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Lillian May Bevis Rowles:
Original design for The wind in the Willows
Mounted (ref: 4797)

Gouache over pencil, on card,  9 1/4 x 8 1/4 in. (23.5 x 20.8 cm.)

Tags: Lillian May Bevis Rowles gouache pencil children design illustration

Lilian Rowles was a commercial artist and illustrator, born Newport, Monmouthshire (nee Hall).  She studied at West Bromwich Municipal School of Art and married the artist Stanley Charles Rowles. She exhibited at the Royal Academy and Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.  Lived Congleton, Cheshire.
The Wind in the Willows is a classic of children's literature by Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. Alternately slow moving and fast paced, it focuses on four anthropomorphised animal characters in a pastoral version of England. The novel is notable for its mixture of mysticism, adventure, morality, and camaraderie. The Wind in the Willows was saved from obscurity by the then-famous playwright, A. A. Milne, who loved it and adapted a part of it for stage as Toad of Toad Hall. The book made Graham's fortune, enabling him to retire from his bank job, which he hated, though it was respectable and well-paid. He moved to the country, where he spent his time by the River Thames doing much as the animal characters in his book do; namely, as one of the most famous phrases from the book says, "simply messing about in boats".