RANDOLPH CALDECOTT

Although Caldecott's children's book illustrations are universally admired, his significance as an artist is not yet fully appreciated. He was one of the first illustrators to break with the dense cross-hatching and shading that characterized the wood-engraved illustrations of the 1860s. Dark atmospheric effects continued to be favored by many artists well into the 1870s and 1880s. Caldecott, in contrast, used wood-engraving in an entirely different way. His drawings employ a minimum of line -- mere outlines in many cases -- with the emphasis on lively and expressive draftsmanship. This checklist is limited to the drawings by Randolph Caldecott in the Houghton Library collection. It does not include his paintings or his sculpture -- or his wonderful illustrated letters, which deserve separate study in themselves.