Francis Donkin Bedford

Francis Donkin Bedford, also known as F. D. Bedford (1864-1954) was a British artist and illustrator.

Birth and background

Bedford was born at Kensington, England, the sixth child of Edwin and Caroline Bedford. Bedford's father was a Solicitor and Clerk to the Tallow Chandlers Livery Company in the City of London; his mother's family (Donkin) operated a London engineering firm with the invention of the tin can being its claim to fame. Bedford's paternal grandfather was church architect Francis Octavius Bedford.

Education

Bedford attended Westminster School from 1877-1881, and studied architecture at the South Kensington Schools. A brief stint in the practice of Sir Arthur Blomfield, an ecclesiastical architect, left him feeling a career in architecture was not his calling and he enrolled in the Royal Academy Schools in 1885 with an eye on a future career as painter and illustrator. From 1885-1891, he visited France, Spain, Tangier, and Italy and produced sketches now in the drawings collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Career

In the late 1890s and early 1900s, Bedford illustrated his first books including "A Book of Nursery Rhymes" (1897), "The Books of Shops" (1899), "Four and Twenty Toilers" (1900), and "The Visit to London" (1902). He exhibited paintings at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and at other galleries. In 1901, he was elected to the Art Workers' Guild, an organization which counted Walter Crane and Arthur Rackham among its past masters. In 1911, he provided the illustrations for the first edition of J. M. Barrie's "Peter and Wendy".

After WWI, Bedford's Victorian and Edwardian style of illustration fell out of favor, and Bedford, now in his 60s, had difficulty adapting to the new tastes. During this period, he did however illustrate three books by Charles Dickens: "The Magic Fishbone" (1921), "A Christmas Carol" (1923), and "The Cricket on the Hearth" (1927).

Marriage and death

In 1895, Bedford married portrait painter Helen Carter (1874-1949) and fathered four daughters, none of whom married. Two however followed their father in the arts: Dorothy specialised in woodcuts and Celia in oils with exhibitions at the Royal Academy and other galleries. Bedford died at the age of 89 in 1954 at Kensington. [ [http://francisdonkinbedford.com/index.html Francis Donkin Bedford] ]

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