In Praise of… the Dinosaur Magic of animal artist Harry Rountree

By John Freeman on March 27, 2018

Harry Rountree (1878 – 26 September 1950) was a prolific illustrator, specialising in animals, who came to England from New Zealand in 1901, when he was just 23 years old – and even today, his work as an animal artist is just amazing.

By 1903 he was illustrating books for the editor of Little Folks magazine, writing and illustrating his own books, and in demand by nearly every publisher in London. From 1903 to 1942, Rountree’s pens and brushes gave life to every species from dormice to dinosaurs.

The dinosaur illustrations here were published as an interior illustrations for The Lost World serial in The Strand magazine by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1912.

This image was also published as the cover of The Annotated Lost World by Roy Pilot and Alvin Rodin, published by Wessex Press in 1996 – and as the cover The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle from Calla Editions in 2013…

Rountree also provided illustrations for the work of writers such as P. G. Wodehouse and produced well-liked cartoons for the magazine Punch from 1905 to 1939, along with working on titles such as Humorist and Playtime.

He was one of the subjects in Percy V. Bradshaws’ The Art of the Illustrator, a 20 part series, published in 1918, where six stages of the creation of an illustration were published along with notes and biography.

• Art and Artists has a six part retrospective of his work

• Illustrators has a good Guide to his work here

With thanks to Ernesto Guevara

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John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.