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