~Jessie Willcox Smith~Illustrator

 Jessie Willcox Smith,
was born on September 6 in 1863 
She died on May 3 in 1935
She was a United States illustrator famous
for her work in magazines such as
Ladies Home Journal and for her
illustrations for children's books.

Born in the Mount Airy neighborhood
of Philadelphia,
Smith studied at the Pennsylvania
Academy of the Fine Arts under
Thomas Eakins in Philadelphia, graduating in 1888.
A year later, she started working in the
production department of the Ladies Home Journal,
for five years. She left to take classes under
Howard Pyle, first at Drexel and then at
the Brandywine School.

 
She was a prolific contributor to books and
magazines during the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries, illustrating stories
and articles for clients such as Century,
Collier's Weekly, Leslie's Weekly, Harper's,
McClure's, Scribners and the Ladies' Home Journal.

 

Smith may be most well known for her covers
on Good Housekeeping, which she painted
from December 1917 through March 1933.
She also painted posters and portraits.
Her twelve illustrations for Charles Kingsley's
The Water-Babies (1916) are also well known.
On Smith's death, she bequeathed the
original works to the Library of Congress'
"Cabinet of American Illustration" collection.
(A thirteenth illustration remains in a private collection.)

  

Just a Few books:
-Chapin, Anna Alice, The Now-a-Days Fairy Book, 1911.
-Dickens’ Children, Scribner, 1912.
-Moore, Clement C., ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, 1912.
-The Jessie Willcox Smith Mother Goose, Dodd, 1914.
-Alcott, Louisa Mae, Little Women, Little, Brown, 1915.
-Underwood, Priscilla, When Christmas Comes Around, 1915.
-A Child’s Stamp Book of Old Verses, 1915.

 

“It has been one long joyous road along which
troop delightful children, happy children,
sad children, thoughtful children, and
above all wondering, imaginative children,
who give to their charmingly original thoughts
a delicious quaintness of expression. I love to paint them all.”
~Jessie Wilcox Smith~

 
Jessie Willcox Smith
werd geboren op 6 September in 1863.
En is overleden na een langdurig ziekbed op 3 Mei in 1935
Zij heeft illustraties gemaakt voor magazines
in Verenigde Staten zoals Good Housekeeping Magazine
van begin vorige eeuw. Daarnaast heeft zij
verschillende schilderijen gemaakt en
diverse kinderboeken geïllustreerd.
Ze wordt gezien als de eerste vrouwelijke
illustrator van de Verenigde Staten.

Children’s Book Week - Kinderboekenweek in de VS.
Ook in de Verenigde Staten wordt elk jaar
een Kinderboekenweek gehouden.
De ‘Official Poster’ van dit jaar is van Ian Falconer.
De posters die elk jaar door een andere
kinderboekenillustrator worden gemaakt zijn vaak
bijzonder fraai. In 1994 verscheen
het boek 75 Years of Children’s Book Week Posters
met alle tot dan toe verschenen posters.

 

De eerste poster uit 1919, gemaakt door
Jessie Wilcox Smith, viel zo in de smaak dat
deze vijf jaar lang gebruikt werd (afb. links versie 1921).
Ook de poster van 1924, ‘More Books In The Home’,
werd door haar gemaakt, maar in de volgende jaren
werd steeds een op dat moment
populaire illustrator ingehuurd.