Page:Arthur Rackham (Hudson).pdf/90

 A friend who had been another Edwardian child, Margaret Andrewes, tells an anecdote which shows Rackham’s willingness to entertain the young:

‘He came to the house when I was a small girl and my parents were out. As usual, he was at once given a sketchbook and paints, and, as usual, asked what he was to draw. Just then my mother came back from a funeral, heard the question and said, “Anything but a funeral”. So Arthur Rackham started with an ant in the bottom left-hand corner of the page, went on to a large area of cobblestones, put in some feet (because the ant must have something to look at), and then the bodies above the feet – two lugubrious figures in black. Then he apologised that it was turning into a funeral and, last of all, put in the little parson in the distance, closing the gates of the cemetery. The result is a most treasured possession. …’

Barbara was to find him a good father in all sorts of ways, a really interesting and knowledgeable guide to books, museums, corners of London, and so on – and of course always ready and eager to draw anything and everything on demand. When as a child she ran into his room in the morning, he would first feel on the bedside table for his spectacles, then under the pillow for his gold hunter watch; flicking it open, he would look at the time – ‘Too early – go back to bed for – er – forty minutes!’ or ‘All right – in you come, Rabbits!’ He made a complete stage set and characters for Cinderella for her German toy theatre. He was fond of all inventive games, and never minded being invaded in his studio, in fact people and conversation around him never disturbed him while he was working. Barbara would often watch him at work, sitting at his drawing desk, with a paint brush in his mouth while he used a pen, or vice versa, making the weird grimaces of his characters as he drew them – a fascinating performance for a child.