Edward Ardizzone CBE RA RI (British 1900-1979) |
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Edward Ardizzone was born in 1900 in French Indochina. He was possessed
with a quick eye and was able to capture the very essence of life.
By the outbreak of World War Two he was already a household name,
spending six years as Britain's official war artist. He became a master
of book illustration, embellishing works for both adults and children;
drawings remarkable both for their detail and faultless relationship
to the page. Well-known works are the Little Tim series of
books. Ardizzone collaborated with Eleanor Farjeon in 1955 on The
Little Bookroom, which was awarded the Carnegie Medal, and went
on to illustrate six further books by her.
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Little Tim and the Brave
Sea Captain
giclée print in colours
on cotton rag paper
2007
numbered from limited edition of 950
21 x 29.7cm. (sheet)
SOLD
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Tim and Lucy go to Sea
giclée print in colours
on cotton rag paper
2007
numbered from limited edition of 950
21 x 29.7cm. (sheet)
SOLD
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Tim's Friend Towser
giclée print in colours
on cotton rag paper
2007
numbered from limited edition of 950
21 x 29.7cm. (sheet)
SOLD
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Artist's proof printed in 4
colours of artwork
to illustrate James Reeves' Three Tall Tales
1964
14.5 x 35 cm (sheet)
References: James Reeves. Three Tall Tales, 1964, illustrated
pp. [33-34].
SOLD
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The Warwick Castle
proof lithograph printed in four colours on wove paper
at the Curwen Press
1939
22 x 15 cm. (sheet)
£150 (framed in oak)
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The Lord High Admiral
proof lithograph printed in four colours on wove paper
at the Curwen Press
1939
22 x 15 cm. (sheet)
£150 (framed in oak)
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Saloon Bar at the Prince Alfred
proof lithograph printed in four colours on wove paper
at the Curwen Press
1939
22 x 15 cm. (sheet)
SOLD
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The Regulars at the Hero
proof lithograph printed in five colours on wove paper
at the Curwen Press
1939
22 x 15 cm. (image)
SOLD
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King's Wine House
proof lithograph printed in four colours on wove paper
at the Curwen Press
1939
22 x 15 cm. (image)
SOLD
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Downside Abbey - The Tower
Lithograph printed on cream wove paper
c. 1964
signed and numbered from the edition of 100 by the artist in pencil
370 x 530mm.
£680 (framed)
From the series of lithographs of public schools by Edward Ardizzone from
the 1960s.Downside Abbey was built in the nineteenth century but not completed
until 1935.
References: Nicholas Ardizzone. Edward Ardizzone's World. The Etchings
and Lithographs, 40.
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Shelter Scene
Lithograph
1941
published by the National Gallery, London and printed at the Baynard Press
655 x 990mm. (Unframed sheet size)
£700 (framed and glazed in dark wood frame)
A fine example of this fragile wartime lithograph by Edward Ardizzone.
References: Nicholas
Ardizzone. Edward Ardizzone's World. The Etchings and Lithographs,
72; Gabriel White. Edward Ardizzone: artist and illustrator, 1979.This
is a direct adaptation of Ardizzone's largest wartime painting and was
produced during Ardizzone's time as official war artist.
By the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Ardizzone's reputation
as an artist was firmly established and he was a firm favourite of Sir
Kenneth Clarke to be made official war artist, due to his quick reaction
to life around him and the ease with which he portrayed it. Much of Ardizzone's
war work is outstanding and civilian life is shown as much as the military.
His, at times harrowing experiences are recorded in his Diary of a War
Artist and some two hundred and seventy five of his war drawings are held
in the Imperial War Museum. 1940-1942 were spent at home in London and
this image reflects his response to the pictorially rewarding days of
the Blitz. It is printed on machine glaze wartime paper, hence the sparseness
of such work still surviving in good condition. The British Museum collection
has an example of this print. It shows the huge underground shelter, The
Tilbury also captured in Henry Moore's work:
The most famous, or notorious, of all London's shelters was
found under the Tilbury railway arches in Stepney. Part of a complex
of cellars and vaults had been taken over by the borough council as
a public shelter for three thousand people. The other part was the loading
yard of a huge warehouse. The shelter was famous as a popular refuge
in the raids of the First World War, and people flocked to it from a
wide area. Communists encouraged the shelterers to overflow into the
'unofficial' part of the arches, where massive steel girders maintained
an illusion of safety. This became the largest, and perhaps the most
unspeakable of all London's shelters; as many as fourteen or sixteen
thousand were estimated to use it on certain nights... 'Tilbury' became
the spearhead of the agitation for a general improvement in public shelters
which journalists and social workers began to conduct as soon as the
blitz settled in. (Angus Calder. The People's War, pp. 182-183).
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The Wreck
Lithograph
1951
Published by School Prints. The Artist's International Association (AIA)
co-sponsered this series for the Festival of Britain.
455 x 724mm.
SOLD
References:
Nicholas Ardizzone. Edward Ardizzone's World. The Etchings and Lithographs,
84.
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