Jessie Willcox Smith was born in Philadelphia in 1863. She originally studied to be a kindergarten teacher and worked in this field before accidentally discovering a talent for drawing. She then took formal art courses at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Jessie Willcox Smith had a long, distinguished career. She illustrated Scribners Classic edition of A Child’s Garden of Verses and she also illustrated editions of Little Women, Mother Goose, Noah’s Ark, Heidi and The Night before Christmas. Though she never married, or had children of her own, they became the center of her life and work.
Her work graced the covers of several popular magazines, and she also illustrated countless books for children and produced drawings for calendars. (One of her calendars is available on Amazon for over $3000.00!) Her prolific work was a part of many of our childhoods, so many of the following works of art might look familiar to you.
I hope you enjoyed this post. Just gazing at some of these art works sparks fond memories of my own childhood reading.
You can purchase art prints and/or posters of this artist’s work at Art.com
If you want to read more about this legendary illustrator you can order this book from Amazon.
Fictionophile 
Nothing better than pictures of children reading. Love these.
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As do I Carla. They remind me of happy hours reading as a child.
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Fascinating. Rather than getting flashbacks to my own childhood, I’m imagining my baby girl reading books as she’s growing up. These are just precious 🙂
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I’m so glad. I appreciate that you are taking your time exploring my blog.
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Lynne, these are precious and I’ve so enjoyed looking at her artwork this minions…dreamy quality to them all and a wonderful celebration to the act of reading! 😀😀
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Beautiful pictures!
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Such beautiful pieces of art with great expressions. I love them.
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Her artwork is astounding, and this is the kind of art I love. I had several ‘old time’ books as a child, too, therefore, I am wondering now if she had drawn any of the illustrations: My mother had a subscription to Good Housekeeping and other magazines. I am very grateful to view these.
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Beautiful illustrations – thanks for this. Great post 🙂
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A Child’s Garden of Verses was one of the standbys of my childhood and I remember it fondly. Later, as a lecturer in children’s literature I would often use her work when discussions the history of illustrated books for children. Thank you for taking me down memory lane.
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Aww, so lovely to see these pictures on a Monday morning!! 🙂
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Ooo she is a favorite of mine – I have a beautiful edition of ‘Little Women’ with her illustrations.
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Lucky you Sarah!
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