Cicely Mary Barker

Cicely Mary Barker (1895-1973)

A popular cherished British Artist, best known for her illustrated fairies with lepidopteran wings, from her "Flower Fairy" books. Cicely Mary Barker was born 28 June, 1895 in Croyden, Surrey, England. As a young child she loved painting and drawing. She suffered from epilepsy as a child Because of this she overprotected and treated as the baby of the family. This may have contributed to her understanding and portrayal of children in her artwork. Barker was exposed to the books of Kate Greenaway. She spent many hours in bed coloring or painting meticulously in her many Kate Greenaway painting books. She was educated at home. At the age of thirteen her Father enrolled her in an evening class at the Croyden School of Art, she continued to attend into the 1940?s, eventually she became a teacher there. Barker had a close bond with her Father his untimely death in 1912 left Mary and her sister trying to financial support the family, Mary sold poetry and illustrations to magazines such as My Magazine, Child?s Own, Leading Strings and Raphael Tuck annuals to raise money.

Barker?s fairies were based on her knowledge of plants and flowers and her artistic studies of real children, each dressed to represent a different flower. The success of her first volume in 1923, which she also wrote, led to the creation of seven more. Barker created a new costume for each of the fairies, carefully taking them apart when she was done in order to reuse the fabric. She never compiled a book of winter flower fairies. It was not until 1985, 12 years after her death, that Flower Fairies of the Winter was compiled from illustrations and poems in her other 7 Flower Fairies books. She died on February 16, 1973 at the age of 77 years old. Coincidentally, it was the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of her first ?Flower Fairy? book that year.