Margaret Rice Oxley ~ Artist & Illustrator ~ 20th Century

Margaret Rice Oxley

Margaret Rice Oxley

The Children Dream of Seafaring

Margaret Rice Oxley often signed her art and illustrations as M Rice Oxley. Little is known about her, even by the auction houses that have listed and sold her work. Other than auction listings, I can find no reference to her as an illustrator in the Library of Congress extensive catalog of books, on the Internet Archive, or in general searches on the internet.

I found one sentence of biographical information from an auction house called Dominic Winter: "The fine watercolourist Margaret Rice Oxley is little known, although we understand that she lived at Lyth Hill, near Shrewsbury, and that she was probably born in the second decade of the 20th century."

Margaret Rice Oxley worked in watercolor and pen and ink. From the type of work represented by the auction houses, she may have illustrated for books or magazines, but I can find no records to this effect. Is it possible she was a highly accomplished hobbyist who remained unpublished?

I'm sharing at Art of Narrative most of the handful of images I've found at their highest resolution, slightly enhanced for color and clarity. I've seen the same watercolor paintings and pen and ink illustrations in different sizes, tones and colors, depending on which auction house or secondary site posted the images, so I do not know how accurate the colors and contrast may be, but I think you will agree that she is an artist deserving discovery and wide recognition.

Click into each image to see the highest resolution.

Margaret Rice Oxley

Apotheosis of Columbine

Margaret Rice Oxley

The Dandelion Fairy

Margaret Rice Oxley

The Garden of Dreams

Margaret Rice Oxley

The Winds Fly Fast to Their Home

Margaret Rice Oxley

The End of the Story

Margaret Rice Oxley

Moonlit Scene

Margaret Rice Oxley

The Shepherdess

Margaret Rice Oxley

Poem: The Dream Shop

Margaret Rice Oxley

Poem: The Garden of Dreams

Margaret Rice Oxley

When You Do Dance
I Wish You A Wave O' The Sea

~ Quote from Shakespeare

If anyone reading this tribute knows more about Margaret Rice Oxley, please add your knowledge in the comments. (Both an author of a medical text, and the mother of a well known singer share her name, but she is neither of these women.)




Text & Value Added Images © 2014 Art of Narrative

Anne Anderson ~ Stories from Chaucer ~ 1913

Anne Anderson
Cover Illustration for Stories from Chaucer
Retold by Emily Underdown
London ~ Thomas Nelson and Sons ~ 1913

Anne Anderson
Title Page for Stories from Chaucer
Retold by Emily Underdown
London ~ Thomas Nelson and Sons ~ 1913

Anne Anderson
Frontispiece for Stories from Chaucer
Retold by Emily Underdown
London ~ Thomas Nelson and Sons ~ 1913

In attendance on the Knight was his son.

Anne Anderson
Illustration for Stories from Chaucer
Retold by Emily Underdown
London ~ Thomas Nelson and Sons ~ 1913

Emily could be seen below.

Anne Anderson
Illustration for Stories from Chaucer
Retold by Emily Underdown
London ~ Thomas Nelson and Sons ~ 1913

At once the fight began.

Anne Anderson
Illustration for Stories from Chaucer
Retold by Emily Underdown
London ~ Thomas Nelson and Sons ~ 1913

The Man of Law was a discreet person.

Anne Anderson
Illustration for Stories from Chaucer
Retold by Emily Underdown
London ~ Thomas Nelson and Sons ~ 1913

The bride entered the city.

Anne Anderson
Illustration for Stories from Chaucer
Retold by Emily Underdown
London ~ Thomas Nelson and Sons ~ 1913

Once more she was adrift.

Anne Anderson
Illustration for Stories from Chaucer
Retold by Emily Underdown
London ~ Thomas Nelson and Sons ~ 1913

Griselda was entirely reclothed.

Anne Anderson
Illustration for Stories from Chaucer
Retold by Emily Underdown
London ~ Thomas Nelson and Sons ~ 1913

"What think you of my new wife's beauty?"

In another early volume of Anne Anderson's illustrations, the viewer is once more transported, this time into the world of three of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales as retold by Emily Underdown, who also wrote under the name Chester Norley.

Please see my companion post, Aucassin and Nicolete, for another of Anne Anderson's early published work, where you will also find a brief biography and additional links.

To see the illustrations in their original context and to read the stories, click HERE.

Text © 2014 Art of Narrative

Anne Anderson ~ Aucassin and Nicolete ~ 1911

Anne Anderson (1878-1930)

Anne Anderson's illustrations for Aucassin and Nicolete, translated by Harold Child. were published in 1911. Based on my research, they appear to be her first published illustrations.

An excerpt from a brief biography, written by Chris Beetles Gallery, is published here under Fair Use:

"Through her use of line and watercolour, Anne Anderson produced a bright, yet delicate nursery world, which proved particularly popular during the 1920s...

Anne Anderson was the daughter of James Anderson, a junior director of Henry Balfour & Co, an engineering firm based at Leven in Fife, Scotland. Born in Walworth, London, while her father was on business, she spent her early years in Scoonie, near Leven, and attended the local school. When her father travelled to Argentina to work on an engineering contract for its government, the family, including Anne, went too. There she made a close friend in Olive Hockin, the daughter of another expatriate.

On returning to Britain, Anderson lived for a while with Hockin’s friend, Guinevere Donnithorne, at Palace Gardens, in London. All three friends studied at the Slade School of Fine Art. Though first influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites and Hockin’s interpretation of them, Anderson soon looked to such contemporaries as Jessie M King and Mabel Lucie Attwell as she decided to become an illustrator. 

At the outset of her career, she settled at Little Audrey, the gatehouse to Audrey, the home of Hockin’s family, at Burghfield Common, in rural Berkshire. While illustrating books for Henry Froude and Hodder & Stoughton, Anderson met Alan Wright, a fellow illustrator who would become her husband. 

Anderson and Wright married in June 1912, and then lived together at Little Audrey, where they embarked on a working partnership... In addition to illustrating more than a hundred books, Anderson produced postcard images and designed nursery china tea sets. She also exhibited paintings and etchings at the Royal Society of British Artists."



I love Anne Anderson's work for fairy tales and traditional tales. Her watercolor world is dreamlike and yet anchored in reality, with expressive figures, backgrounds and scenery. Her women are fluid in their movements, and yet they are tethered by gravity and circumstance. They yearn and they love and they act.

A large selection of Anne Anderson's illustrations can be found at a wonderful resource: Art Passions.

View the illustrations for Aucassin and Nicollete in their original context, and read the story, on the Internet Archive.

Click into the images at Art of Narrative for large resolution.

Please add your comments below!

Anne Anderson ~ Aucassin and Nicolete ~ 1911

Translated and Edited by Harold Child

Published London: Adam and Charles Black

'To the chamber then went they,
There where Nicholete did stay,
When her true love she did see,
Never one so glad as she.'

Anne Anderson ~ Aucassin and Nicolete ~ 1911

Translated and Edited by Harold Child

Published London: Adam and Charles Black

'On the window marble-dight
Leaned the little lonely wight.

She had hair all golden-bright,

Brows as fine as fine could be.

Clear her face and oval-wise.

Never fairer met your eyes!'

Anne Anderson ~ Aucassin and Nicolete ~ 1911

Translated and Edited by Harold Child

Published London: Adam and Charles Black

'Took her gown in one hand before and the
other hand behind, and tucked up her skirt because
of the dew which she saw was heavy on the grass,
and escaped down the garden.'

Anne Anderson ~ Aucassin and Nicolete ~ 1911

Translated and Edited by Harold Child

Published London: Adam and Charles Black

"Fair children," said she, "do you know

Aucassin the son of  the Count Garrin of Biaucaire?"

Anne Anderson ~ Aucassin and Nicolete ~ 1911

Translated and Edited by Harold Child

Published London: Adam and Charles Black

'Aucassins was in the castle of Torelore greatly

at his ease and pleasure, for he had with him

Nicolete, his sweet love whom he loved so dear...

there came a fleet of Saracens by sea and attacked

the castle and took it by storm.'

Text © 2014 Art of Narrative