The Paradise of Children (Original artwork)

Original pen-and-ink and watercolor drawing for the tinted line drawing illustrating "The Paradise of Children" ("Pandora's Box") in Nathaniel Hawthorne's A Wonder Book (London: [n.d., 1922]). Signed and dated at lower right. Image size: 15 x 11 inches (381 x 279 mm.). Matted, framed, and glazed. Nathaniel Hawthorne's A Wonder Book was a frame story that retold ancient myths for children, in hopes of educating and inspiring them with classical tales adapted from Greek myths featuring "The Gorgon's Head," "The Three Golden Apples," and "The Chimaera," as well as Hawthorne's version of King Midas, "The Golden Touch." First published in the mid-nineteenth century, the 1922 edition illustrated by Rackham truly brought the text to life. This charming watercolor made for one of the book's illustrations depicts life as it was before Pandora opened the box- a wonderfully gentle pastoral scene, with a group of three children dancing merrily, without a care in the world, with "the expanding blossoms of that night's supper" hanging heavily on the tree above their heads and "the tender bud of tomorrow's breakfast" growing on the plants in the foreground. A superb original drawing, this watercolor with its subtle colors and artful lines highlights Rackham's talents. Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) is perhaps the most acclaimed and influential illustrator of the Golden Age of Illustration. A prolific artist even from his youth, Rackham got his start as an illustrator working for the Westminster Budget Newspaper (1892). Over the next few years, he took on more and more commissions for children's books, hitting his career high in the first three decades of the twentieth century. Rackham turned his imaginative pen to every classic-from Shakespeare to Dickens to Poe. Fine.…