EDWARD ARDIZZONE CBE RA RDI (1900-1979)


THE MOST UNFORGIVABLE CHARACTER I'VE MET	LORD KEW AND THE LITTLE GASCON	MRS MACK GIVES PENDENNIS A PIECE OF HER MIND

PEOPLE	THE TRAGEDY OF KING LEAR	I SHALL BE LEAVING YOU NOW SIR

THEY WERE WATCHING A SMALL STEAMER SAIL SLOWLY OUT OF THE DOCK, WHEN AT ONE OF THE PORTHOLES A FACE APPEARED CROWNED WITH A MOP OF RED HAIR.	'I HAVE TASTED SENIOR HOCKS. THEIR FLAVOURS ARE AS A BROOK OF MANY VOICES; THEY HAVE DEPTH ALSO.'MEREDITH - THE EGOIST	'BUT LEAVE THE BOTTLE ON THE CHIMLEY PIECE AND LET ME PUT MY LIPS TO IT WHEN SO DISPOGED.' MRS GAMP, MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT

'WERY GOOD MY DEAR' SAID SAM 'LET ME HAVE NINE PENNORTH O' BRANDY AND WATER LUKE AND THE INK STAND'	'OH THE NAUGHTY DEAR ABANDONED WRETCH! SMOKING A CIGAR WITH A BOTTLE OF CURAÇAO BEFORE HIM.' VANITY FAIR	'I DINED TODAY BY APPOINTMENT WITH LORD BOLINGBROKE; BUT THEY FELL TO DRINKING MANY SPANISH HEALTHS IN CHAMPAIGN THAT I STOLE AWAY TO THE LADIES AND DRANK TILL EIGHT.' DEAN SWIFT - JOURNAL TO STELLA

WATCHING THE SKY WHERE THE SWANS HAD FLOWN	FLIGHT OF THE SWANS	SMALL HILDA CLIMBED SLOWLY AND CAREFULLY OUT OF THE SWAN-SLEIGH

'I'VE NEVER PUT A CROWN ON A SWAN'S HEAD BEFORE'	RAKING THE MEADOW GRASS	BIG CLAUS AND LITTLE CLAUS

THE NIGHTINGALE SANG SO SWEETLY	FAVOURITISM AT THE GREEN GROCER	THE FLYING TRUNK

SILAS + GOLIATH HEAD PIECE	THE COCKNEY	SUMMER PARTY

KNITTING CIRCLE	SWANHILDA-OF-THE-SWANS	SHE DREW THE REINDEER INTO A CORNER

GERDA AND THE CROW	THUMBELINA	THE WILD SWANS

THEY PERCHED THEMSELVES ROUND HER	WHAT HE BEHOLD WAS A SNOW WHITE SWAN	THE MIRROR

THE WATCHERS

EDWARD ARDIZZONE, CBE RA RDI (1900-1979)

Edward Ardizzone was born in Haiphong in French Indo-China on 16 October 1900, to a Franco-Italian father and a Scottish mother. The family returned to England in 1905, and lived first in East Anglia and later in London. However, Ardizzone was educated away from home, at Clayesmore School in the Thames Valley. Working as a statistical clerk from the age of nineteen, he took evening classes at the Westminster School where he studied under Bernard Meninsky. After seven years, he decided to take up an artistic career as a freelance painter and illustrator in watercolour and pen, and began to exhibit in solo shows at the Bloomsbury (1930) and Leger Galleries (1931-36). Synthesising the bulk of Meninsky’s figures with the humour and facility of classic French and English illustrators, he moved from the tight, sinister vignettes of In a Glass Darkly (1929) to more typically generous draughtsmanship, achieving widespread recognition with Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain (1936), the first of many books that he both wrote and illustrated. He reached a particularly wide public through his regular contributions to such periodicals as the Radio Times and the Strand magazine. Soon considered 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 North Africa and Europe.

After the Second World War, Ardizzone worked increasingly as an illustrator of literary classics, and collaborated closely with a number of contemporary authors. A teacher of illustration at Camberwell School of Art and of etching at the Royal College of Art (1953-61), he won several prizes including the Carnegie Medal (1955) and the Hans Christian Andersen Medal (1956) for Farjeon’s The Little Bookroom, and the first Kate Greenaway Award (1956) for Tim All Alone. Working additionally as painter, sculptor, lithographer and designer, he became an associate of the Royal Academy in 1962 and a full academician in 1970. He was created CBE in 1971 and a Royal Designer to Industry three years later. Though he lived in Maida Vale for most of his career, he spent an increasing amount of his final decade in Kent, revisiting the coast and countryside that had long inspired him. He died in that country, at Rodmersham, on 8 November 1979.

For further information, see: Brian Alderson, Edward Ardizzone: a bibliographic commentary, London: The British Library, 2002; Dr Nicholas Ardizzone, Edward Ardizzone’s World. The Etchings and Lithographs, London: Unicorn Press/Wolseley Fine Arts, 2000; Gabriel White, Edward Ardizzone, London: Bodley Head, 1979

EDWARD ARDIZZONE CBE RA RDI (1900-1979)

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