British Illustrators 36: Charles Keeping

Charles Keeping was another Greenaway Medal winner. Charles Keeping first came to prominence illustrating some of the historical novels of Rosemary Sutcliff. He actually won two Greenaway Medals, one for his own story, “Charley, Charlotte and the Golden Canary”, and one for his illustrated edition of Alfred Noyes’ poem “The Highwayman”.

Keeping served in the Royal Navy during World War II, having joined at the age of 18. After the war he studied Art part time and then full time, and from the 50s until his death in 1988 he worked for many outlets, including Punch. In 1956 he was commissioned to illustrate Rosemary Sutcliff’s “The Silver Branch”. His success saw him commissioned to illustrate others of Sutcliff’s novels and also those of Henry Treece and others.

I’ve chosen to copy an illustration Keeping made for an edition of “The Jungle Book”. The most complicated parts were the trees and foliage in the background. Two different graphite pencils – a 6B for lighter shading and a 2B for darker shading – really gave this texture – it looked nothing like as good with just the ink marks.

British Illustrators 35: Sir Frank Brangwyn

Largely self-taught Sir Frank Brangwyn produced over 12000 works during his lifetime in his career as painter, print maker, designer and illustrator between the end of the 19^th century, and his death in 1956. By the middle of the 20^th century he was one of the most popular and successful British artists of the time.

In the nearest city to where I live in Wales, Swansea, there is a large gallery and performance space named after him, the Brangwyn Hall. It is so called because it contains a number of murals he painted which were commissioned for, then rejected by the House of Lords in Westminster. Their loss was Swansea’s gain.

In 2006, when I was staying in Leeds, Yorkshire, to take part in a popular television quiz show, there was an exhibition of Brangwyn’s work in Leeds’ magnificent Town Hall. I knew next to nothing about him, but was bowled over by what I saw, not just his illustration work, and his graphic work, but also by some of his incredibly vibrant and joyous paintings. This is a copy of his painting “A Street Scene in Tangiers”. The original is an oil painting, while I used acrylics, and a canvas only about half the size of the original. It must have taken well over 10 hours for me to paint this, but I thoroughly enjoyed the process. 

British Illustrators 34: Judith Kerr

The late Judith Kerr, who passed away in 2019, will always be remembered for the ever popular “The Tiger who came to Tea”. She also created the Mog series, and wrote “When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit”. She had personal experience to draw on for that book, since she was born in Weimar Germany, but her parents both knew that Nazi success in the 1933 elections could spell potential disaster for a Jewish family such as themselves, and the family moved to France before settling in Britain.

Judith Kerr became a naturalised British subject, and married Nigel Kneale. That name might not mean a great deal to you if you’re not British or of a certain age, but he wrote “Quatermass” which was the first TV science fiction serial to gain mass appeal in the UK, and led to 3 spin off films. Their son, Matthew Kneale is no mean writer himself. He wrote an excellent historical novel “English Passengers” which I can thoroughly recommend. Coming back to “The Tiger Who Came To Tea”, it was published in 1968, and has remained hugely popular ever since. Judith Kerr created the story after a visit to the zoo with her three year old daughter. It took her a year to make the book, and it has since become one of the best selling children’s books of all time. 

British Illustrators 33: Edmund Dulac and The Little Mermaid

Edmund Dulac was actually born French, but moved to England in his early 20s, and became a British citizen in 1912.

On arrival in London, Dulac was commissioned to illustrate Dent’s edition Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. He worked for the Pall Mall Gazette, and then was commissioned by Hodder and Stoughton to illustrate a number of books, including the works of Hans Christian Anderson, from which I have tried to copy an illustration he made of the Little Mermaid.

When I look at Dulac’s illustrations for this and other books I am struck that he works in a similar style to his contemporary Arthur Rackham. After the first World War there was much less demand for illustrated picture books of the style he had been producing before, and so he moved into other areas, such as newspaper caricatures, portraiture and theatre design. Like later illustrators Ralph Steadman and Gerald Scarfe, Dulac also illustrated postage stamps for the Royal Mail.

British Illustrators 32: Edward Burne Jones

Burne-Jones is associated with both the Pre Raphaelite-Brotherhood, whom he admired tremendously in his early years, and also with the Arts and Crafts Movement. He was a pre-eminent artist in the field of stained glass, and also a founder member, with William Morris, or Morris’ decorative arts firm. As well as his own paintings, and his work in the field of stained glass and of design, Burne-Jones also illustrated a number of works for Morris’ Kelmscott Press. In this illustration, copied from an illustration of the Kelmscott’s Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, Burne-Jones’ distinctive almost medieval style is a perfect match for the subject matter.

Burne-Jones was very influential on the next generation of artists and illustrators in England as well. The teenage Aubrey Beardsley made a speculative visit to Burne-Jones’ home, and showed him sone of his sketches. Burne-Jones allegedly told him that he was not in the habit of advising young people to become artists, but he had no choice but to do so in Beardsley’s case. Quite right too. In the 1890s he became something of a pillar of the establishment, being made a Baronet (A baronetcy is a hereditary knighthood – an ordinary knighthood passes away on the death of the recipient.)

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.