Ida Rentoul Outhwaite (1888-1960), was an Australian illustrator of children's books. She worked in pen and ink and watercolour. Initially she illustrated stories written by her talented sister Annie Rattray Rentoul and after her marriage to Grenby Outhwaite, he became the storyteller. In the early twentieth century, there was a fashionable craze for the European fairy myths and Ida was part of this fad, albeit with an Australian slant. She exhibited in Australia and later in London and Paris between 1907 and 1933.
The image is a young boy with a fishing rod on a rock with four mermaids seeking his attention.
Not strictly original prints because they were produced by mechanical and photographic means, they are non-the-less the only contemporaneous prints by Outhwaite.
250 x 200 mm. approx.
Printed in 1926.
Black and white.
Process block.