F. D. Bedford

Francis Donkin Bedford (1864 – 1954) was a British artist and illustrator. He strongly influenced the visual identity of Peter Pan and the other characters of J. M. Barrie's story, illustrating them in the first edition of Peter and Wendy in 1911.

Bedford was born in Kensington, England, the sixth of ten children born to Edwin Bedford and Caroline Bedford (née Donkin). Bedford's father was a solicitor, the son of church architect Francis Octavius Bedford. His mother was the granddaughter of Bryan Donkin, whose firm developed the tin can.

Bedford attended Westminster School from 1877-1881, and studied architecture at the South Kensington Schools. A brief stint in the practice of Sir Arthur Blomfield, an ecclesiastical architect, left him feeling a career in architecture was not his calling and he enrolled in the Royal Academy Schools in 1885 with an eye on a future career as painter and illustrator. From 1885-1891, he visited France, Spain, Tangier, and Italy and produced sketches now in the drawings collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

In 1895, Bedford married portrait painter Helen Carter (1874-1949) and fathered four daughters, none of whom married. Two however followed their father in the arts: Dorothy specialised in woodcuts and Celia in oils with exhibitions at the Royal Academy and other galleries. In the late 1890s and early 1900s, Bedford illustrated his first books including A Book of Nursery Rhymes (1897), The Books of Shops (1899), Four and Twenty Toilers (1900), and The Visit to London (1902). He exhibited paintings at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and at other galleries. In 1901, he was elected to the Art Workers' Guild, an organization which counted Walter Crane and Arthur Rackham among its past masters.

After World War I, Bedford's Victorian and Edwardian style of illustration fell out of favor, and Bedford, then in his 60s, had difficulty adapting to the new tastes. During this period, he did however illustrate three books by Charles Dickens: The Magic Fishbone (1921), A Christmas Carol (1923), and The Cricket on the Hearth (1927).

Bedford died at the age of 89 in 1954 in Kensington. His work is still in copyright in the European Union, until January 2025 (70 years after his death).