Edward Ardizzone



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Edward Ardizzone CBE RA RI (British 1900-1979)

	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.

			Great Sail giclée print in colours on cotton rag paper numbered from limited edition of 950 21 x 45cm. (image) 43 x 61cm. (sheet) £107 (within mount)

			The Warwick Castle proof lithograph printed in four colours on wove paper at the Curwen Press 1939 22 x 15 cm. (sheet) £150 (framed)

			St Paul’s School – The Front Lithograph printed on cream wove paper c. 1964 signed, titled and numbered from the edition of 100 by the artist in pencil 382 x 535mm. £550 From the series of lithographs of public schools by Edward Ardizzone from the 1960s. References: Nicholas Ardizzone. Edward Ardizzone's World. The Etchings and Lithographs, 42.

			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. £650 (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.

			Shelter Scene Lithograph 1941 published by the National Gallery, London and printed at the Baynard Press 655 x 990mm. (Unframed sheet size) £400 (unframed) 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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