Louis Rhead, 1857-1926
Biographical note
English-born American artist, illustrator, author and angler who was born in Etruria, Staffordshire, England. He emigrated to the United States at the age of twenty-four.
In the early 1890s, Rhead became a prominent poster artist and was heavily influenced by the work of Swiss artist Eugène Grasset. During the poster craze of the early 1890s, Rhead’s poster art appeared regularly in Harper's Bazaar, Harper's Magazine, St. Nicolas, Century Magazine, Ladies Home Journal and Scribner's Magazine. In 1895 he won a Gold Medal for Best American Poster Design at the first International Poster Show in Boston.
By the late 1890s, the popularity of poster art declined and Rhead turned his skills to book illustration, sometimes in collaboration with his brothers Frederick and George. Between 1902 and his death in 1926, Rhead illustrated numerous children's books published by Harpers and others. Most notable among these were editions of Robin Hood, The Swiss Family Robinson, Robinson Crusoe, The Deerslayer, Treasure Island, Kidnapped and Heidi.
Works
- Illustrations by George Wooliscroft Rhead, & Louis Rhead, from Tennyson, Alfred. Idylls of the King: Vivien, Elaine, Enid, Guinevere. [New York: R. H. Russell, 1898]
- The pilgrim's progress from this world to that which
is to come; / John Bunyan; Embellished with over one hundred and twenty designs done by three brothers: George
Woolliscroft Rhead, Frederick Rhead, Louis Rhead. [New York: The Century Co., 1898]
- The Psalms of David: including sixteen full-page illustrations and numerous decorations in the text depicting the life of David as shepherd, poet, warrior & king / Illustrated and Decorated by Louis Rhead [Chicago: Fleming H. Revel Company, 1900]
- The life and death of Mr. Badman, presented to the world in a familiar dialogue between Mr. Wiseman and Mr. Attentive / John Bunyan Illustrated by George W. and Louis Rhead. [London: W. Heinemann, 1900]
- The life and strange surprising adventures of Robinsoe Crusoe of York, mariner. With nearly one hundred original drawings and decorations done from sketches made in the tropics specially for this work by the brothers Louis and Frederick Rhead / Daniel Defoe [New York: R. H. Russell, 1900]
- Morris, William (translator) (1902). The History of Over Sea. Illustrated by George W. and Louis Rhead. New York: R. H. Russell.
- The Swiss family Robinson; or, The adventures of a
shipwrecked family on an uninhabited isle near New Guinea / David Wyss, with numerous illustrations done from sketches
made in the tropics by Louis Rhead; and an introduction by W.D. Howells [New York: Harper and Brothers, 1909]
- Rhead, Louis (1907). A Collection of Bookplate Designs. [Boston: W. Porter Truesdell, 1907]
- Tom Brown's school days / Tom Hughes; Illustrated by Louis Rhead, with an introduciton by W.D. Howells [New York: Harper and Brothers, 1911]
- Bold Robin Hood and his outlaw band, their famous exploits in Sherwood Forest. Penned and pictured by Louis Rhead [New York: Harper & Brothers, 1912]
- Treasure Island / Robert Louis Stevenson. Decorated and illustrated by Louis Rhead. [New York: Harper Brothers, 1915]
- The Arabian Nights Entertainments. Illustrated and
Decorated by Louis Rhead. [New York: Harper and Brothers. 1916]
- Tales from Shakespeare / Charles and Mary Lamb, Louis Rhead, ill [New York: Harper and Brothers, 1918]
- Kidnapped. Being the Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the year 1751. / Robert Louis Stevenson. Illustrated by Louis Rhead. [New York: Harper and Brothers, 1921]
On fishing:
- The speckled brook trout (salvelinus fontinalis) / by various experts with rod and reel, edited and illustrated by Louis Rhead. Introduction by Charles Hallock. [New York, R.H. Russell, 1902]
- The basses, fresh-water and marine / William Charles Harris and Tarleton H. Bean, edited and illustrated by Louis Rhead. [New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company Publishers, [1905]
- Bait angling for common fishes / Rhead, Louis, 1857-1926 [1907]
- American trout-stream insects; a guide to angling flies and other aquatic insects alluring to trout, selected and painted for each month of the trout season from nearly one hundred living specimens native to the rivers and lakes of the temperate zone of North America, with notes on and reproductions of artificial imitation flies tied by the author, and a chapter on the mode of tying artificial flies, with assisting charts and illustrations in the text, together with descriptions and illustrations of a complete set of new artificial nature-lures copied exactly from carefully colored life-pictures of all creatures that bass and other game fishes consume as food / Louis Rhead [New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1916]
- The book of fish and fishing: a complete compendium of practical advice to guide those who angle for all fishes in fresh and salt water / Louis Rhead [New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1908]
- Days in the open / Lathan A. Crandall; Decorations by Louis
Rhead. [New York: Fleming H. Revel Company, 1914]
- Fisherman's lures and game-fish food: with colored
pictures from life of various creatures fish eat and new improved artificial imitation floating nature lures and
chart-plans to show the haunts where fish feed on them in lake and stream / Louis Rhead [New York: Charles Scribner's
Sons, 1920]
- How to fish the dry fly; describing the latest
up-to-date necessary tackle, its cost, and where to get it and the proper method of using it. A description of the
American and English dry flies, also how to fish various nymphs from the bottom upwards in place of worms if trout do
not respond to flies early in the season or during the late summer / Louis Rhead [Privately printed, 1921]