and half frightening. His sources were primarily Victorian and among them are evidently the works of Cruikshank, Doyle, Houghton and Beardsley but also the prints of Dürer and Altdorfer. He was elected RWS in 1902 and after 1922 he undertook oil painting and some stage design. He was a member of the Langham Sketch Club, exhibited widely at home and abroad. His most successful works were illustrations for J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906) and Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1907).