Mabel Lucie Attwell

Mabel Lucie Attwell (married name Earnshaw, 4 June, 1879, London – 5 November, 1964, Fowey) was a British children's illustrator. She was known for her cute, nostalgic drawings of children, based on her daughter, Peggy. Her drawings are featured on many postcards, advertisements, posters, books and figurines.

Life

Born in Mile End, London, she was the sixth child of Augustus Attwell, a butcher, and his wife, Emily Ann. Educated privately and at the Coopers' Company School, she attended art classes at Regent Street and Heatherley's art schools, but left to develop her own interest in imaginary subjects, disliking the emphasis on still-life drawing and classical subjects. After she sold work to the Tatler and Bystander, she was taken on by the agents Francis and Mills, leading to a long and consistently successful career.

In 1908 she married the painter and illustrator Harold Cecil Earnshaw (d. 1937) with whom she had a daughter and two sons.

She died at her home in Fowey, Cornwall, in 1964, after which her business was carried on by her daughter, Marjorie (known as Peggy).

Works

Mabel Lucie Attwell's initial career was founded on magazine illustration, which she continued throughout her life, but around 1900 she began receiving commissions for book illustration, notably for W & R Chambers and the Raphael House Library of Gift Books. Her early works were somewhat derivative of the style of artists such as her friend Hilda Cowham, Jessie Willcox Smith, John Hassall, and the Heath Robinson brothers. From 1914 onwards, however, she developed her trademark style of sentimentalized rotund cuddly infants, which became ubiquitous across a wide range of markets: cards, calendars, nursery equipment and pictures, crockery and dolls.

The author, J.M. Barrie personally requested her to illustrate the gift-book edition of Peter Pan, in 1921.

The Lucie Attwell Annual was published from 1922 to 1974, its continuance ten years after her death being made possible by extensive re-use of images, a practice established in 1920s picture books of her work.

Descendants of Mabel Lucie live near Norwich.

Books Written and Illustrated

* "The Boo-Boos Series, Valentine", 1921-22.
* "Lucie Attwell’s Annual", Partridge, 1922-1926.
* "Baby’s Book", Raphael Tuck, 1922.
* "Lucie Attwell’s Children’s Book", Dean, 1927-1932.
* "Lucie Attwell’s Annual", Dean, 1933-1974.
* "Lucie Attwell’s Painting Books", Dean, 1934.
* "Lucie Attwell’s Great Big Midget Books", Dean, 1934-35.
* "Story Books, Dean", 1943-45.
* "Jolly Book", 1953.
* "Nursery Rhymes Pop-up Book", 1958.
* "Book of Verse", 1960.
* "Book of Rhymes", Dean, 1962.

References

*Brian Alderson, "Attwell , Mabel Lucie (1879–1964)", rev. "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2007 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30499 accessed 2 Dec 2007]

External links

* [http://www.worldcollectorsnet.com/mabellucieattwell Mabel Lucie Attwell Background]
* [http://www.ortakales.com/illustrators/Attwell.html Women Children's Book Illustrators at Ortakales.com]
* [http://www.nocloo.com/gallery2 Children's Book Illustrators Gallery - Large Archive of Atwell's illustrations]