Jessie Willcox Smith

Jessie Willcox Smith (September 6, 1863 – May 3, 1935) was an American illustrator during the Golden Age of American illustration. She was considered "one of the greatest pure illustrators". A contributor to books and magazines during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Smith illustrated stories and articles for clients such as Century, Collier's, Leslie's Weekly, Harper's, McClure's, Scribners, and the Ladies' Home Journal. She had an ongoing relationship with Good Housekeeping, which included a long-running Mother Goose series of illustrations and also the creation of all the Good Housekeeping covers from December 1917 to 1933. Smith illustrated over sixty books, including notable works like Louisa May Alcott's Little Women and An Old-Fashioned Girl, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Evangeline, and Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses.

Early life Jessie Willcox Smith was born on September 6, 1863, in the Mount Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was the youngest daughter of Charles Henry Smith, an investment broker, and Katherine DeWitt Willcox Smith.

Green and Smith illustrated the calendar, The Child, in 1903.

Smith was a member of Philadelphia's The Plastic Club (founded in 1897), which was established to promote "Art for art's sake" and to provide a means for artists to encourage one another professionally and create opportunities to sell their works. Other members included Elenore Abbott, Violet Oakley, and Elizabeth Shippen Green. All of the women who founded it were students of Howard Pyle.

In 1903, the Society of Illustrators elected Florence Scovel Shinn and Elizabeth Shippen Green as its first women members. Smith, Oakley, and May Wilson Preston became members the following year. They were associate members until 1920, when they were made full members of the organization.

In 1905 she was one of seven leading artists who contracted to work exclusively for Collier's. The others were Charles Dana Gibson, Maxfield Parrish, A. B. Frost, Frank Xavier Leyendecker, E. W. Kemble, and Frederic Remington.

According to The New York Times in 1910, Smith made about US$12,000 ($ today) per year and, like Norman Rockwell and J. C. Leyendecker, became popular as a "media star".

In 1911 both her parents and her former teacher and promoter, Howard Pyle, died and Elizabeth Shippen Green married Huger Elliott.

Over the next several years, she continued to create illustrations for magazines, including a series of Mother Goose illustrations printed in Good Housekeeping, which were black and white until mid-1914 when they were printed in color. Her illustrations were reproduced in the book The Jessie Willcox Smith Mother Goose by Dodd, Mead, and Company. This book, reflecting her continued theme of mother and child in a realistic portrayal, was a commercial success. Biographer Edward D. Nudelman wrote, "The cover illustration for this book, showing two children nestled beneath the wings of Mother Goose, is one of Smith's most pleasing and warm images. The serenity portrayed in the posture and expression of the children, along with the material concern of Mother Goose, gives evidence of the genius of Smith."

Smith had a knack for painting children, persuasively using milk, cookies and fairy tales to achieve a relaxed, focused child model. In an October 1917 Good Housekeeping article, she wrote that "a child will always look directly at anyone who is telling a story; so while I paint I tell tales marvelous to hear." In 1915 Smith finished one of her most well-known work, a series of pictures for Charles Kingsley's The Water-Babies. She made illustrations for Collier's magazines and of Charles Dickens' works, like Tiny Tim, Dickens' Children – Ten Children, and David Copperfield.

Smith continued to create illustrations throughout her life, but she began painting more portraits around 1925. In later years, she used a technique that she learned from Eakins, using photographs as a tool when creating portraits.

Artistic style Smith's style changed drastically throughout her life. At the beginning of her career, she used dark-lined borders to delineate brightly colored objects and people in a style described as "Japonesque". In later works, she softened the lines and colors until they almost disappeared. Smith worked in mixed media: oil, watercolor, pastels, gouache, charcoal, whatever she felt gave her desired effect. She often overlaid oils on charcoal on a paper whose grain or texture added an important element to the work. Her use of color was influenced by the French impressionist painters.

Most of Smith's work is concerned with children and motherly love. Many reviewers say Smith was continually trying to recreate the image of love she had desperately needed as a child. Smith preferred to use non-professional children as opposed to child actors as models because she found professional children did not have the same soul or will to explore as amateur child models. She would invite her friends to visit and watch their children play, to use as her inspiration.

Death and legacy Though never a travel enthusiast, Smith finally agreed to tour Europe in 1933 with Isabel Crowder, who was both Henrietta Cozens' niece and also a nurse. During her trip, her health deteriorated. Smith died in her sleep at her house at Cogshill in 1935 at the age of 71.

In 1936, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts held a memorial retrospective exhibition of her works.

In 1991, Smith became the third woman to be inducted into The Hall of Fame of the Society of Illustrators. Lorraine Fox (1979) had been the first and Neysa Moran McMein (1984) was the second. Of the small group of women inducted since then, three were the members of The Red Rose Girls: Jessie Willcox Smith, Elizabeth Shippen Green (1994) and Violet Oakley (1996). Smith's papers are on deposit in the collection of the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution.

Collections The following collections contain her works: Brandywine Heritage Galleries, Brandywine River Museum Delaware Art Museum Rare Book Department, Free Library of Philadelphia National Museum of American Illustration Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Philadelphia Museum of Art United States Library of Congress University of Minnesota Children's Literature Research Collection Chicago Public Library Special Collections.

Works Smith made illustrations for more than 250 periodicals, 200 magazine covers, 60 books, prints, calendars and posters from 1888 to 1932. She also painted portraits. Some of her works are listed below.

Illustrations New and True [Poems] – Mary Wiley Staver (Lee & Shepard, 1892) Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1897) The Young Puritans in Captivity – Mary Prudence Wells Smith (Little, Brown & Co, 1899) Brenda's Summer at Rockley – Helen Leah Reed (1901) An Old-Fashioned Girl – Louisa May Alcott (1902) The Book of The Child [Short Stories] – Mabel Humphrey (Stokes, 1903) Rhymes of Real Children – Betty Sage (Duffield, 1903) In The Closed Room – Frances Hodgson Burnett (Hodder, 1904) A Child's Garden of Verses – Robert Louis Stevenson (Scribner US/Longmans Green UK, 1905) The Bed-Time Book – Helen Hay Whitney (Duffield US/Chatto UK, 1907) Dream Blocks – Aileen Cleveland Higgins (Duffield US/Chatto UK, 1908) The Seven Ages of Childhood – Carolyn Wells (Moffat & Yard, 1909) A Child's Book of Old Verses – Various Poets (Duffield, 1910) The Five Senses – Angela M. Keyes (1911) The Now-a-Days Fairy Book – Anna Alice Chapin (1911) A Child's Book of Stories – Penrhyn W. Coussens (1911) Dickens' Children – Charles Dickens (Scribner, 1912) Twas The Night Before Christmas – Clement Clarke Moore (1912) The Jessie Wilcox Smith Mother Goose (1914) Little Women – Louisa May Alcott (Little, Brown & Co, 1915) When Christmas Comes Around – Priscilla Underwood (Duffield, 1915) Swift's Premium Calendar (1916) The Water Babies – Charles Kingsley (Dodd, Mead & Co, 1916) The Way to Wonderland – Mary Stewart (Dodd, Mead & Co, 1917) At The Back of The North Wind – George MacDonald (McKay, 1919) The Princess and the Goblin – George MacDonald (McKay, 1920) Heidi – Johanna Spyri (McKay, 1922) Boys and Girls of Bookland – Nora Archibald Smith (Cosmopolitan Book Corporation, 1923) A Very Little Child's Book of Stories – Ada M. & Eleanor L. Skinner (1923) A Child's Book of Country Stories – Ada M. & Eleanor L. Skinner (Duffield, 1925)

Magazines The major magazines that she illustrated include: Saint Nicholas Magazine (1888–1905) Ladies Home Journal (1896–1915) Ladies Home Companion until 1897, name changed to Woman's Home Companion (1896–1920) Collier's (1899–1916) Scribner's Magazine (1900–1937) McClure's Magazine (1903–1909) Good Housekeeping Magazine (1912–1933)

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