Out for a Sleigh Ride

pen and black ink on board, signed lower right "Birch". 1 vols. 21-3/4 x 22 inches. Matted; fine. pen and black ink on board, signed lower right "Birch". 1 vols. 21-3/4 x 22 inches. A typically fine and engaging turn of the century magazine illustration, for which the artist was noted. Reginald Birch (1856-1943) was known as “The children's Gibson” because of the large number of children's stories he illustrated for St. Nicholas magazine. He also illustrated some 200 books, most notably Little Lord Fauntleroy: his costuming of the boy set a style of dressing that a generation of otherwise masculine boys suffered through until the fashions changed. “His drawings”, notes Reed, “give the appearance of great spontaneity and directness resulting from his practice of using models only for his preliminary sketches and rendering the finished drawings freely from them.”

Provenance: The Century Magazine Archive. Reed, The Illustrator in America , p. 14