Alice Bolingbroke Woodward, (1862–1951) an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 illustrator

Illustrator

An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...

, was born October 3, 1862 in Chelsea, London

Chelsea, London

Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...

. Her father Henry Woodward

Henry Woodward (geologist)

Henry Bolingbroke Woodward was an English geologist.He became assistant in the geological department of the British Museum in 1858, and in 1880 keeper of that department. He became FRS in 1873, LL.D in 1878, president of the Geological Society of London...

, was an eminent scientist and the Keeper of Geology at the Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, England . Its main frontage is on Cromwell Road...

. As a child, Alice was educated at home by governesses, along with her four sisters and two brothers (she was the fourth of seven). From a young age the children were encouraged to draw, with all of the sisters eventually becoming artists and all of the brothers becoming scientists. By her late teens, Alice was skilled enough to illustrate for her father's lectures and for the papers of his colleagues.

This allowed her to earn enough money to begin her studies at South Kensington School of Art, and later at the Westminster School of Art

Westminster School of Art

The Westminster School of Art was an art school in Westminster, London. It was located at 18 Tufton Street, Deans Yard, Westminster, and was part of the old Architectural Museum.H. M. Bateman described it in 1903 as...

 followed thereafter by the Académie Julian

Académie Julian

The Académie Julian was an art school in Paris, France.Rodolphe Julian established the Académie Julian in 1868 at the Passage des Panoramas, as a private studio school for art students. The Académie Julian not only prepared students to the exams at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts, but offered...

 in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. She took lessons in illustration from Joseph Pennell

Joseph Pennell

Joseph Pennell was an American artist and author.-Biography:Born in Philadelphia, and first studied there, but like his compatriot and friend, James McNeill Whistler, he afterwards went to Europe and made his home in London...

 and Maurice Greiffenhagen

Maurice Greiffenhagen

Maurice Greiffenhagen was a British painter and Royal Academician. He illustrated books and designed posters as well as painting idyllic landscapes....

 and her connection with Pennell led to commissions from J. M. Dent

J. M. Dent

Joseph Malaby Dent was a British book publisher who produced the Everyman's Library series.Dent was born in Darlington in what is now the Britaania public house. After a short and unsuccessful stint as an apprentice printer he took up bookbinding...

 and Macmillan and Company to illustrate children's books. She also continued to illustrate for scientific work throughout her career. Alice Woodward died in 1951.

Illustration

Between 1896 and 1900, she did her best black and white work for the Glasgow publishing house, Blackie and Son Limited

Blackie and Son Limited

Blackie and Son Limited was a publishing house in Glasgow, Scotland and in London, England, from 1890 to 1991.The firm was founded in 1809 by John Blackie, snr. as a partnership with two others and was originally known as 'Blackie, Fullerton and Company'. It began printing in 1819 and was renamed...

, illustrating a series of outstanding children's books including To Tell the King the Sky is Falling, Adventures in Toyland, and Red Apple and Silver Bells, as well as contributing to annuals and school primers through the 1920s. She also succeeded Aubrey Beardsley

Aubrey Beardsley

Aubrey Vincent Beardsley was an English illustrator and author. His drawings, done in black ink and influenced by the style of Japanese woodcuts, emphasized the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic. He was a leading figure in the Aesthetic movement which also included Oscar Wilde and James A....

 as illustrator of W.C. Jerrold's Bon-Mots of the Eighteenth Century, and then his Bon-Mots of the Nineteenth Century. From 1907 on, her main publisher was George Bell & Sons

George Bell & Sons

George Bell & Sons was a book publishing house located in London, United Kingdom, from 1839 to 1986. It was founded by George Bell as an educational bookseller, with the intention of selling the output of London university presses; but became best known as an independent publisher of classics and...

 for whom she illustrated The Peter Pan Picture Book. For this, she created 28 coloured plates which are widely known, as the book has been continuously in print from 1907 to the present.
This project was followed by the stories of two Gilbert and Sullivan

Gilbert and Sullivan

Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...

 operas and even more children's books all with coloured illustrations. She also illustrated Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...

's beloved Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures...

and Anna Sewell

Anna Sewell

Anna Sewell was an English novelist, best known as the author of the classic novel Black Beauty.-Biography:Anna Mary Sewell was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England into a devoutly Quaker family...

's classic Black Beauty

Black Beauty

Black Beauty is an 1877 novel by English author Anna Sewell. It was composed in the last years of her life, during which she remained in her house as an invalid. The novel became an immediate bestseller, with Sewell dying just five months after its publication, long enough to see her first and only...

. Amongst the last of her books was a volume of Myths and Legends of the Australian Aboriginals which she illustrated in 1930 when she was 68 years old. Woodward also exhibited paintings (of scenes in Normandy

Normandy

Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...

 and Norfolk

Norfolk

Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

) and designs for process reproduction at the 91 Art Club, a Chelsea club for women artists. Her work has appeared in over 80 publications including dinosaur reconstructions for the Illustrated London News

Illustrated London News

The Illustrated London News was the world's first illustrated weekly newspaper; the first issue appeared on Saturday 14 May 1842. It was published weekly until 1971 and then increasingly less frequently until publication ceased in 2003.-History:...

.

To differentiate between her two different kinds of work, she signed all of her illustrations with a butterfly monogram

Monogram

A monogram is a motif made by overlapping or combining two or more letters or other graphemes to form one symbol. Monograms are often made by combining the initials of an individual or a company, used as recognizable symbols or logos. A series of uncombined initials is properly referred to as a...

, while in her scientific work she simply wrote her name.

Woodward's illustrations have been compared to those of Arthur Rackham

Arthur Rackham

Arthur Rackham was an English book illustrator.-Biography:Rackham was born in London as one of 12 children. At the age of 18, he worked as a clerk at the Westminster Fire Office and began studying part-time at the Lambeth School of Art.In 1892 he left his job and started working for The...

. Her scientific work was known for its accuracy and precision, a necessity in technical illustration

Technical illustration

Technical Illustration is the use of illustration to visually communicate information of a technical nature. Technical illustrations can be components of technical drawings or diagrams...

. Her drawings were also always lifelike, whether it was a drawing of a specimen or a reconstruction of a prehistoric animal.

Her work is still in copyright in the European Union, until 2022 (70 years after her death).

External links

• List of books
• The Princess of Hearts in the University of Florida
  University of Florida
  The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
  
  's Digital Collections