Drawn to Books: Women Illustrators of the Birmingham School

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Birmingham School of Art, the first municipal art school in the country, opened in 1885. Birmingham played an important part in the development of education for both children and adults in the 19th century, and at this time a number of Birmingham institutions were expanding education beyond the walls of universities. The School of Art contributed by instructing students—notably women—in book binding and metalwork in addition to the more conventional subjects of painting and illustration.

The School of Art’s signature style, which became known as the ‘Birmingham School’, was built on the foundations of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. It embraced the Arts and Crafts ethos, which favoured hand-crafts and traditional techniques. In book illustrations, Arts and Crafts features included flattened perspective, mediaeval imagery, and the heavy outlines of woodcuts. Promoting the ‘unity of the arts’, Birmingham School artists often combined text and image. At a time when the education of girls took second place to that of boys, the women of the Birmingham School were trail-blazers. The works included in this exhibition highlight the often forgotten contributions of these women to the literary and artistic scenes around the turn of the 20th century, both in Birmingham and beyond.

The exhibition was sponsored by Winterbourne House and Garden and the Cadbury Research Library of the University of Birmingham, and co-curated with third-year English Literature students. The University of Birmingham's Alumni Impact Fund supported student access to COVE. Their captions, written for the brick-and-mortar exhibit held at Winterborne January-November 2018, appear in the COVE Gallery entries under their names. Images from the Cadbury's collection appear with their permission.

Images in this Exhibit

Of the Decorative Illustration of Books Old and New

Of the Decorative Illustration of Books Old and New by Walter Crane

(George Bell and Sons, 1896)

Walter Crane was a renowned artist and illustrator, who lectured at the Birmingham school and championed the work of its students. Here, Crane praises Mary Newill’s works for their ‘ornamental rendering of natural landscapes’, perfectly demonstrated in her idyllic pen and ink drawing of the Somerset village of Porlock.

Mary Newill (1860–1947), who also designed textiles, studied and later taught at the Birmingham School.

On loan from a private collection

...

Verse Fancies

Verse Fancies
Poems by Edward Levetus, illustrations by Celia Levetus
(Chapman & Hall, 1897)

The poetry collection Verse Fancies can only be described as a family affair. Edward L. Levetus composed the poetry in the collection, and his sister Celia Levetus did the accompanying illustrations. In the illustration accompanying the poem "Love in Ambush," the scene is a quintessentially English one, with Phyllis tending to the rose bushes. The background is filled with dense and leafy foliage. The peacock that occupies the foreground adds an exotic...

Bookplates by Celia Levetus

Bookplate for Grace Nettlefold by Celia Levetus

Bookplate for The Acorn Library by Celia Levetus

Bookplate for William Holman Hunt by Celia Levetus

Bookplate for Violet Holden by Celia Levetus

The Birmingham School fostered the ‘hands-on’ approach. Designers were expected to undertake the physical creation of their own art, without recourse to the mechanised processes of modern industry. The School also espoused William Morris’s ideals of ‘the decoration of utilities’, according to which utilitarian objects should be made beautiful, and beautiful objects should be functional.

Bookplates have a practical function, and also answer Morris’s call to make the functional beautiful. Celia Levetus elevated the bookplate to an art form in itself.

Levetus was recognised by...

A Book of Pictured Carols

A Book of Pictured Carols
Designed under the direction of Arthur J. Gaskin (George Allen, 1893)

Arthur Gaskin was an instructor at the Birmingham School, and this volume was produced by his students. The title page border was designed by Georgie Cave (later Georgie Gaskin) and cut in wood by Mildred Peacock. Other Birmingham School student contributors include Florence Rutland ("Salvator Mundi") and Violet HOlden ("Now we make joye").

Turkish Fairy and Folk Tales

Turkish Fairy Tales "The Damsel and the Old Witch"

Turkish Fairy Tales "The Golden Haired Children"

Turkish Fairy Tales "The Cinder-Youth and the Three Damsels"

Turkish Fairy Tales "The King's Son and the Lion"

Turkish Fairy Tales "The Poor Women and the Three Damsels"

Turkish Fairy Tales and Folk Tales
collected by Dr. Ignácz Kunos, translated from Hungarian by R. Nisbet Bain, illustrated by Celia Levetus
(Lawrence & Bullen, 1901)

Celia Levetus created nine illustrations for Turkish Fairy Tales and Folk Tales, a collection of spoken tales recorded from Hungarian and Romanian peasants by the historian Dr. Ignácz Kúnos in Anatolia, Turkey. Originally published in 1889 with an introduction by the Hungarian Professor Ármin Vámbery, this edition is an English translation by the historian and translator, Robert Nisbet...

The Nightingale

The Nightingale
by Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Mary J. Newill
(Napier, 1896)

First published in Copenhagen in 1843 in New Fairy Tales, The Nightingale had made its way to England by the 1870s, where it became popular with readers, publishers, and artists alike. Andersen’s tales were always in demand, and the popularity of The Nightingale depended partly upon the Victorian fascination with the ‘otherness’ of China.

Mary J. Newill’s illustrations for The Nightingale build upon the tradition of ‘Chinoiserie’, a style derived from...

History of the Horn-Book

History of the Horn-Book
by Andrew White Tuer
(Leadenhall Press, 1896)

Published by his own Leadenhall Press in 1896, Andrew Tuer’s History of the Horn-book is a detailed historical record of the horn-book, an object whose place in education history had largely been overlooked. Opening with definitions and early examples of usage, the history charts the development of the ‘horn-book’ until its final decline in the early 19th century. As Tuer declares in his preface, the book adds ‘a chapter to the history of our national education’.

The term ‘horn...

Songs of Experience

Songs of Experience
by William Blake, with designs by Celia Levetus
(Nutt, 1902)

Unlike Celia Levetus’s earlier works that focused on children and nature, her illustrations of Blake’s The Songs of Experience employ a greater use of symbolism. Snakes appear in many of these images, evoking the devil or sin. In illustrations for the title page and ‘London’, the snake seems to be tightening itself around the image, creating a sense of constriction. The dark illustration for ‘London’ particularly conveys the idea that the city has become a bleak, destructive place,...

Wild Flowers of the British Isles

Wild Flowers of the British Isles
written and illustrated by H. Isabel Adams
(Heinemann, 1907-10)

Harriet Isabel Adams studied at the Birmingham School of Art and became an active member of the botanical scene within Britain during the very early 20th century. Transferring her skills from Arts and Crafts illustration to that of botany through the study of plant anatomy, Adams combined scientific accuracy with artistic sensibility.

Although Adams’s work was underpinned by botanical science, it was often dismissed as feminine and whimsical. Her choice of...

Divine and Moral Songs

Georgie Cave (later Gaskin), "Satan finds..."

Georgie Cave (later Gaskin), "Hush my dear..."

Divine and Moral Songs
by the Rev. Isaac Watts, illustrated by Mrs. Arthur Gaskin
(Elkin Matthews, 1901)

In 1890s England, advances in printing technology gave smaller publishers and female illustrators, such as Georgie Gaskin, the opportunity to publish lavishly illustrated books. The introduction of colour printing from wood blocks in the 1880s marked a move away from the heavy engravings that had characterised book illustration for many decades.

Divine and Moral Songs, originally written by the Reverend Isaac Watts in 1715, had been a ‘standard...

The Little Grey Lady

The White Lady from The Little Gray Lady

The Little Grey Lady (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1893)

illustrated by Georgie Gaskin

Georgie Gaskin (1866 –1934) primarily worked on jewellery during the 1880s, so it was unusual for her to be making illustrations at this time. The opportunities offered by the growth in fine art printing were grasped by both male and female artists, disseminating their work to an ever-growing audience.

Gaskin’s illustration of ‘A Spring Riddle’ is beautifully drawn with many natural images. The stems of the snowdrops create patterns reminiscent of Celtic knots as...

A Tale of Six Little Travellers

A Tale of Six Little Travellers by Mrs. Arthur Gaskin (H. R. Allenson, 1898)

Illustration was not only a pastime for Georgie Gaskin, as might be expected of women in the period, but also a source of commercial success. In fact, art was one of the few further-educational practices that women, mainly of middle class backgrounds, could pursue.

Gaskin was working at a time when the concept of ‘childhood’ as a time of innocence and purity was becoming current, and children’s literature was gaining in popularity. Her depictions of children playing innocently were...

Blake's Songs of Innocence

Songs of Innocence, by William Blake, with designs by Celia Levetus (Wells, Gardner, Darton & Co., 1899)

This version of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence is embellished with illustrations by Celia Levetus. Levetus later published a full-size version of Blake’s Songs of Experience (also on display in the exhibition), which is often seen as a more sobering and less naïve parallel to Innocence.

Levetus may have chosen to use Blake’s simple lyrics to give valuable lessons to children, just as modern storybooks do now. Her illustrations...

Celia Levetus Sybil

Sybil

Poem by Edward Levetus,
illustrated by Celia Levetus (1898-99)

The 1897 collection Verse Fancies (also on display) contains a number of collaborations between siblings Celia and Edward Levetus, and Sybil is particularly notable within the volume for its seamless blend of poetry and illustration. The verse itself is not laid out in a rigid format, but instead is lyrical and relaxed. Levetus’s illustration reflects this freedom, as we see the liberated Sybil revelling in a world free of mankind’s restrictive influences. Sybil innocence harks...

Horn Book Jingles

Horn-Book Jingles , by Mrs. Arthur Gaskin (Leadenhall Press, 1896-97)

The horn book, an early teaching tool, came back into fashion in the late Victorian era. Horn books often carried illustrated children’s verses with a moral message.

The Fusee

The Fusee was a short-lived journal created by the students fo the Birmingham Municipal School of Art. Unddated, it likely was created in the late 1890s.

Fairbrass: A Children's Story

Fairbrass First Page, Artist's Proof Copy

Fairbrass First Page, Artist's Proof Copy Detail

Fairbrass: A Children’s Story, By T. Edgar Pemberton, illustrated by Kate E. Bunce (Cornish Brothers, 1895)

Painter and illustrator Kate Elizabeth Bunce (1856-1927) was trained, along with her sister Myra, at the Birmingham School of Art. Her father John Thackray Bunce was an early supporter of the school and of the municipal museum (now the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery). Bunce's draft sketch for the initial in the proof copy is then realised in the final version.

A Book of Nursery Songs and Rhymes

A Book of Nursery Songs and Rhymes by S. Baring-Gould (ed.), illustrated by members of the Birmingham Art School under the direction of A. J. Gaskin (Methuen, 1895)

Arthur Gaskin, an instructor at the Birmingham School of Art, oversaw publications that drew on the talents of his students. These illustrations are typical of the Birmingham School. 'Little Jack Horner', an uncredited image, shows clear influence of Aubrey Bearsdley's illustrations. Celia Levetus's 'Goosey, Goosey, Gander' combines her cherubic children with increasingly stylised iconography.

The Art Student

The Art Student : an Illustrated Magazine Conducted by Members of the Birmingham School of Art (1885)

This student-run journal ran at the Birmingham Municpai School of Art from 1885-1887. The inaugural issue, the cover of which is picutred here, featured an introduction by artist and instructor Edward R. Taylor (1878-1911).

The Yellow Book (April 1896)

Come Unto These Yellow Sands by H. Isabel Adams

Bookplate for Isobel Cave by Georgie Gaskin

The Yellow Book, Volume IX (Elkin Matthews & John Lane, 1896)

Published between 1894 and 1897, ‘The Yellow Book’ promoted Aesthetic and Decadent styles. All art in the April 1896 volume was by Birmingham School artists, and featured an impressive array of works by women, including Celia Levetus, Georgie Gaskin, H. Isabel Adams, Evelyn Holden, and Mary Newill.

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