Randolph Caldecott

Randolph Caldecott (/ˈkɔːldəkɒt/ KAWL-də-kot; 22 March 1846 – 12 February 1886) was a prolific British artist and illustrator who illustrated novels and accounts of foreign travel, made humorous drawings depicting hunting and fashionable life, drew cartoons, made sketches of the Houses of Parliament inside and out, and exhibited sculptures and paintings in oil and watercolour in the Royal Academy. He is most famous for his illustrations of children's books, for transforming the style of book illustration, and for his continuing influence on illustrators of children's books. Caldecott was born at 150 Bridge Street (now No 16), Chester, where his father, John Caldecott, was a tailor-turned-accountant, twice married with thirteen children. Caldecott was his father's third child with his first wife, Mary Dinah Brookes. In 1848, the family moved to Challoner House, Crook Street, Chester, and in 1860 to 23 Richmond Place, Boughton, a village just outside the city. From early childhood, Caldecott drew and modelled, mostly animals. He occasionally worked in oils, with a favourite subject being his brother Alfred (who would go on to become an eminent philosopher). Randolph spent five years at the King's School, Chester, a grammar school in the city centre, where he was Head Boy. He won a school prize for drawing and, in 1861, had his first drawing published, a sketch of a fire at the Queen Hotel, Chester which appeared in the Illustrated London News, together with his account of the blaze. Also in 1861, at age 15, Caldecott left school and, at his father's insistence, went to work as a clerk at the offices of the Whitchurch & Ellesmere Bank in Whitchurch, Shropshire.