John Archibald Austen (
Dover, (
Kent), 5 January 1886 –
Hythe, Kent, 27 October 1948) was a British book illustrator.
Profile
Austin moved to
London in 1906, where he studied art. His early works, including an illustrated Hamlet were
Beardsleyesque in style. After 1925 he was influenced by
Art Deco. Books Austen illustrated in this manner include Daphnis and Chloe and a printed version of As You Like it. His work for Radio Times includes the cover of the Easter 1934 edition.[1]
Austen used several techniques in his illustrations, including
wood engraving and
scraperboard, and changed styles to suit the text he was illustrating. He was also involved in
advertising, producing adverts, several posters & numerous
dust jacket designs. He was a friend of
Alan Odle and
Harry Clarke and exhibited with them at the St George's Gallery in 1925.
Works concerning him
The novelist
Dorothy Richardson, wrote about him in John Austen and the Inseparables (London: William Jackson, 1930).
Issue 27 of The Imaginative Book Illustration Society's Studies in Illustration contains a biography and full bibliography by Martin Steenson.
John Austen illustration for 'The infernal marriage' by Benjamin Disraeli (1929)John Austen illustration The Wine of Circe from 'The golden hind vol. 1 no. 2 (1923)
Books illustrated and/or authored by him
Ralph Holbrook Keenm, The Little Ape and Other Stories (Henderson, 1921)
Hugh L’Anson Fausset, The Condemned and The Mercy of God: Two Poems of Crisis (Selwyn & Blount, 1922)
Edward Cracroft Lefroy, Echoes from Theocritus (Selwyn & Blount, 1922)