Illustration Winter 2020 Issue 66

Contents

News and reviews 
A  brief  round-up  of  current  news  stories,  exhibitions  and  competitions  –  plus  new  books,  reader offers,  catalogues  and  websites,  auction  highlights and dates you need to remember.

Illustrator’s Notebook
Mick Manning has been sketching wildlife – and, in particular, birds – since he was at school. Even now,  despite  a  busy  career  illustrating  books  and teaching,  he  continues  to  paint  and  sketch  wild birds and animals and to use his notebooks as a resource for his paintings and books. Some fit in sketchbooks, while others are life-sized studies. He tells us what these sketches, both large and small, mean to him.

Tirzah Garwood
After many years in which she was known primarily as the wife of Eric Ravilious and as a member of the Great  Bardfield  group  of  artists,  Garwood’s  work has  recently  gained  more  attention  in  a  couple  of books by the Fleece Press and in successful exhibitions, such as “Ravilious & Co” at the Towner Gallery in Eastbourne. We discover the wood-engravings, collages, paintings and pattern papers created by Garwood throughout her life and find out why she deserves to be better remembered as a talented artist and illustrator in her own right.

Illustrating the League of Nations
Although  it  was  lauded  by  many  politicians,  the League  of  Nations  was  derided  by  clear-sighted cartoonists  for  being  idealistic,  but  weak  and divided,  and  so  fatally  flawed  from  its  inception. Why  were  the  artists  so  much  more  perceptive than those in power and what do they tell us about public  sentiment  at  the  time?  We  consider  the depictions of European leaders in the build-up to the second world war and their disturbingly accurate forecasts of future events.

Elizabeth Siddal 
Her  style  was  naïve  and  strongly  influenced  by the Arts & Crafts circle around her, but Elizabeth Siddal’s art was more than a pale imitation of the famous designs of her husband and teacher, Dante Gabriel  Rossetti  –  indeed,  there  is  evidence  that her  compositions  and  ideas  often  influenced  his work  –  and  he  championed  her  inclusion  in  the celebrated “Moxon Tennyson”. We find out more about her and look at her few surviving works to find  out  more  about  the  woman  who  features  in many famous portraits yet whose own artistic voice was so seldom heard.

American railway graphics
The American railroads had a graphic style all of their own. We follow the trains across the continent  to  see  how  the  railroads  played  a  formative role in the country’s history – and how illustration played  an  important  role  in  branding  and  selling the idea of train travel to US citizens.

Leonard Raven-Hill
As long-serving  second  cartoonist  on Punch and a  contributor  to  numerous  other  magazines  and books,  Leonard  Raven-Hill  was  one  of  the  best known  and  most  successful  cartoonists  and  illustrators of his day. We look at the wide range of his work, from first world war cartoons to illustrations for motoring books

Graduate round-up
Three young artists fresh from their degree courses in  Brittany and  at  Cambridge  School  of  Art  discuss their current work, their inspirations and their ambitions for their future artistic careers.

Contributors
Simon Lawrence has printed and published over 90 books during the past 40 years under the Fleece Press imprint, most of them relating to the printmakers of the inter-war years, and with a particular interest in wood-engravers and war artists. His current efforts are being channelled into Spitsticks & Multiples, the early history of the Society of Wood Engravers, 1920-46, a 600-page extravaganza. Making new and original books has been his passion, and the most recent is Woodcuts for Good Boys and Girls, a miniature by Brian Alderson on John Newbery’s children’s books. .(“Beyond Bardfield”, page 8.)

Stefan Slater is a retired consultant physician and Fellow of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of Edinburgh, Glasgow, London and Ireland. He has contributed to a range of medical journals and co-edited the centenary history of his hospital, the Victoria Infirmary of Glasgow, and an anthology of short stories by doctors and medical students, The Magic Bullet and Other Medical Stories. He has collected books for over 40 years, gives talks on book-collecting and is particularly interested in the art and literature of both world wars and in illustrated books in general.
(“Faith, hope and reality, page 16.)

David Macfadyen graduated in medicine from the University of Glasgow and went on to study public health in London and Harvard. He also holds a doctorate in the history of medicine. David worked as a doctor in Africa for seven years, before joining the World Health Organization, in which he served for three decades. He co-published Improving the Health of Older People: A World View during his working career and Eric Drummond and his Legacies after retiring.
(“Faith, hope and reality, page 16.)

Jonathan Glancey is a journalist, author and broadcaster. He has written for newspapers, magazine and journals worldwide, and is former architecture and design correspondent at the Guardian. His books include Twentieth Century Architecture, Lost Buildings and Spitfire: The Biography. He is proud to have fired and driven an Indian Railways WP class Pacific and to have helped save St Martin’s Church, New Delhi..
(“Tracks of history”, page 34.