Robin Jacques is a big name little known. He was an illustrator for more than 100 books in the heart of the twentieth century and he ploughed his own course. While his contemporaries started covering the pages of books in thick black spidery scratchy inky illustrations, Jacques calmly and meticulously created fine line shading and careful recreations of historical costumes and architecture. He notably illustrated a whole series of books with Ruth Manning-Saunders: The Book of ...Wizards ...Monsters ...Witches ...Giants etc. His contribution to illustration in the 20th Century was immense and is barely recognised today.
Fun fact: Robin Jacques was the brother of Hattie, of Carry On fame.
