Frederick Gordon Browne (1858-1932)
Frederick Gordon Browne is today one of less known vintage illustrators and he will never achieve the fame of his father Hablot Knight Browne, who illustrated many books by Charles Dickens under the pseudonym Phiz. However Frederick Browne created impressive opus of illustrations for numerous newspapers, magazines and more than one hundred books. He worked in pen and ink, but was very skilled in water colors as well. Here is his illustration from Hans Christian Andersen's collection published in 1919 by Wells Gardener, Darton & Co. Ltd. in London.
Here are few interesting facts from Gordon's Browne's biography:
- He studied at Heatherley’s School of Art and South Kensington Schools (today's RCA: Royal College of Art). He became among most productive British illustrators in 1880s. The main reason for this was illness of his father which caused partial paralysis making Phiz's youngest son the main supporter of the family while he was still a student.
- Just like his father he used a pseudonym on several occasions.Apart from illustrating, he also rewrote classic fairy tales (like Beauty and the Beast, Hop-o-My-Tumb etc.) in Gordon Browne’s Series of Old Fairy Tales. Between 1895 and 1900 he wrote and illustrated three books of nonsense verse for children under the pseudonym A Nobody.
- Among Gordon F. Browne's books we can find many classic works written by Hans Christian Andersen, Daniel Defoe, Juliana Horatia Ewing, Andrew Lang, Edna Lyall, Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jonathan Swift, ... He was known by extremely systematical approach to illustrating. He always read the book twice before he started: once to get accustomed with the story and for the second time to select the best scenes for illustration. He always did detailed research when he worked on historcal works draw as accurate clothes, arms and architecture as possible.
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