Illustration Issue 70

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

Harry Potter is 25 this year and, as part of the anniversary celebrations, Bloomsbury Books commissioned design duo MinaLima (Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima) to design new editions of the now-classic books with illustrations, fold-outs and extras galore. We sneak a peak at their preparatory drawings and final artwork for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Lucien Boucher’s Boutiques

Paris in the early 20th century was the city of shopping and the flaneur – and Lucien Boucher was the illustrator who captured the spirit and eccentricity of its streets in three beautifully illustrated livres d’artiste that are now rare and hugely collectable. Now, as the Mainstone Press publishes new editions of these precious volumes, we discover the art and learn about what it tells us of the city at that time.

Christiana Hammond

Although superficially conventional, the illustrations of Christiana Hammond (usually signed as “Chris Hammond”) display a sophisticated and deep understanding of power play between the sexes and the gender politics of her day. We take a closer look and ask what her viewpoint adds to the texts she illustrated.

Bold

Who was “Bold” – the name is presumably a pseudonym, although no one seems to know for sure. What we do know is that he or she created some interesting wood-engravings for at least two books by Walter de La Mare in the 1930s. We piece together what we can and appeal for more information.

G L Stampa

Described as “the last Bohemian”, G L Stampa “of Punch” was a prolific and popular cartoonist for that magazine as well as a regular illustrator of other work – particularly books featuring dogs. We learn more about the man and his work.

Fine press: Yehuda Miklaf

From his early days growing up in a book-loving family in Canada to his later training to become a Catholic priest, Yehuda Miklaf was not the obvious person to become a Jewish bookbinder and Hebrew printer, working in Jerusalem. He explains how it all began with a fascination with Hebrew letters and a burning desire to created printed books in this tradition.

George Du Maurier

What can a single drawing by an illustrator, isolated from both its own time and terms of reference, and from any text that once accompanied it, tell us about the artist? And why should such ephemeral items be collectable. We examine a single line drawing by the illustrator George Du Maurier.

Graduate round-up

Two young artists fresh from their degree courses at Cambridge School of Art discuss their current work, their inspirations and their ambitions for their future artistic careers.

Resources

Chris McEwan’s Robots

After a lifetime of collecting and drawing robots, illustrator Chris McEwan has published a book featuring both his vast collection and also the many works it has inspired and informed.

Look and learn

What are the key events, shows and exhibitions coming up in the next few months? Find out what you can’t afford to miss.

Contributors

Tim Mainstone is the founder and publisher at Mainstone Press, currently printing a series of three books illustrated by Lucien Boucher (themainstonepress.com). James Russell is an art historian, curator and author whose previous publications for The Mainstone Press include several books on Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden. Neil Philip is a writer, folklorist and poet. The author of numerous books, he is passionate about prints and printmaking.
(“Streets ahead”, page 8.)

Dr Simon Cooke is co-editor of Reading Victorian Illustration 1855-1875 (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2012), and the author of Illustrated Periodicals of the 1860s (London: BL, 2010). He has published articles on Victorian literature, art and illustration. His specialist interests include Gothic and Sensationalism, Pre-Raphaelite literature, cultural readings of Victorian texts, book illustration of the 1860s and the book as a material form. His essays have appeared in British and American journals, including Dickens Studies Annual, Dickens Quarterly and Victorian Periodicals Review.
(“Power player”, page 14.)

Dr Mark Bryant was an editor in literary and academic book publishing before becoming a writer, journalist, lecturer and exhibition curator. He has written for the Independent, History Today, British Journalism Review, Military History Monthly and other publications. His books include the Dictionary of 20th Century British Cartoonists and Caricaturists, and he has contributed articles to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. He is a former trustee of the Cartoon Museum.
(“The last Bohemian”, page 24.)

Mordechai Beck is a printmaker, artist and writer born in the UK, but based in Israel. His prints have been purchased by MOMA, the Library of Congress, the universities of Yale, Berkeley and others. His articles appear regularly in the Jewish Chronicle and in the Guardian, Print Quarterly and Letter Arts Review. His fiction has been published in the Literary Review, The Jewish Quarterly and other places.
(“Pursuit of print”, page 32.)