flower fairies of the spring first edition

Barker is said to have made every effort to paint and draw from life. Of course, the most defining quality of a lilac is its perfume, and so Barker pays homage to this by having her little fairy take a deep inhale. In Cicely Mary Barker’s painting, The Lilac Fairy, one is immediately struck by the minute details of the lilac itself: tiny purple flowers clustered together surrounded by fat green leaves. The Aestheticism Movement, the Arts and Crafts Movement, and eventually, Art Nouveau, would all grow out of the ideas that made the PRB so radical and different.īarker’s Art Style And Process The Lilac Fairy, from Flower Fairies of the Trees by Cicely Mary Barker, 1940, via the Flower Fairies Website Although the PRB was only active for a couple of years, their ideas about art and creativity stoked the fires of many artists, poets, and craftspeople. The Pre-Raphaelites were initially rebels to the elite art world and the Royal Academy, creating art that directly contrasted what was considered “fine” by the art establishment. After the short reign of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, several other artistic and literary movements sprouted from those initial seeds. via Spencer Museum of Art, LawrenceĬicely Mary Barker, an English native, born at the end of the 19th century, grew up during a unique period of art history. It’s no wonder that Barker’s Flower Fairies books are still being published today, and her art is adored by those of all ages.Īrt Movements That Inspired The Flower Fairies La Pia de’ Tolommei by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1868. Her most famous works, the Flower Fairies books, were created with such careful observation you would think she was a fairy botanist. Cicely Mary Barker’s work contains all the whimsy and charm of the Art Nouveau aesthetic, as well as the precision and fine detail of the Pre-Raphaelites. īy 1923, her very first book would be published and would receive a positive and lucrative response, launching her illustration career. In her adolescence, Barker would prove to be a promising student, becoming the youngest member of the Croydon Art Society at age sixteen. From an early age, art was a vital presence in Barker’s life: from her father’s own art to the illustrated storybooks she read as a child. Young Cicely Mary Barker Young Cicely Mary Barker, via the Flower Fairies WebsiteĬicely Mary Barker was born in Croydon, Surrey, England, on June 28th, 1895.

Flower fairies of the spring first edition