Warwick Goble (1862-1943)
This illustrator from so called Golden Age was especially successful in fantasy genre. Goble illustrated first book when he was way over 30 years old but still managed to work on several 'classics'. A contemporary of Arthur Rackham and John D. Batten is today remembered mostly for illustrations of fairy tales from Asia and Middle East. His most famous books are probably Folk-tales of Bengal, Indian Myth and Legend, Green Willow and other Japanese Fairy Tales, Indian Tales of the Great Ones...
Next gem from the Folk-tales of Bengal (The Story of Hiraman), published by MacMillan and Co., 1912 in London, nicely presents his skills in watercolors:
Some facts from Warwick Goble's life:
- He was born and educated in London (he received his basic artistic knowledge in Westminster School of Art). He worked at first as printer in chromolithography technique (where Edmund Evans achieved so much success) and contributed illustrations to several newspapers and magazines.
- In 1890s Goble started with book illustrations and after few successful projects (he was for instance first illustrator of H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds) became regular at MacMillan. Among his works we can find books written by Charles Kingsley, Washington Irving, Giambattista Basile, Mary Louise Molesworth, Robert Louis Stevenson, Dinah Craik (here is a link to his take on The Fairy Book) and Geoffrey Chaucher.
- Warwick Goble was active participant in World War I, when he volunteered for Red Cross in France. After the war he slowly stopped illustrating and devoted more and more time to traveling. He very much enjoyed rowing and cycling for the rest of his life.
His illustrations in oriental style made him immortal.
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