CHAPTER THREE
Marriage and Success
lthough by the end of the century Rackham had made his mark as an illustrator, and although the responsibilities of marriage which he assumed soon afterwards increased his determination to devote himself to this branch of his art, there are some early sketches in oils, including a self-portrait of 1892 (see page 55), which show that he was anxious to experiment in that medium, while several interesting and highly deliberate portraits and self-portraits, undertaken at intervals throughout his life, emphasize that portraiture remained one of his unfulfilled ambitions. It is probable that he was never fully satisfied with his portraits and doubted his ability to make a livelihood out of them, with the result – which we cannot regret – that he devoted himself to that kind of work, mostly based on themes provided by literature, which the public came to expect of him and in which he was successful both financially and artistically. But it would be a mistake to suppose that as a young man he was untouched by the appeal of impressionism, for example, or that he fell into his career as an illustrator without any searching of his artistic conscience. In particular, he was well aware that by concentrating on illustration he was limiting his43
