Jessie Willcox Smith

Jessie Willcox Smith was an American illustrator during the Golden Age of American Illustration, perhaps “one of the greatest pure illustrators.” There are 8 volumes with her illustrations available from Internet Archive featured in this ‘eBooks-of-the Week.’ Enjoy the sample images….and follow the links to see more.

Illustration: Jessie Willcox Smith  (1935)

Heidi (Spyri, Johanna) (1922)

Dream Blocks (Higgins, Aileen Cleveland) (1908)

At the Back of the Northwind (MacDonald, George) (1919)

The Princess and the Goblin (MacDonald, George) (1920)

The Water-babies (Kingsley, Charles) (1916)

The Seven Ages of Childhood (Wells, Carolyn) (1909)

Dickens's Children: 10 drawings  (1912)

The brief biographies I found online indicate that the artist was able to financially support herself and others through her art; she was talented…and she benefited from the somewhat more open ideas of the early 1900s about women working. She lived in homes with gardens where she could allow her young models to run and play while she painted. Toward then end of her life, she traveled to Europe for the first time; a year of so after she returned, she died in her sleep at 71.

Wikipedia biography, Encyclopedia.com biography