Frederick Richardson
Encyclopedia
L. Frank Baum
Lyman Frank Baum was an American author of children's books, best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...
.
A native Chicagoan
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Richardson studied at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts and at 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...
. He taught at the Chicago Art Institute for seven years; Albert Henry Krehbiel
Albert Henry Krehbiel
Albert Henry Krehbiel , was an American artist who was born in Denmark, Iowa and who taught, lived and worked for many years in Chicago. Although educated as a realist in Paris, which is reflected in his neoclassical mural works, soon developed a strong appreciation for impressionism and is mainly...
was one of his students. He was "a slightly-built, gray-eyed man" whose work "was strongly influenced by the Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
movement...." From 1892 on, if not earlier, Richardson made a living as a newspaper illustrator, working for the Chicago Daily News
Chicago Daily News
The Chicago Daily News was an afternoon daily newspaper published between 1876 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois.-History:The Daily News was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty in 1875 and began publishing early the next year...
; he produced many pictures of the famous World's Columbian Exposition
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition was a World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. Chicago bested New York City; Washington, D.C.; and St...
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 City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to pursue book illustration. His first book was Baum's Queen Zixi of Ix
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 from November 1904 to October 1905, and was published in book...
, which was published serially in St. Nicholas Magazine
St. Nicholas Magazine
St. Nicholas Magazine was a popular children's magazine, founded by Scribner's in 1873. The first editor was Mary Mapes Dodge, who continued her association with the magazine until her death in 1905. Dodge published work by the country's best writers, including Louisa May Alcott, Francis Hodgson...
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
A Kidnapped Santa Claus is a Christmas-themed short story written by L. Frank Baum, famous as the creator of the Land of Oz; it has been called "one of Baum's most beautiful stories" and constitutes an influential contribution to the mythology of Christmas."A Kidnapped Santa Claus" was first...
," 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
Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Snow Queen," "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," and "The Ugly Duckling."...
, Aesop's Fables
Aesop's Fables
Aesop's Fables or the Aesopica are a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and story-teller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BCE. The fables remain a popular choice for moral education of children today...
, Mother Goose
Mother Goose
The familiar figure of Mother Goose is an imaginary author of a collection of fairy tales and nursery rhymes which are often published as Mother Goose Rhymes. As a character, she appears in one "nursery rhyme". A Christmas pantomime called Mother Goose is often performed in the United Kingdom...
, Pinocchio
Pinocchio
The Adventures of Pinocchio is a novel for children by Italian author Carlo Collodi, written in Florence. The first half was originally a serial between 1881 and 1883, and then later completed as a book for children in February 1883. It is about the mischievous adventures of Pinocchio , an...
, and East of the Sun and West of the Moon
East of the Sun and West of the Moon
East of the Sun and West of the Moon is a Norwegian folk tale.East of the Sun and West of the Moon was collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe...
, plus two volumes in the series of Andrew Lang's Fairy Books
Andrew Lang's Fairy Books
Andrew Lang's Fairy Books — also known as Andrew Lang's "Coloured" Fairy Books or Andrew Lang's Fairy Books of Many Colors — are a series of twelve collections of fairy tales, published between 1889 and 1910...
. Richardson did abundant work for the Chicago publisher P. F. Volland; in illustrating collections of tales by Georgene Faulkner
Georgene Faulkner
Georgene Faulkner was a prominent American children's book author and storyteller of the early twentieth century. In her career, she was known as "the Story Lady."...
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
Frank R. Stockton
Frank Richard Stockton was an American writer and humorist, best known today for a series of innovative children's fairy tales that were widely popular during the last decades of the 19th century...
's The Queen's Museum (1906), Edith Ogden Harrison
Edith Ogden Harrison
Edith Ogden Harrison was a well-known and prolific author of children's books and fairy tales in the early decades of the twentieth century. She was also the wife of Carter Harrison, Jr., five-term mayor of Chicago....
's The Enchanted House (1913), and Frances Jenkins Olcott's The Red Indian Fairy Book (1917), among other works.
For John Heming Fry's "diatribe against modernism," The Revolt Against Beauty (1934), Richardson supplied pictures that parodied the work of Paul Gauguin
Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...
and Vincent Van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...
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
Three Billy Goats Gruff
Three Billy Goats Gruff is a Norwegian fairy tale. The fairy tale was collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in their Norske Folkeeventyr, first published between 1841 and 1844...
" and "The Bremen Town Musicians," with brightly-colored illustrations by the artist.
Richardson was survived by one of his two sons.