Merry Christmas!

Season's Greetings to all with the last post of 2016 featuring some Christms related Searle ephemera.

This original drawing sold at auction earlier in the year. It's actually annotated as a Valentine's Card but depicts a character - the reindeer - that Searle used many times on Christmas cards and advertising work. See more here

Russell Braddon was an Astralian author who survived the POW camps in the Far East with Searle. I wasn't aware of a follow up to his famous account of his POW years 'The Naked Island' until I saw this on Ebay. It looks like he commissioned his old friend to create his Christmas cards.

Another Ebay seller has been trying to off load a cache of private love letters sent from Searle to artist Ruth Cyril for the best part of 2016 including this Christmas card.

Paris

Mike Lynch posted a Searle drawing of Montmatre on his cartooning blog which reminded me to dig out this epic colour version published in the September 1960 issue of HOLIDAY magazine as part of a feature called 'Paris in the Summer'.

 

 Ronald first drew the Place du Tertre (below) while visiting Paris with his first wife Kaye Webb during their collaboration on the 'Paris Sketchbook'.

Here's the rest of the HOLIDAY feature-

Ronald drew the Opera Garniér for the 'Paris Sketchbook' (below). He evidently found a vantage point sitting at the Café de la Paix across the square.

Chilly Lovers

HOLIDAY magazine April 1958

The Wit and Wisdom of Ronald Searle

A new exhibition featuring a collection of illustrations from the Collection of Robert and Lydia Forbes has opened at the University of Connecticut. 'The Wit and Wisdom of Ronald Searle' runs through February 10.

More info here and here.

Blog report on the opening & talk by Robert Forbes here

The Illustrators 2016

London cartoon art dealer Chris Beetles has just announced his annual show 'The Illustrators' and, as usual, Searle is represented. Go here to preview the exhibition online.

The best of St. Trinians

Back to school with the best of St. Trinians . . . 

'EUNICE! HOW MANY TIMES MUST I TELL YOU TAKE THE BAND OFF FIRST!'

LILLIPUT, APRIL 1951
(RONALD SEARLE, BACK TO THE SLAUGHTERHOUSE AND OTHER
UGLY MOMENTS, LONDON: MACDONALD, 1951, PAGE 50;
RONALD SEARLE, THE CURSE OF ST TRINIAN'S, LONDON:
PAVILION BOOKS, 1993, PAGE 49
EXHIBITED: 'THE ILLUSTRATORS. THE BRITISH ART OF ILLUSTRATION 1837-2015',
NOVEMBER 2015 - JANUARY 2016, NO 361)

  'Eunice, dear- aren't we rather muddling our patron saints?'

"And this is Rachel - our Head Girl"

"But Miss Merryweather, you said we could bring our pets back with us" 

"Cleaner's getting slack. Horsefall . . ."
(Lilliput 1952 Oct/Nov)

 "... and a pair of knuckledusters, and some scent, and a hammer ..."
(Lilliput 1951 6 Nov)

'Parents' Day'
(Lilliput NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1951, PAGE 39


 

Cricket

With summer almost gone let's look at Searle's depiction of a typically English summer activity - cricket.

Punch magazine May 1956

'Jolly Losers' Holiday magazine April 1958

'The Green Sward' 

News Chronicle, London, 'Saturday Sketchbook' 24 July 1954;

Ronald Searle, Merry England, Etc, London: Perpetua Books, 1956, Pages 58 and 59

. . . and now for the Vin Olympics

On the occasion of the 2016 Olympic Games we present Ronald Searle's 'Vin Olympics' created in 1984 for John Goelet's  Clos Du Val and Taltarni wineries.

Original courtesy of Peter DeSeve

On the reverse of one of the original drawings is this scratched out version of the above. Searle was quite prepared to discard a finished drawing if it the composition didn't work for him.