Witches on Broomsticks and Fairies Sailing Seashells: The enchanting illustrations of Ida Outhwaite
Combining the Australian outback with English folklore
Ida Rentoul Outhwaite was born on the 9th of June, 1888 in Carlton, Melbourne, Australia.
The daughter of a Presbyterian minister and professor of theology, she excelled at Presbyterian Ladies’ College in Melbourne.
Such was her talent, Ida started working at only 15 years old. She and her older sister Annie started to publish fairy stories in the magazine, The New Idea: A Woman’s Home Journal for Australasia. Ida would illustrate the ethereal images and Annie would pen the stories.
These magazine stories were followed by book publications, such as Mollie’s Bunyip (A bunyip is a swamp creature from aboriginal mythology in Australia), Australian songs for Young and Old and her sister’s version of Peter Pan.
As well as illustrating for books and other publications, Ida also designed costumes for on-stage pantomimes.
In 1908, the Rentoul sisters published their first sizeable fiction book, The Lady of the Blue Beads. The book is given the following synopsis on goodreads.com;
“It is not every day that you are invited to an enchanted island. It is not everyone who would be brave enough to accept — especially when you know there will be cannibals aplenty. But when Margaret receives the invitation mysteriously addressed “To the Lady of the Blue Beads”, it is your chance to go too. Who are the cheeky Beady and Inky who penned the invitation? Where is their homeland, Coconut-Ice Island? And, most important of all, how do we get there?”
Ida married Arthur Grenbry Outhwaite in 1909, and they went on to have four children together. Ida incorporated her children into her artwork, using them as models in her illustrations.
In 1916, Ida exhibited her work at an exhibition of the Fine Art Society in Melbourne. In the same year, Annie and Ida published the adorable book Elves & Fairies, Annie had written verses of fairies, goblins, witches and other fantastical beings in the Australian bush, and Ida had brought these stories to life with beautiful colour and black and white illustrations. Developments in printing processes at this time meant that the distinctive look of watercolour paintings could be appreciated more clearly. Copies of Elves & Fairies can still be found on eBay and at secondhand bookshops.
In 1920, Ida exhibited with the Fine Arts Society in London and then started publishing books with the British publishing company A & C Black. Titles include The Enchanted Forest (1921) and The Little Green Road to Fairyland (1922).
Many of her illustrations depict aspects of Australian culture, such as koalas, kangaroos, and kookaburras. In at least one of her pictures, koalas can be seen with top hats and canes with a fairy serving them drinks, something which lecturer Rebeccca-Anne do Rozario told ABC News, mirrors the “Anglophile, middle-class Australian at the time”.
Ida experienced tragedy later on in life when her husband died in 1938 and two of their sons died in the Second World War, during which, she worked censorship.
Ida spent her last years with Annie, living in a flat in Melbourne together, and she died on the 25th of June, 1960.
For a time, Ida had experienced fame for her work, reports online even claim that a copy of Ida’s Fairlyand (1926) was given to the infant Queen Elizabeth. However, as she got older, she became less and less known.
Dr Anita Callaway of Sydney University told ABC News in 2018 that she believes Outhwaite hasn’t remained a famous figure in art history because her artworks were primarily illustrations, meaning they are not considered to be “high art”. This, and the fact that her themes were of feminine things such as fantasy scenes and fairies meant that she doesn’t fit in with the art cannon of the Australian male artists of the turn of the 20th century who painted more ‘serious’ things, like dramatic landscapes.
Personally, I find Ida’s artwork incredibly joyful and comforting as they remind me of the pictures in the fairy books I read as a child. One is never too old to engage with their imagination and, in my opinion, soft, ‘feminine’ themes in art should be appreciated in the same regard as any other subject.
I hope to see continued interest in Ida’s work in the future, as well as more appreciation for illustration as a serious art form.
References
Elves & Fairies — Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, Annie Rattray Rentoul. (n.d.). Retrieved from Google Books: https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Elves_Fairies.html?id=y_S6PQAACAAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y
Ida Rentoul Outhwaite | Chris Beetles. (n.d.). Retrieved from Chris Beetles Gallery: https://www.chrisbeetles.com/artist/316/ida-rentoul-outhwaite
Pryor, C. (2018, October 2). Fairy-tales, feminism and fame: The story of Ida Rentoul Outhwaite. Retrieved from ABC News: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-02/australian-fairytale-legend-ida-rentoul-outhwaite/10285990
Stardust Melodies An exhibition of sheet music from the Rare Books Collection. (n.d.). Retrieved from StudyLib: https://studylib.net/doc/11224438/stardust-melodies-an-exhibition-of-sheet-music-from-the-rare
The Lady Of The Blue Beads by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite | Goodreads. (n.d.). Retrieved from Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1992292.The_Lady_Of_The_Blue_Beads
