Edward Ardizzone: Artist and Illustrator

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In 1954, Edward Ardizzone was commissioned to execute a portrait of Sir Winston Churchill for presentation to him on his retirement. Ardizzone is particularly noted for having not just illustrated the covers and contents of books, but inked in the title text and author's name in his own hand, giving the books a distinctive look on shelves. An example is Clive King's Stig of the Dump from 1963. The Nurse Matilda series of children's books (1964–74) was written by his cousin Christianna Brand, who was seven years younger. Their shared grandmother had told the stories to both cousins and she had learned them from her father. Soon after 1960, Ardizzone proposed two books for Oxford that were more personal. His new editor, Mabel George, was promoting graphically bolder and at times faux-naïf styles, as practised by Charles Keeping, Brian Wildsmith and Victor Ambrus. She reluctantly accepted his Peter the Wanderer and published it in 1963. However Diana and her Rhinoceros was, in George’s view, poorly resolved. Protesting that he wouldn’t change a word, Ardizzone found a home for Diana at The Bodley Head, where Judy Taylor became his editor for the rest of his life. Diana was later acclaimed in 1979 as a feminist text (by Andrew Mann in Spare Rib). These episodes also speak of an internal crisis as Ardizzone reached the age of 60. Although his drawing style did not change, the imaginative quality of his stories was raised to a new level.

By 1939 Ardizzone was regularly holding one-man exhibitions at the Bloomsbury Gallery and, later, the Leger Gallery. At this time the major theme of his paintings was life in London, with affectionate illustrations of the pubs and parks near his home in Maida Vale. [4] His style was naturalistic but subdued, featuring gentle lines and delicate watercolours, with great attention to particular details. a b Brain Foss (2007). War paint: Art, War, State and Identity in Britain, 1939–1945. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-10890-3. Greene, Graham; Ardizzone, Edward (2015). The little fire engine. ISBN 978-1-78295-282-4. OCLC 914452654. On inheriting a sum of money from his father Ardizzone left his job as clerk, got married to Catherine Anderson, and set up as a freelance artist. His first commissioned break came by way of Johnny Walker – the whisky distillers – who wanted drawings for commercial use; but it was not until his first show at the Bloomsbury Gallery that Ardizzone started to attract the kind of critical acclaim he was later to achieve. And this show also led to his first contract as book illustrator of Sheridan Lefanu’s ‘In a Glass Darkly’ (1929).Seven Stories – The National Centre for Children’s Books. Seven Stories is the only place in Britain dedicated to the art of children’s books and the joy of reading, and one of just a few such places in the world. Our work is enjoyed by over 150,000 people every year.

Early in the 1970s, Ardizzone illustrated a new edition of the 20-year-old Little books by Graham Greene: The Little Train, The Little Fire Engine, The Little Horse Bus, and The Little Steamroller. He also illustrated a re-telling of the Don Quixote story for children by James Reeves and his illustrations for The Land of Green Ginger by Noel Langley are regarded as classics in their own right. [13] His 1970 autobiography, The Young Ardizzone - an autobiographical fragment, was illustrated with his own drawings. His work is represented in numerous public collections, including the British Museum, the Imperial War Museum, Tate and the V&A; and the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford). Ardizzone always maintained that the art of a children’s book illustrator was particularly good when it was created as much for the child within the illustrator, as for the child viewing the illustrations. And this, almost certainly, is why the Tim books have just as much appeal for adults as they do for children; and why, too, there is no condescension in either the writing or the illustrations for the books.Brian Alderson, Edward Ardizzone: A Bibliographic Commentary (2003. Private Libraries Association) ISBN 978-1-58456-103-3) Alfred Wallis Alfred Wallis, Cornish fisherman and, from his late sixties on, self-taught artist, was born in Devonport on the 18th August, 1855. He attended school from the age of seven for at least two years, and at the age of nine – or such was his claim – he may have been employed as cabin boy to the fishermen working the waters off the Cornish coast. There is some doubt, however, that this claim is correct: he more likely worked as an apprentice basket maker after his brief schooling. But from the age of twenty there is clearer evidence for a sea-faring occupation since Wallis is listed as crew-member with the Belle Adventure, one of the many great sailing ships – schooners and brigantines – which carried global trade between 1820-1890 from UK ports to Europe and the United States. The Belle Adventure itself, fishing for cod, crossed the Atlantic bound for the Grand Banks off Newfoundland, and several of Wallis’s later pictures record this voyage (e.g. Voyage to Labrador c.1936). These crossings were often dangerous. Wallis’s ship was itself caught in a storm and survived only by jettisoning the catch. After this Wallis exchanged deep sea for inshore fishing working…

Ardizzone's father, Auguste Ardizzone, was a naturalised Frenchman of Italian descent, who was born a Pied-Noir in French Algeria, then a colony of France, and worked on overseas government service elsewhere in the French colonial empire. Ardizzone's mother, Margaret, was English. Her father, Edward Alexander Irving, was assistant Colonial Secretary, Straits Settlements, in what is now known as Singapore. Edward Ardizzone was born in the port city of Haiphong, then known as Tonkin, in the north of French Indo-China, a city now in Vietnam, while his father was working for the Eastern Extension Telegraph Company. [4] For illustrating Titus in Trouble, written by James Reeves, Ardizzone was a commended runner-up for the 1959 Greenaway Medal. [14] [a] Roger Tolson (Imperial War Museum). "A common cause: Britain's War Artist Scheme" (PDF). Canadian War Museum . Retrieved 4 August 2016. The exhibition explores Ardizzone’s fascination with ships and the sea as well as celebrating his love of adventure with artwork from the Graham Greene story The Little Train.Ardizzone reached a particularly wide public through his contributions to periodicals. His drawings for Radio Times first appeared in 1932, and he was chosen in the same year to design the cover of the Christmas issue. He was also closely associated with the Strand magazine, providing a series of coloured drawings of Londoners in 1942, and drawing all except one of the covers between October 1946 and December 1947. Soon considered as one of the greatest illustrators of his generation, he also gained a reputation as a distinguished Official War Artist, through his record in word and image of action in Europe and North Africa. a b "Kate Greenaway Medal Winners – The CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Children's Book Awards". carnegiegreenaway.org.uk . Retrieved 31 January 2021.

Book won the Carnegie Meal in 1955 [17] and Eleanor Farjeon was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1956. Ardizzone's first major commission was to illustrate an edition of In a Glass Darkly by Sheridan Le Fanu in 1929. He also produced advertising material for Johnnie Walker whisky, and illustrations for both Punch and The Radio Times, [4] including the 1937 and 1948 Christmas covers of the latter. The first book by Ardizzone listed by the US Library of Congress is The Mediterranean: An Anthology (London: Cassell, 1935, OCLC 2891569), compiled by Paul Bloomfield, "decorated by Edward Ardizzone" with "each chapter preceded by illustrated half-title". [6] In 1936 he inaugurated his best-known work, the Tim series of books, featuring the maritime adventures of its eponymous young hero, which he both wrote and illustrated. Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain was published by Oxford University Press in both London and New York that year. [7] In 1939 he illustrated the first of a series of four Mimff children's books by H.J.Kaesar.On 3 May 2007, an English Heritage Blue Plaque was unveiled by Sir Christopher Frayling in honour of Edward Ardizzone, at his former home at 130 Elgin Avenue, Maida Vale, London, W9. The assembled company then repaired appropriately to the Prince Alfred, Formosa Street, one of Ardizzone’s former watering holes, for a celebratory reception. The Eleanor Farjeon book: a tribute to her life and work 1881-1965, (1966), introduction by Naomi Lewis