Chris Beetles Gallery

(click image to enlarge)

At the Halt

Ernest Howard Shepard (1879-1976)

Price

£3,500

Signed

Signed and inscribed with title
Inscribed 'Illustration to "Punch" Poem' and dated 'May 3rd 1950' below mount
Signed with the initials of Russell Brockbank, Punch's Art Editor, below mount

Medium

Ink

Dimensions

11 ½ x 17 ¾ inches

Illustrated

Punch, 3 May 1950, pages 490-491, 'At the Halt' by Mrs Benn Moston

Exhibited

'The Illustrators: The British Art of Illustration 1807-2026' Chris Beetles Gallery, London, November 2026-January 2027, no 91

Porter, reading your paper,
I will impel you – bend my will upon you –
Beat on my carriage window –
Look round, I tell you! See her!

Shy schoolgirl fighting her tears –
What tragedy of childish loss
Darkens this upturned face
With lowering press of fears?

Beyond the power of conscious art
The wringing of these piteous hands –
The dilate pupils – and the strands
Stroked from the pale, damp brow.

Ah! You have seen her now.
So big with suffering – so small and young a thing
To meet experience. Your heart
Should leap to her service.
Porter! Speak to her, please!

I think she left her satchel in the train.
Hurry – unlock the stubborn door again.

Can I not make you budge?
Speak, man. Bear her no grudge.
One act of simple courtesy
and you restore her threatened entity.
Praise be – you speak!
I see the tension break
In the tortured face –
The slack release –
The swift inflow of peace.

She is pure child again
Clasping her treasure, happy and whole.
And you – thrice happy man –
Enjoy a triple pleasure,
Her peace, my comfort, and your errant soul
To safety snatched from a departing train.