Florence Anderson

Who was Florence Anderson?

Florence Mary Anderson was an English artist, book illustrator, wood engraver and children's author who flourished between 1914 and 1930. She also illustrated under her maiden name of Molly MacArthur or Florence Mary MacArthur. Her work was influenced by the British school of Fairy Art.

Though she wrote some books, it is as an illustrator, in watercolour and black and white, of children's books and annuals that Anderson is chiefly remembered. Her first major commission appears to have been an extensive suite of colour and monotone illustrations prepared for Lady Margaret Sackville's The Dream Pedlar, published in 1914. Anderson received further substantial commissions throughout the decade that followed, including work for:

⁕Lady Margaret Sackville. The Travelling Companions.

⁕E. Gordon Browne. Little Dwarf Nose & The Magic Whistle.

⁕Christie T Young. The Black Princess and other Fairy Tales from Brazil.

⁕Edith Howes. The Cradle Ship.

⁕Christine Chaundler. The Magic Kiss.

⁕Fiona Malcolm. My Fairyland: A Child's Own Visions.