High Diddle Diddle by Frederick Richardson published in Volland Mother Goose in 1915

Frederick Richardson (1862 – 15 January 1937) was an American illustrator of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, best remembered for his illustrations of works by

L. Frank Baum Lyman Frank Baum (; May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919) was an American author best known for his children's fantasy books, particularly '' The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'', part of a series. In addition to the 14 ''Oz'' books, Baum penned 41 other novels ...

Life and career

A native

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

an, Richardson studied at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts and at the

Académie Julian The () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907). The school was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number and qual ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. He taught at the

Chicago Art Institute The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park. Its collection, stewarded by 11 curatoria ...

for seven years;

Albert Henry Krehbiel Albert Henry Krehbiel (November 25, 1873 – June 29, 1945), was the most decorated American painter ever at the French Academy, winning the Prix De Rome, four gold medals and five cash prizes. He was born in Denmark, Iowa and taught, lived and ...

and Dulah Evans Krehbiel were two of his students. He was "a slightly-built, gray-eyed man" whose work "was strongly influenced by the

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

movement...." From 1892 on, if not earlier, Richardson made a living as a newspaper illustrator, working for the

Chicago Daily News The ''Chicago Daily News'' was an afternoon daily newspaper in the midwestern United States, published between 1875 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois. History The ''Daily News'' was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty ...

; he produced many pictures of the famous

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair, was a world's fair held in Chicago from May 5 to October 31, 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The ...

in 1893. His employers valued his work highly enough to send Richardson back to Paris to cover the ''Exposition Universelle Internationale'', the world's fair of 1900. A collection of his newspaper work from the Daily News was published in 1899. In 1903 Richardson moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

to pursue book illustration. His first book was Baum's ''

Queen Zixi of Ix ''Queen Zixi of Ix, or The Story of the Magic Cloak'', is a children's book written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by Frederick Richardson. It was originally serialized in the early 20th-century American children's magazine ''St. Nicholas (mag ...

'', which was published serially in ''

St. Nicholas Magazine ''St. Nicholas'' was a popular monthly American children's magazine, founded by Scribner's in 1873 and named after the Christian saint. The first editor was Mary Mapes Dodge, who continued her association with the magazine until her death in 1 ...

'' in 1904 and 1905 and in book form in the latter year. Richardson also drew pictures for Baum's "

A Kidnapped Santa Claus "A Kidnapped Santa Claus" is a Christmas-themed short story by American writer L. Frank Baum; it has been called "one of Baum's most beautiful stories" and constitutes an influential contribution to the mythology of Christmas. "A Kidnapped Santa ...

", which first appeared in ''The Delineator'' in December 1904. His artwork also appears in the California State Series "Third Reader". Richardson followed that initial work with many other book-illustration projects, including editions of the works of

Hans Christian Andersen Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogue (literature), travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fai ...

, ''

Aesop's Fables Aesop's Fables, or the Aesopica, is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a Slavery in ancient Greece, slave and storyteller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 Before the Common Era, BCE. Of varied and unclear origins, the stor ...

'', ''

Mother Goose Mother Goose is a character that originated in children's fiction, as the imaginary author of a collection of French fairy tales and later of English nursery rhymes. She also appeared in a song, the first stanza of which often functions now as ...

'', ''

Pinocchio Pinocchio ( , ) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel, ''The Adventures of Pinocchio'' (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a poor man named Geppetto in a Tuscan vil ...

'', and ''

East of the Sun and West of the Moon "East of the Sun and West of the Moon" () is a Norwegian fairy-tale. It was included by Andrew Lang in '' The Blue Fairy Book'' (1889). "East of the Sun and West of the Moon" was collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe. It i ...

'', plus two volumes in the series of

Andrew Lang's Fairy Books ''The Langs' Fairy Books'' are a series of 25 collections of true and fictional stories for children published between 1889 and 1913 by Andrew Lang and Leonora Blanche Alleyne, a married couple. The best known books of the series are the 12 col ...

. Richardson did abundant work for the Chicago publisher P. F. Volland; in illustrating collections of tales by

Georgene Faulkner Georgene Faulkner (1873–1958) was an American writer of children's literature and storyteller of the early twentieth century. In her career, she was known and promoted as "the Story Lady." A native Chicagoan, she attended the School of Educa ...

he varied his usual artistic style, imitating Japanese art for her ''Little Peachling and Other Tales of Old Japan'' (1928), and Indian art for her ''The White Elephant and Other Tales from Old India'' (1929). Richardson provided pictures for a series of schoolbooks called the Winston Readers. He illustrated Frank R. Stockton's ''The Queen's Museum'' (1906), Edith Ogden Harrison's ''The Enchanted House'' (1913), and Frances Jenkins Olcott's ''The Red Indian Fairy Book'' (1917), among other works. According to youngest son, Allan, Richardson provided a variety of illustrations to the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...

during the Great Depression. For John Heming Fry's "diatribe against modernism," ''The Revolt Against Beauty'' (1934), Richardson supplied pictures that parodied the work of

Paul Gauguin Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer, whose work has been primarily associated with the Post-Impressionist and Symbolist movements. He was also an influ ...

and

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artworks ...

and characters from newspaper comic strips. After his death in 1937, Richardson was memorialized with a posthumous volume that matched traditional tales, like "

Three Billy Goats Gruff "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" () is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in their '' Norske Folkeeventyr'', first published between 1841 and 1844. It has an Aarne-Thompson type of 122E. The first versi ...

" and "

The Bremen Town Musicians The "Town Musicians of Bremen" () is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'' in 1819 (KHM 27). It tells the story of four ageing domestic animals, who after a lifetime of hard work are negle ...

", with brightly colored illustrations by the artist. Richardson died of pneumonia in New York City and was survived by Allan Barbour, one of his two sons. Richardson's oldest son, David Welles, preceded his father in death by a few months, having died in September 1936.Gardner and Procopio, p. 9.

References

External links

* * * *
1913 Illustrations from Norse Mythology
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Richardson, Frederick American children's book illustrators 1862 births 1937 deaths Artists from Park Ridge, Illinois Art Nouveau illustrators American expatriates in France Deaths from pneumonia in New York City

Life and career

See also

References

External links