Punch part 2: French Theatre

Here's a rare edition for Searle fans. 'Le Theatre a Paris' is a limited edition catalogue published by Galerie Martine Gossieaux in Paris. It's release coincided with an exhibition in 2000 of caricatures of Parisian stage actors made between 1954 & 1962.



The drawings were originally published in British satirical journal Punch as illustrations for the regular Theatrical review column.







Madame Gossieaux tracked down all the contemporary posters for each show which are reproduced opposite the relevant Searle drawing.






The book was published in a limited print run of only 500 copies. It's beautifully produced on thick, fine quality paper but at 90 euros is perhaps only for Searle completists. It's available from Galerie Martine Gossieaux. The gallery specializes in exhibitions of drawings & represents some of the best French dessinateurs including Sempé & André François.

Mint

George Cruikshank, pen and black ink sketch, over graphite,France, 1977

A preparatory sketch for a series of medals commemorating caricaturists from the 16th to the 19th centuries

Searle made this study of George Cruikshank (1792-1878) for Six Fathers of Caricature, a series of medals struck by the French Mint from 1976-77. The other artists commemorated are Carracci, Ghezzi, Hogarth, Gillray, and Rowlandson. All the related drawings are in the Department of Prints and Drawings , while the medals themselves were presented by the artist to the Department of Coins and Medals of The British Museum.

Cruikshank was a celebrated caricaturist in nineteenth-century England; succeeding Gillray as the country's leading political cartoonist. Today, however, he is best known for his illustrations to Charles Dickens's novels. The source of this sketch is a portrait by Daniel Maclise, the most frequently reproduced portrait of Cruikshank, published in Fraser's Magazine in 1833. Cruikshank disliked the portrait; he became a vigorous teetotaller and objected to Maclise's depiction of him sketching in a tavern, seated on a beer barrel with a tankard and pipe beside him. Searle's final design shows Cruikshank sitting outside on the barrel amidst a riot, the tankard removed.

-British Museum

Annibale Caracci



Pier Leone Ghezzi




Antonio Pisanello - 23rd FIDEM Congress Medal 1992 Bronze, struck
Commissioned by FIDEM (Fédération Internationale de la Médaille) in silver and bronze

'Searle wittily subverts the traditional medal format. Normally there is a portrait on one side and a symbolic image representing the virtue or achievements of the sitter on the reverse. When this medal is turned over, the reverse reveals the back of Pisanello's head.'





James Thurber-







British Art Medal Society (BAMS)


Charles Dickens-

Searle made his first medals for the Paris Mint in the early 1970s. He has since executed several medals for BAMS, of which this was the first.




Searle's medal of James Boswell continues a literary theme that began with his medal of Edward Lear, modelled in 1975 and issued by the Monnaie de Paris, and has been apparent in two of the artist's BAMS medals: those of Charles Dickens and Samuel Pepys medals, which appeared in 1983 and 1984 respectively. On this witty new medal Boswell, the biographer of the great lexicographer Samuel Johnson, is portrayed on one side, pen in hand, whilst on the other he chases after the great man, notebook in hand so as to catch the doctor's bons mots. Like the earlier Dickens medal, the Boswell medal is being issued in two versions, both as a struck two-sided piece and as two large electroformed uniface works. The latter have been taken directly from the models produced by the artist in 1999, and their issue by the Society has been made possible by generous sponsorship from David Silich.


Samuel Pepys Esqr. Searle's witty view of the celebrated diarist.
1633-1703, facing portrait with Pepys taking an extravagant though humble bow on the reverse: BAMS issue 20, 1984, 71.5mm, high relief struck bronze













Bernini Getting the Message from the Angel of the Baroque. Searle's vision of the inspiration of the great Italian sculptor.





The artist has written that the medal can be seen as 'either a weeping paperweight, a tearful, fearful, separation object, a cry-by-night loveletter weight, or simply as an ex-voto, because it all turned out well in the end.'





The medal harks back to the artist's war-time experience as a prisoner-of-war working on the Thai-Burma railway. The artist wrote that he had tried 'to retain a certain naivety of interpretation rather in the spirit of medieval Dance of Death imagery. The approximate anatomy that one encounters in so many gothic frescoes has been applied to the anonymous bodies that make the sleepers of the railway line.'




This medal marked a new departure as the first of Searle's works to be conceived as a cast rather than as a struck medal.





The Taltarni Wine Award, 1993

The Taltarni Vineyards instigated an award for services to Australian wine industry and commissioned the artist Ronald Searle to design the prize medal. This example of the medal was presented to the Museum both of a medal related to the wine industry and as an example of late twentieth century medallic art.


Obverse – A cartoon-like representation of Bacchus, the god of wind, riding a Kangaroo with the legend TALTARNI AUSTRALIA and the signature of the artist.





Medal commemorating Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) and Trafalgar. Obverse: Bust of Nelson in uniform wearing a cocked hat bearing the Chelengk plume. (Right) signature of 'Horatio Nelson'; (left) signature of 'Ronald Searle'. Reverse: Nelson mortally wounded supported by Britannia and Captain Hardy on the deck of the Victory. Legend: 'Trafalgar HORATIO NELSON 1758-1805.'




Watteau



Tim Bobbin (John Collier 1708-1786)




Le Capitaine Francis Grose (1731-1791)




Romeyn de Hooghe (1645-1708)

Auto-portrait

The artist described this medal as a 'Medal in Commemoration of a Mini-drama. No. 1 in a series of Great Classical trivialities', and added 'I feel that it is rather appropriate that there can be an occasion when a satirist can deflate himself publicly and take a little of what he likes to deal out to others!' The snake around Laocošn forms the figures '7' and '0'.










As a POW, 1943


Perhaps a self-portrait from Searle's variation on Hogarth's 'The Rake's Progress', originally published in PUNCH magazine.



Searle did not study at the Royal College of Art but this must have been based on his art school days in Cambridge.



Searle did indeed design the Chelsea Arts Club Ball.




Searle appears in the The Great Fur Opera: Annals of the Hudson's Bay Company 1670-1970



'Portrait of the artist painting his own foot'.

Ronald Searle: A Photographic Portrait

A very young Searle as an art student in Cambridge.



Searle on German TV in the 50s.













Cartoonist Ronald Searle, creator of the St Trinian's stories, in the audience at a play at Acton Reynold girl's school near Shrewsbury. Original Publication - 07 Aug 1950 (Photo by Kurt Hutton/Getty Images)



8th July 1950 - 08 Jul 1950 (Photo by Kurt Hutton/Picture Post/Getty Images)









8th July 1950 - 08 Jul 1950 (Photo by Kurt Hutton/Picture Post/Getty Images) Searle with pupils at Acton Reynold girl's school near Shrewsbury, during his visit to the school.




Searle's kids watching him draw Mr Punch. He appears to be working on the cover artwork for the April 6th edition 1955.





01 Jan 1956 (Photo by Baron/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)


Ronald & Monica Searle in Rome in the 60s on location for 'Monte Carlo Or Bust'





Exhibition Catalogue 1971


Published on 3 October 1971 this Sunday Telegraph Magazine contains 88 pages, with main articles including:
* Thirty Years After St Trinians – Martin Amis talks to satirist Ronald Searle, creator of the St Trinians’ schoolgirls, about his past and his life as a serious artist. Photographs by Shaun Skelly.

Happy Birthday Ronald Searle!

Ronald Searle was born on this day in 1920 making him 88 year old today-happy birthday Mr. Searle!



To celebrate I've updated the following sections:

Advertising
USA
Lemon Hart Rum
Punch
The Rake's Progress
Dickens
Film Titles & Posters
HOLIDAY magazine

Exhibition report!

Special post today as I'm pleased to present a report on the recent Searle retrospective in Cambridge by Ed Roberts, roving reporter & fellow Searle enthusiast. Ed was also good enough to scan the exhibition brochure to accompany his article.






'Ronald Searle: A Celebration'
Report on Exhibition at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge

Despite being a longtime fan of Ronald Searle, I have seen precious few exhibitions of his work in his native country, the last one being back in 2003 at Chris Beetles Gallery, London. I was delighted to therefore discover that the Anglia Ruskin University in Searle's birthplace city Cambridge were holding a small display of his work in the Ruskin Gallery.
Coming from around Cambridge myself, it was a prime opportunity to study the master's work up close and in detail on home turf!

Driving into Cambridge I aptly passed over Elizabeth Way, a bridge spanning the Cam and the original location of the house in which Searle was born, sadly since demolished. The Ruskin gallery is a small yet spacious room situated at the back of the Ruskin campus near the centre of the city. There was a modest amount of Searle's work on display, most of it
on loan from Chris Beetles Gallery, London. Around the gallery are classrooms where students take lessons in art; to be surrounded by and be able to pass by Searle's work everyday is an enviable position to be in!




I feel Searle's best work was during the 50's when he was able to achieve a perfect marriage between observational drawing and caricature. There were some fine examples from this period, and being able to study them up close and at actual scale impressed upon me not only Searle's ability for beautiful loose linework but also the delicacy and fine lines in his work which is lost in many shrunken reproductions.
The detail on a rose, or the stunning intricacies of a car's bonnet truly astound as one's eyes try to lap it all up. Being able to appreciate his use of inks, crayons and pastels up close impresses upon one the visual variety and varying tonal qualities of his work, which can be lost in books. Indeed some of Searle's linework is so delicious one just wants to gorge on the picture as a whole and try to take in the sheer beauty of his compostions.







Of particular note were some original posters Searle designed for 'Lemon Hart Rum', a series of which ran nationwide on billboards during the 50's. To see these up close was superb - under the paint it was possible to see where Searle had roughed out in pencil the original layout, before working over it in paints. There was a wonderful roughness to these
large colour pieces, with Searle's brushwork mirroring the looseness of his linework. Indeed some parts of
the work even seem unfinished and unrefined, but when looked at as a whole there is a beautiful flow and feel to the pieces.

Aside from the obvious and oft reproduced works from Searle's prolific career, including his 'Cats' work and 'St. Trinian's' of which are few were on display, there were a couple of gems exhibited around the gallery which were the highlights for me.

Searle created cartoons for the Cambridge Daily News in his late teens, and an example from these early days was on loan from the newspaper, focusing on a recent spate of book borrowing from the local library.
Despite the obvious lack of refinement in the drawing, it is clear from this early piece that Searle was already aquainted with basic forms of cartooning and caricature which he would go on to refine and master in later years. Everyone has to start
somewhere and despite the fact it does not resemble his later post war work, there are glimpses of the drawings which were to come.

Lastly there was a cabinet in the middle of the gallery containing sketches, roughs and early draft versions of Searle's work. After intially missing this treasure trove, this was the undoubted high point of the exhibition - being allowed to see how Searle approached his work. There were rough mock ups for the Lemon Hart posters, loosely blocked in on a small ,A4 sized piece of paper. Tantalisingly out of reach were a couple of his theatre sketchbooks whilst working for Punch in the late 50's, used by Searle to jot down notes and sketches to produce the final image back in his studio. Maddeningly you could only see into a couple of the pages, where he had made shorthand studies of the actors in pencil whilst crammed into a small london theatre. A couple of letters from his studio displaying his elegant handwriting and a work in progress edition of 'The St Trinian's Story', as well as an edition of Searle's earliest publications '40 Drawings' were also on display. Finally a selection of photos from Searle's youth around Cambridge could be seen.

Whilst not the exhaustive display of his work as one would have wished for, only offering mere glimpses of his work from differing periods, this was still a fine exhibition, especially considering the free entry and being able to see the rare sketchbooks up close. Hopefully one day soon England will pay hommage to it's greatest living graphic artist by holding a large scale complete exhibition of Ronald Searle's work, either quite fittingly at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, or in a London gallery. It is the least that he deserves.

Ed Roberts, February 2008



Searle's first professional cartoon done at age 15 for the Cambridge Daily News in 1935.




Fellow illustrator Quentin Blake performed the official opening of the exhibition on 9 January during a Private View. He said:
"In the pages of magazines and books, on posters and on the screen, as reporter and satirist, comedian and wit, Ronald Searle has succeeded brilliantly and distinctively at pretty well everything that an illustrator might hope for; but perhaps he is most inspiring to us all as a consummate draughtsman. The head and eye and hand are coordinated as wonderfully as ever!"

More Dickens

Back to Charles Dickens for a post. The 'Scrooge' film was released in 1970 & Searle was hired to provide the title artwork no doubt in part due to his illustrated version of the novel published previously in 1961.






















The December 19th, 1960 issue of LIFE Magazine had a special spread promoting the release of the Searle illustrated Christmas Carol.







Searle's version of 'A Christmas Carol' must have been successful because it was swiftly followed by Searle illustrated editions of 'Great Expectations' and 'Oliver Twist' both published in 1962.







SIGNED, INSCRIBED WITH TITLE AND ‘OLIVER TWIST: CHARLES DICKENS’, AND DATED 1965
INSCRIBED WITH PUBLISHING DETAILS ON REVERSE
PEN INK AND MONOCHROME WATERCOLOUR
8 1/2 X 10 INCHES
ILLUSTRATED: EXPLORING LONDON: A SHELL JUNIOR GUIDE, LONDON: EBURY PRESS/GEORGE RAINBIRD, 1965, PAGE 18 ‘HISTORIC LONDON, DICKENS HOUSE’, PAGE 18

Sykes from 'Oliver Twist'.












A COLLECTION OF MATERIAL RELATING TO ILLUSTRATIONS FOR WORKS BY CHARLES DICKENS, COMPRISING:
i) montage of fourteen cuttings of numerous ink sketches for Oliver Twist, Great Expectations and The Humour of Dickens, including Pip and Magwitch, Pumblechook choking on brandy, Miss Havisham, Mr Bumble and Bill Sykes, 555 by 690mm., framed and glazed, some fading; ii) workbook for Great Expectations and Oliver Twist, c.40 pages of autograph notes relating to characters and their appearance, original cloth-backed boards; iii) sketchbook for A Tale of Two Cities, c.35 pages of preliminary ink sketches and autograph notes relating to characters, original cloth-backed board, lacking lower cover; iv) publisher’s galley proofs for The Tale of Two Cities, c.210 leaves, annotated by Searle, some tears and creases, some browning; v) workbook for A Christmas Carol, c.25 pages of autograph notes and a few preliminary sketches, loose leaves disbound; vi) two rough tracings of dust-jackets for Oliver Twist and Great Expectations, with notes in Searle’s hand, ink on acetate, folded; vii) two rough sketches, including pencil rough sketch from Oliver Twist, 284 by 200mm.; viii) copies of A Christmas Carol (Perpetua, 1961), Oliver Twist (Joseph, 1962) and Great Expectations (Joseph, 1962), all 8vo, original cloth, dust-jackets (qty)