Mabel Lucie Attwell (1879-1964) was a British illustrator and comics artist known for her cute, nostalgic drawings of children. Her drawings are featured on many postcards, advertisements, posters, books and figurines.
She was born in Mile End, London, in 1879, the sixth child of butcher Augustus and his wife Emily Ann. She was educated privately, at the Coopers' Company School and at the Regent Street school. She studied at Heatherley's and St Martin's School of Art but left to develop her own interest in imaginary subjects, disliking the emphasis on still-life drawing and classical subjects.
After she sold work to the Tatler and Bystander, she was taken on by the agents Francis and Mills, leading to a long and consistently successful career. In 1908, she married painter and illustrator Harold Cecil Earnshaw (d 1937) with whom she had a daughter, Marjorie, and two sons. She died at her home in Fowey, Cornwall, on 5 November 1964, after which her business was carried on by her daughter, Marjorie.
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