British Illustrators 31: Victor Ambrus

Off Prompt: British Illustrators 31: Victor Ambrus

Victor Ambrus is another two-time Greenaway Medal winner. Victor Ambrus was born and grew up in Hungary, where he was studying in the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts during the failed 1956 revolution against the Soviet backed regime. In December he and other students fled first to Austria, then to Britain, where he hoped to study in the tradition of great British illustrators such as E.H. Shepard, John Tenniel and Arthur Rackham. Hungary’s loss has indisputably been Britain’s gain.

Victor Ambrus has illustrated a great many children’s books, both fiction and non-fiction. I chose this sketch because it illustrates two really important themes in his work, horses, and the historical past. For several years Victor Ambrus’ illustrations formed an important part of the popular British Archaeology documentary series Time Team, in which a group of archaeologists, surveyors and archivists would be given three days to carry out an investigation of a historical – or in some cases pre-historical – site, and their discoveries would help inform the illustrations which Victor would make of the site in its former heyday. 

British Illustrators 30: Gerald Scarfe and The Wall

Gerald Scarfe is another great British illustrator whom I’ve chosen to include even though he’s most definitely not known for illustrations to children’s books.

Gerald Scarfe at one point studied at the same time as Ralph Steadman at East Ham Technical College. The two fell out when working for the Daily Mail. After a brief career in advertising, Gerald Scarfe became a savage political cartoonist, possibly the best known in the UK. Like Steadman, he has worked for a wide range of publications in the UK and the US, he has designed postage stamps for the Royal Mail. He famously worked with the band Pink Floyd on the album “The Wall”, and this is why I have copied one of the illustrations he produced for the album. On my 17^th birthday I saw Pink Floyd performing The Wall at Earl’s Court in London, and Scarfe’s work in the form of animations, projections, and huge inflatables, played a crucial part in the performance and the experience. If you look at the picture and the words “You, yes, you. Stand still laddie!” come into your mind, then you’re probably a Floyd fan as well.