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BEGINNINGS

Orient Line on 26th January 1884, passing through the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal, and arriving at Sydney on 15th March. He spent about three months in Australia, returning in June in the S.S. Iberia. During the outward and homeward voyages, and during his stay in Australia, he painted many creditable water-colours. Vesuvius, Capri and the Suez Canal were among his subjects, but his chef d’œuvre was a ‘Panoramic View of Sydney from Nature’, dated May 1884. He arrived back in London in July with his health entirely re-established.

The long sea voyage, with its ample opportunities for sketching, had quite decided him to be an artist, and in the autumn of 1884 he entered the Lambeth School of Art. His fellow students included Leonard Raven-Hill, Thomas Sturge Moore, and Charles Ricketts; the last-named particularly influenced Rackham. But there was no question of his art-studies occupying the whole of his time; he had to prove his ability and work his way. Thus on 11th November 1884, his old masters Rushbrooke and Abbott both took up their pens on his behalf. Rushbrooke recommended him ‘on the score of intelligence, industry and character’, while his late headmaster Edwin Abbott declared that ‘as regards ability, knowledge, character, and gentlemanly bearing Mr Arthur Rackham would be well suited for the clerkship he is now seeking in the Westminster Fire Office’.

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