Golden Age Of Illustration In The 1920s

This investigation will explore the question “ ‘The golden age of illustration ended in 1920s.’ Do you agree with this statement?” The Golden Age of Illustration can be seen as an art movement as it bears qualities similar to other art movements, having artworks and artists of that time possessing a trend in techniques and imagery. As all art movements do, The Golden Age of Illustration had a specific time frame in which it thrived and took place, however unlike other movements, the span of years differ greatly from source to source, the general range starting at the late 1800s and the latest ending well into the 1950s. The purpose of this investigation is to find out an accurate approximate time period for when The Golden Age of Illustration

Artworks that could be classified as children’s books illustrations such as those of Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit represent the Golden Age of Illustration back then and until today. The iconic characters and art style shaped the famous illustrative storytelling that the Golden Age of Illustration was recognised for. One publisher of children’s books was Disney, and it is argued that this was a part of the Golden Age of Illustration leading into the 1940s. However, generally, the art of Disney’s golden books was not like that of the Golden Age’s most prolific artists and artworks, which separates the art of Disney’s Little Golden Books from that of the Golden Age of Illustration. Disney’s illustrations departed from the traditional style of highly detailed, realistic watercolour and ink drawings that was signature to the Golden Age Of Illustration. Very quickly after the debut of Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie, 1928, the company and character started receiving attention from the public. Merchandise followed in 1933 shortly after the release of the comic strip featuring Mickey Mouse in 1930, with watches featuring the character selling rapidly at a rate of more than 11,000 everyday. This shows how quickly Disney gained fame and

I had a hard time finding sources on the topic as typically not a lot of research and documentation covered art that was not classified as fine art. Artists from the Golden Age of Illustration didn’t explore much besides two dimensional mediums and create highly conceptual and original works which likely meant illustration of this sort was not considered fine art. Fine art artworks and artists are arranged into movements and receive a lot of in depth analysis and research. Illustrations from the Golden Age while bearing great similarities were likely perceived differently from a movement like surrealism or dadaism which meant it received less attention in the research and documentation area. From this investigation, I learnt firstly to choose a topic I am capable of exploring that I will not lose interest in or give up on. I realised early on that I was not really interested in the golden age of illustration but the golden age of comics that came after that. I should have paid more attention and done better research prior to confirming this topic as my final choice because it made me lose interest and put in less effort into my work. I learnt secondly to spread out the workload across more than just a handful of days. I struggled as I did not have the motivation to work and left a few days for each part of the task. I could have managed that by doing a little work each day instead of cramming it all within a few