Any American child can tell you that the gold, embossed Caldecott Medal slapped on the face of a picture book implies merit and critical reverence. But these days, the man for whom the award was named is much more elusive than his medal. Randolph Caldecott was a prolific British artist in the late 19th century, broadcasting his work across the cultural spectrum through everything from travel guides and cartoons to architectural sketches and sculpture. He was famous in his day for his more formal work, exhibited at the esteemed Royal Academy of the Arts– but it was his picture books that would prove to be most influential in the long run. Mr. Sendak, take it away:
When I came to picture books, it was Randolph Caldecott who really put me where I wanted to be. Caldecott is an illustrator, he is a songwriter, he is a choreographer, he is a stage manager, he is a decorator, he is a theater person; he’s superb, simply. And he can take four lines of verse that have very little meaning in themselves and stretch them into a book that has tremendous meaning—not overloaded, not sentimental.
Everybody meets with a bad ending in Froggie Went A-Courting. Froggie gets eaten at the end by a duck, which is very sad, and the story usually ends on that note. But in Caldecott’s version, he introduces, oddly enough, a human family. They observe the tragedy much as a Greek chorus might—one can almost hear their comments. In the last picture, we see Froggie’s hat going downstream, all that remains of him. And standing on the bank are mother, father, and child—and it’s startling for a moment until you realize what he’s done: the little girl is clutching the mother’s long Victorian skirt. And it’s as though she’s just been told the whole story, she’s very upset, obviously.
There are no words; I’m just inventing what I think this means—Froggie is dead, it alarms her, and for support she’s hanging on to her mother’s skirt. Her mother has a very quiet, resigned expression on her face. She’s very gently pointing with her parasol toward the stream as the hat movies away, and the father is looking very sad. They’re both expressing to the child, “Yes, it’s very sad, but this does happen—this is the way the story ended, it can’t be helped. But you have us. Hold on, everything will be all right.” And this is impressive in a simple rhyming book for children; it’s extremely beautiful. It’s full of fun, it’s full of beautiful drawings, and it’s full of truth. And I think Caldecott did it best, much better than anyone else who ever lived.
Check out the Internet Archive’s free collection of Caldecott’s work.
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