Mabel Lucie Attwell was born on June 4, 1879. She was born in Mile End, a busy part of London, England. She had nine brothers and sisters. That means her family had ten children in all! Her father was a butcher. Her mother made dresses.
Mabel did not like school very much. She liked to draw pictures instead of doing her lessons. She often drew pictures in the margins of her school books. Her family saw that she had a special talent for art. They let her go to art school. She went to two different art schools in London. But she did not like the strict rules at these schools. She left before finishing. She wanted to draw in her own fun way, not the serious way the schools taught.
Mabel started selling her drawings when she was just a teenager. She drew pictures for greeting cards and magazines. Soon, she became famous for drawing children with round faces, big eyes, and chubby legs. People loved these sweet, happy drawings. People started calling these characters "Attwell children."
In 1908, Mabel married a man named Harold Earnshaw. He was also an artist who drew cartoons. They had three children together. They stayed married until Harold died in 1937.
Mabel's career grew very big in the 1910s and 1920s. She became one of the most popular illustrators in Britain. In 1921, she drew pictures for a special edition of Peter Pan and Wendy. This made her even more famous. She also drew pictures for Alice in Wonderland and many fairy tale books.
Starting in 1922, Mabel made a yearly book called the Mabel Lucie Attwell Annual. Kids all over Britain loved getting this book, especially at Christmas. She also drew pictures for postcards. These postcards sold millions of copies! People still collect them today.
Mabel's drawings were not just in books. Her chubby, happy children appeared on plates, cups, cloth, and even advertisements for companies like Wrigley's gum and Bovril. Her drawings were everywhere! She was very smart about business. She let many companies use her drawings on their products. This made her very successful.
Mabel did not win fancy art awards. But she became famous with regular people instead. Kids and grown-ups all knew her drawings. She stayed popular from the early 1900s all the way to the 1950s. That is a very long time!
After Harold got hurt in World War I and lost an arm, Mabel's art became the main way the family made money. This was unusual for that time, but Mabel was up to the challenge.
The family lived in London at first. Later, they moved to Cornwall, to a town called Fowey. Mabel loved living there. After Harold died in 1937, Mabel kept living and working in Fowey. She kept making art into the 1940s and 1950s.
Mabel Lucie Attwell changed how people thought about drawing for children's products. She was one of the first artists to put her characters on many different things, like toys and dishes, not just books. This idea became very common later on.
Mabel died on November 5, 1964. She was 85 years old. People in Britain were sad and remembered her fondly. Today, there is even a club called the Mabel Lucie Attwell Club. People in this club collect her art and keep her memory alive. Her cheerful, chubby-faced children are still loved by people today, many years after she first drew them.
