Charles Robinson

Charles Robinson (1870–1937) was a prolific British book illustrator. Born in Islington in October 1870 in London, he was the son of illustrator Thomas Robinson, and his brothers Thomas Heath Robinson and William Heath Robinson also became illustrators. He served as an apprentice printer and took art classes in the evenings. He won a seat at the Royal Academy in 1892, but was unable to take it due to a lack of finance. The first complete book he illustrated was The Kindergarten of Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson (1895), in which more than 100 drawings were made with pen and ink. He was extremely popular, went through many reprints and called for numerous commissions. He illustrated many fairy tales and children's books throughout his career, including The Lullaby of Eugene Field (1897), The Baby Voices of WE Cule (1899), Sintram and His Companions by Friedrich de la Mott Fouquet (1900) Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1907), Grimm's Tales (1910), The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett (1911), and books written by Walter Copeland Jerrold and himself. He was also an active artist, especially at a later age, and was elected to the Royal Institute of Watercolor Artists in 1932. Robinson married Edith Mary Fawatt in 1897 in Middlesex, England, and they were the parents of four daughters and two sons.