Background
Robert Ripley Lawson was born in New York City, New York, United States, the son of William Bethel Lawson and Elma Cecilia Bowman.
Robert Ripley Lawson was born in New York City, New York, United States, the son of William Bethel Lawson and Elma Cecilia Bowman.
He first became interested in drawing while in high school. After graduating from Montclair (New Jersey) High School in 1911, he attended the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts until 1913, studying under Rae Sloan Bredin and Howard Giles.
From 1914 to 1917 Lawson did magazine illustrations, stage settings, and commercial art work in Greenwich Village. One of Lawson's first illustrating jobs was done for the Designer for Carl Sandburg's Rootabaga Stories (1922). He served in France during World War I in the Camouflage Section, Fortieth Engineers.
During the 1920's Lawson did commercial work and magazine illustration. In 1930 he took up etching and illustrated his first book, The Wee Men of Ballywooden, by Arthur Mason. He soon gave up commercial work and concentrated entirely on book illustrating.
During the 1930's he illustrated Ella Young's The Unicorn with Silver Shoes (1932), Margery Bianco's Hurdy-Gurdy Man (1933), Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth's The Golden Horseshoe (1935), Walter Russell Bowie's The Story of Jesus for Young People (1937), Ruth A. Barnes' I Hear America Singing (1937), Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper Richard and Florence Atwater's Mr. Popper's Penguins (1938), and an edition of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (1939) abridged by Mary Godolphin.
In 1936 Lawson completed his illustrations for Munro Leaf's Story of Ferdinand. Leaf later recounted that he used the story of the gentle bull that would not fight in a Spanish bullring in order to give Lawson "an animal to draw that was not a cat, a mouse, a dog or a horse--something different in children's books. " The book was variously attacked as Communist propaganda, an argument for pacifism, and a glorification of fascist militarism. The controversy surrounding Ferdinand was partially responsible for its immediate popularity, and it was made into an animated cartoon by Walt Disney in 1938.
Leaf and Lawson collaborated again in 1938 in Wee Gillis. Lawson's work with Leaf lead him into writing and illustrating his own books. His Ben and Me (1939) was the story of Benjamin Franklin's life seen through the eyes of his closest friend, adviser, and constant companion, a mouse named Amos. In 1944 he published his Rabbit Hill. The book relates the adventures of Father and Mother Rabbit, their high-leaping son Little George, the aged Uncle Analdas, Willie Fieldmouse, and Porkey the Woodchuck. The Tough Winter (1954) was a sequel to Rabbit Hill. Among Lawson's other books are I Discover Columbus (1941), Mr. Twig's Mistake (1947), Robbut (1948), Fabulous Flight (1949), Dick Whittington and His Cat (1949), McWhinney's Jaunt (1951), Edward, Hoppy and Joe (1952), Mr. Revere and I (1953), Captain Kidd's Cat (1956), Watchwords of Liberty (1957), and The Great Wheel (1957).
Critics of Lawson's illustrations have characterized them as old-fashioned because of their clarity of expression and exquisite detail. Although an illustrator of children's books, Lawson did not consciously draw for children. Humor was another characteristic of Lawson's illustrations and writings. Mr. Revere and I, for example, is the story of Paul Revere's horse. This British-born, cultured horse at first loathed the "American peasants, " but later became an ardent patriot and carried Revere on his famous ride despite the silversmith's atrocious horsemanship. Even Lawson's illustrations for the juvenile edition of Pilgrim's Progress were funny. Lawson justified their levity by arguing in the book's introduction that "if a certain element of caricature or humor appears, seemingly out of place in a book so religious, I can only say that it is there because I think John Bunyan would have wanted it that way. "
Quotations: "I have never, as far as I can remember, given one moment's thought as to whether any drawing that I was doing was for adults or children. I have never changed one conception or line or detail to suit the supposed age of the readers. "
On September 6, 1922, Lawson married the illustrator and author Marie Abrams.