Newly discovered works by Australian illustrator Ida Rentoul Outhwaite will go to auction in London

IT sounds like a fairytale, and it is. Unknown works by a celebrated Australian children’s book illustrator have turned up in the UK and will be auctioned for an estimated $40,000 to $60,000.

One of the watercolours by renowned Australian children’s book illustrator Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, which will be auctioned in London on June 15.

IT sounds like a fairytale, and it is. Unknown works by a celebrated Australian children’s book illustrator have turned up in the UK and will be auctioned for an estimated $40,000 to $60,000.

Unlike a fairytale, though, it happens to be true.

Ida Rentoul Outhwaite was a pioneering early 20th century illustrator who conjured a dreamy, moonlit world inhabited by a never-before-seen medley of native Australian animals, fairies, witches and hobgoblin-like creatures called brownies.

Rentoul Outhwaite’s illustrations were adored in Australia. Her books became classics, and she was also exhibited in London and Paris.

The manuscript and illustrations to be auctioned by Bonhams in London came to light when the artist’s British descendants decided to sell them. There are 11 watercolours, 15 pen and ink drawings and one pencil drawing, as well as the manuscript for an unpublished book titled Hoppity’s House. All the works probably date to the 1930s.

Children’s book illustrator, Ida Rentoul Outhwaite

“This rediscovered manuscript is very exciting as Outhwaite rarely illustrated her own text, more commonly providing the pictures for other authors’ stories or verses,” said Sarah Lindberg, Bonhams’ London-based manuscript specialist.

The National Gallery of Australia owns 58 Outhwaite artworks and the discovery of previously unknown work was “extremely exciting”, according to Elspeth Pitt, acting curator Australian prints and drawings at the NGA.

“We were also recently gifted an exquisite miniature portrait on ivory of Ida, painted in 1917 by friend and fellow artist Bernice Edwell,” Pitt said.

Since the NGA is “always looking to augment our collection of works by significant Australian artists”, it is possible the gallery will bid on the new material.

The National Library of Australia owns some of Outhwaite’s letters and original illustrations. The library was once told that a lot of Outhwaite’s original illustrations had gone missing, a spokesman said.

Illustration by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, to be sold by Bonhams. for Elizabeth Fortescue. Supplied

Newly discovered Outhwaite fairytale from the 1930s to be auctioned. A previously unknown fairytale and stunning illustrations by renowned Australian children’s book author Ida Rentoul Outhwaite has been unearthed in the United Kingdom and will be auctioned there this month. The collection of circa-1930s original watercolour illustrations, drawings and manuscript for an unpublished fairytale titled Hoppity's House will go under the hammer at Bonhams in London on June 15. It is estimated to fetch £20,000 to £30,000, around AUD$40,000 to $60,000. Sarah Lindberg, Bonhams’ London-based manuscript specialist, said the story and illustrations were found in Outhwaite’s papers after her death in Caulfield, Melbourne, in 1960 and have been in the family since then. Born in Carlton in 1888, Outhwaite had her first illustration published when she was just 15 and she went on to enjoy great success around the world as an illustrator of fairytales.

Ida Rentoul Outhwaite was born in Melbourne in 1888. Her father John Laurence Rentoul was a leading Presbyterian churchman from Northern Ireland who dropped dead at Spencer Street Station, his final words being an apology to the porter for causing a nuisance. Rentoul had been an influential figure whose career earned him an OBE.

Both Rentoul and his wife Annie were cultured and well educated. They passed on a love of books to both their daughters, Ida and Annie, who collaborated on their first published book in 1904 when Ida was only 15. Annie wrote the book, Mollie’s Bunyip, while Ida provided the illustrations.

It was the start of a successful career and many book titles for Ida Rentoul, who changed her name to Rentoul Outhwaite after her marriage to Arthur Grenbry Outhwaite in 1909. He would finish his career as managing director of the Perpetual Executors and Trustees Association of Australia Ltd.

Mouse drawing by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, Australian illustrator, circa 1930s. for Elizabeth Fortes

Rentoul Outhwaite’s publishing output fell while she raised four small children. But in 1916, exactly 100 years ago, her first coloured work, Elves and Fairies, was published to acclaim.

In 1920 she visited Europe and exhibited her illustrations in Paris and London. Then came more books, with text by Grenbry and Annie.

Grenbry died in 1938, then World War II changed everything for Rentoul Outhwaite. Both sons were killed in action, and the post-war public had less patience with fairies and elves.

“The war stopped the taste for fairies — in parents anyhow — and the fairies fled, appalled at the bomb,” Rentoul Outhwaite said.

Rentoul Outhwaite lived her final years with her sister Annie in Melbourne. But a 1921 article in the journal Table Talk gives a vivid portrait of the artist’s earlier life in a home boasting paintings by greats such as Sir Arthur Streeton and Sir Hans Heysen.

“Mrs Outhwaite is one of those people who are young in heart all the way through life, and to see her in her own beautiful homey home — in which all the rooms wear the comfortable lived in look — is to realise that there is a big slice of the Peter Pan spirit in her”.

Originally published as Newly discovered works by Australian illustrator Ida Rentoul Outhwaite will go to auction in London