Arty Farty Friday ~ Mabel Lucie Attwell & Our Inner Child

 I'd like to caption the above, "I read the news today - Oh boy!"

Wandering away from painterly painters, painters starving in garrets, and painters tangled up in diverse romantic or emotional muddles, here's someone completely different.
Mabel Lucie Attwell. I don't know how well she was known in the USA. Husband didn't recognise her name. Even in the UK, nowadays, she mightn't be easily remembered. My generation, the "War Babies", the only generation still around who'd remember her clearly, are tending to sink slowly in the west. Mabel Lucie Attwell is probably better recognised, anywhere, if at all, by her whimsical style illustrations of chubby-faced cheeky children than by her name. Her heyday was in the 1920s, 30s and 40s, echoing on through the early 1950s.

I'm not a fan of "twee", and it has to be said, some of Mabel Lucie's postcard illustrations are painfully twee, and yet, there's also a wee bit of sly knowing in some of 'em, and that's what attracted her adult fans.

Mabel Lucie Attwell was born in London on 4 June 1879. She had a natural aptitude for drawing. From her youngest years she loved to draw pictures to illustrate the stories she'd dream up with one of her sisters. Her drawings sold easily, and in sufficient volume that by age 16 she was able to finance her art studies in college. She met her husband-to-be while studying, they married later and had three children, a girl and two boys. The little girl, Peggy, was Mabel Lucie's inspiration for her round-faced cherubic subjects.

There were several successful female illustrators of children's books around at the same time (there's a relevant post in my archives - here), but Mabel Lucie had something special - a winking cheekiness with appeal to adults. She illustrated books, posters, thousands - or millions - of postcards, advertising matter, calendars, magazine covers and illustrations/cartoons. Her pictures often whispered of the challenges and changes going on in the 20th century world of adults, but always with gentle humour.

 Alice

In 1945 Mabel Lucie moved from London to Cornwall, in the far south-west of England, to live with her son Peter. She stayed in Cornwall until her death on 5th November 1964. As is stated in a piece about her work at World Collectors

"Still to this day products are licensed under her name and are just as sought after as the original pieces from the earlier part of the 20th Century, ensuring that her legacy lives on through the eyes of adults who are secretly still children inside."

ASTROLOGY

Mabel Lucie Attwell was born in London on 4 June 1879. No time of birth is known, chart set for 12 noon. Moon and ascendant would not have been as shown.

Hmm. I don't have a whole lot to say about this chart, except that it's highly appropriate that Venus, planet of the arts, should be found in Cancer, sign of the home, of nurturing, family, and sentimentality. Her chubby wee ones all have round "moon-faces", and Cancer's ruler is....the Moon.

Mabel Lucie's natal Moon was somewhere in Sagittarius, a sign known for its optimism, an outlook that shines through all her little postcard messages. Moon was probably in opposition to her Gemini Sun, depending on time of birth - and forming a T-square to Jupiter (ruler of Sagittarius where her Moon is placed). In most charts this might indicate some ongoing challenges, but somehow, in this case I doubt it....so perhaps her natal Moon was out of orb to form those aspects, or at least too far out to form them tightly enough to matter.

Female artists, children's books, sextiles & semis

Female artists in general were thin on the ground in the 19th/early 20th century, but it isn't surprising that women would excel in the specialised genre of illustrating children, or for children - it's in their blood. The ability to visualise a children's world, what pleases them - whimsy and gentle fantasy, are likely to be stock-in-trade. There were male illustrators too, of course, but in this genre the ladies managed to find a more level playingfield. In their era, this kind of art would have presented a more proper pursuit for the lady with artistic talent who didn't wish to damage her reputation by joining those naughty bohemians, living it up(or down)in Paris.

The five female artists whose work I decided to look at were all born in the latter part of the 19th century. Their best work was in illustrating famous books for children, such as 'Alice in Wonderland', 'The Water Babies', 'The Pied Piper'. There were also, of course, the chubby cheeked kids,the pretty fairies and the constant tweeness - pleasant enough in small doses. For passing readers not familiar with the term "twee", in Britain it's used to describe anything excessively cute, dainty, delicate, whimsical, or kind of ultra- homely. I've noticed, by the way, that in the USA tweeness is quite popular.



Examples, below, of the styles of the 5 featured artists: top right Mabel Lucy Attwell.Top left: Bessie Pease Gutmann


















Cicely Mary Barker



Jessie Wilcox Smith

I've featured three English artists and two from the USA.

Mabel Lucy Attwell born in London, England 4 June 1879

Cicely Mary Barker born in London, 28 June 1895

Kate Greenaway born in London 17 March 1846

Bessie Pease Gutmann born in Philadelphia PA, USA 8 April 1876

Jessie Wilcox Smith born in Philadelphia PA on 6 September 1863
(The small illustration at the beginning of this entry is by her.)

I compared the five 12 noon charts, concentrating only on positions of Venus (art), Neptune(imagination), Mercury(communication)and Jupiter(publishing), looking for any similarities.

There's a goodly amount of Taurus and/or Cancer showing - this seems appropriate to the subject matter - Cancer ruled by Moon and representing mothers, nurturing, etc. Taurus ruled by Venus - love, earthy, beauty - (and probably tweeness!)

The sextile and semi-sextile came up a lot. Astrology.com describes these aspects thus:

Sextile -a soft energy is generally ascribed to this aspect. Sextiles are about the easy and unencumbered flow of energy between two planets. There is a lack of tension inherent in this aspect which translates to the ability of the individual to accomplish much. Attraction is present, and self-expression is enhanced.

Semi-sextile - this Aspect is not quite as harmonious in tone as a sextile. Further, there tends to be a fated quality to this Aspect. Semi-sextiles tend to create minor tension..... unease is the result, and a sense that something should be done (or that if it were done, all would be better). This Aspect also has a karmic tie. When two planets are semi-sextiling each other, we need to know that there is a lesson (albeit a small one) to be dealt with and effectively overcome. This lesson may well come to us from our past. Lastly, with this Aspect, there is always that karmic connection. Something is out there, and while we're not quite sure what it is, we just can't seem to break away from it. Is this yet another lesson from the semi-sextile?

Sextiles between relevant planets in these charts link well to the art we're considering. Interesting that the sextile is described as "soft energy" - that does seem particularly appropriate. I'm not sure about the semi-sextiles - karmic connections? Could be! Anyway, here are the similarities:


Attwell - Venus on South Node(sensitive point in chart) sextile Mercury. Neptune sextile Jupiter



Barker - Venus and Neptune in sextile, Jupiter semi-sextile both planets. Mercury semi-sextile both Pluto and Mars



Greenaway - Venus sextile Jupiter, semi-sextile Mercury. Neptune/Saturn conjunction semi- sextile Sun



Gutmann - Venus sextile Mercury with Neptune semi-sextile both those planets. Jupiter opposes Venus, trines Mercury.



Smith - Libran stellium of Mercury, Venus and Saturn opposed by Neptune in Aries. Venus semi-sextile Sun. Jupiter also in Libra trines Uranus, semi-sextiles Mars.

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More of the work of each of these artists can be explored via Google Image.