'If you want to go and see Ronald Searle-and nothing is more interesting than visiting an artist in his own surroundings-then you must fly to Provence in the South of France. In the little town high up in the hills, the tall, lean houses are closely packed together along the narrow streets. . . for several years Ronald Searle has lived and worked here in one of these houses full of nooks and crannies. Only the roof terrace yields a view over the Provençal hills; in the distance is the characteristic silhouette of Mont Sainte Victoire, the mountain Cezanne painted so many times. The house itself looks inwards. The view from the studio is blocked by the walls of the house opposite. When he stands at his long drawing table- penning curlicues or working on the design for a new medal, Ronald Searle is alone with himself and his imagination.'
from Henning Bock's introduction to Ronald Searle, 1978 Mayflower Books NY
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Quite fittingly, Ronald Searle, illustration god, lives in a Provençal mountain village described on the sign as the 'village in the sky'. Also designated 'un plus beaux villages de France', to reach it means a winding yet pleasurable drive through rolling farmland & vinyards; off the beaten track but picture postcard perfect.
The Searles have lived there now for 30 years & as he told me they 'love it!'
It's allowed him a measure of anonymity (although everyone in the village seems to know him!) much cherished after a 30 year career in the international spotlight-throughout the 50s & 60s Searle was Britain's best known illustrator & his reputation lingers of course. However he longed to escape the repetitiveness, pressure & travelling of reportage illustration, finding in France a refuge & a chance to breath. Far from retired he has continued editorial illustration regularly for the New Yorker in the 80s & 90s and for LeMonde since. He has branched out into relief sculpture with a series of coins for the French mint & still accepts authors' requests to illustrate their books.
Most recently Jeffrey Archer's 'Cat 'O Nine Tails' and Robert Forbes 'Beastly Feasts'published last year.
These were among many topics that were discussed when I recently had the opportunity to visit Mr Searle & ask him about his art & career.
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I kicked off the conversation asking him about the pictures he made in Morocco in 1965 which I had found intriguing in their uncharacteristic technique. They're much more painterly than his usual output, almost devoid of drawing in fact & apparently unpublished. He said they were his last assignment for HOLIDAY magazine before the magazine folded. Painted on the spot in watercolour he worked at a distance from the subject matter 'to avoid too much attention.'
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Like most artists Searle prefers to draw without disturbance from an audience, remaining a passive observer, preferably without being noticed. For this sketch in a german pub he sat at the back & drew while everyone's attention was on the television set.
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He looks fondly on his time as a roving illustrator for HOLIDAY magazine, jetting around the world on assignment. The magazine would pay for first class travel but he traded the ticket for two in economy allowing Monica his wife to accompany him.
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He remembers HOLIDAY art director Frank Zachary as 'a marvellous man' & remains grateful for the opportunity to visit all corners of the world, covering Florida, New York, Germany, Spain, Hawaii amongst others. 'I'd never been to Palm Springs!'
The magazine had a lavish large format with full colour & it's something to open up an issue & see Searle's drawings reproduced almost life size. They're much better viewed this way than in the later collected reprints. For its time the production values were very high. Searle revealed to me that the magazines' printers invented an ink they christened 'Searle purple' to capture the correct hue of the ink that he used.
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In 1960 he went on the campaign trail years before Ralph Steadman & Hunter S Thompson, chronicling the presidential race between Nixon & Kennedy, spending time trying to get close enough to both to capture their likeness.
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The 1961 trial of war criminal Adolf Eichmann proved to be a trial for Searle too as sketching was not permitted in court. He encountered the same obstacle when sent to draw at the Old Bailey in London. He got around this by surrepticiously drawing on tiny note paper in his lap & taking multiple loo breaks! He would memorise a feature, leave the courtroom & make rapid sketches from memory. With only a week's deadline to collate the necessary research the Old Bailey assignment turned out to be much effort for little renumeration, 'at least the Eichmann trial went on for months!' he joked.
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On a visit to Poland in 1948 he almost met Picasso. The Spanish artist was invited to the country as an honorary guest of the World Congress of Intellectuals For Peace. Searle was there partly to see Auschwitz for himself when he heard about the congress. Accompanied by that other great reportage draughtsman of the 20th century, Feliks Topolski, they went along in the hope of meeting their idol. However they found him beseiged by a throng of like-minded admirers. Their encounter lasted 'a second'!
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I mentioned that I deemed it probably the finest example of Searle's style translated to animation, streets ahead of the later Dick DeadEye which Searle agreed was 'disappointing'. However he told me without hesitation that Brit animator Ivor Wood (who would become best known for stop-motion TV show Postman Pat) had captured his style best.
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Here he unearthed for me an unknown chapter of animation history. While collaborating on some commercials for another oil company they concocted an idea to pitch non-commercial ads; mini artistic shorts, that would air between commercials! Needless to say this never flew with TV execs but apparently the spots were produced & now languish in Searle's archives. I hope to persuade him to dig these out sometime.
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Another ex-Disney artist he holds fond memories of is Bill Tytla. I was surprised to find out that he had worked with him at his commercial studio in New York-presumably the studio founded by him & Ray Favata in the late Fifties.
Naturally, he also got to know the UPA artists too, Hilberman of course & Art Babbitt would later produce the animation for Energetically Yours at Playhouse Pictures, along with Bill Melendez who went on to produce Dick Deadeye based on Searle's designs.
The Fifties must have been Searle's busiest decade, in his thirties, still with the energy & drive to accept any commission from reportage to animation, decorating the Chelsea Arts Ball to film posters & theatrical design. Travelling the globe on assignment & even top secret missions! What's more impressive is was also simultaneously running his own publishing company! PERPETUA (which is where this blog takes its title) was founded by him and Kaye Webb his first wife who he met in the offices of LILLIPUT magazine & would later go on to further success as editor of Puffin books.
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They not only published beautiful editions of Searle's work but also volumes on Cezanne, Toulouse-Lautrec & André Francois. The graphic design of the covers of Perpetua Books are striking-all usually typeset in Searle's distinctive font. I was curious to know whether he had a team working for him or at least an assistant to do the books layout? But he said no, just him-he did it all!
Only a couple of titles were successes and the company didn't last but the presentation of Perpetua editions endures with their distinctive red, black & white covers.
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The PERPETUA bookcovers led us back to discussing illustration & political cartooning which I'll save for part two!
(I'm grateful to Shane Glines for contributing high quality scans)