Diverting History

In 1951 Searle collaborated with UK animation studio Halas & Batchelor to create a film version of William Cowper's story 'The Diverting History of John Gilpin'. British readers can now view the film at this link.

The drawings were later released in an illustrated edition. See them here

A rare' Searle-designed' animated film for 'Lemon Hart Rum' screens this weekend at the BFI in London. Details & tickets here.

The 3 minute film was produced by Larkin Studio in 1953. Music by Francis Chagrin. Art direction by Phil Windebank.

 

The short film was shown in UK cinemas and a printed booklet featuring art from the film was distributed at screenings. A copy exists in the Searle Archive in Hanover, Germany. 

More on Lemon Hart Rum here

See a stop-motion Searle style ad for 'Lemon Hart Rum' here

A Grain of Sand

I can't find out much more than the following but I'd love to see this short film. (Another is the 'John Gilpin' short made by Halas & Batchelor with Searle's drawings for the '51 Festival of Britain)

'Created for the UNICEF film, Grain of Sand, 1964. This film tells the UNICEF story simply and dramatically. In the first part, William Blake’s poem, Auguries of Innocence, is narrated over graphic animation by Ronald Searle; the second part features a day in the life of a Tunisian boy. Narrator, David Wayne' Directed by David Keith Hardy.

Billy Ireland Cartoon Library, OSU

'The plight of children in some parts of the world is portrayed in animated sequences by noted British artist Ronald Searle, the narration following the style of William Blake's poem. There is live footage of a day in the life of a ten-year-old boy in Tunisia. What he observes on his way to and from school illustrates some of the work of UNICEF.'

1964, 14 min 50 s

• Production Agency 
• United Nations

William Jeremiah Burke

('Continuing into the 1940s and through the 1960s, the correspondence details some of his work as director of editorial research at LOOK magazine and its sister publications Quick and  Flair magazines. Correspondence, diary, manuscripts of novels, poems, articles, photographs, books,
memorabilia and other personal and professional papers of an author and director of editorial research at LOOK magazine, 1943-1968'.)

Lilliput pt.1

Lilliput magazine was a popular, pocket sized magazine of the 1940s-50s. Searle's work for the magazine fell into two styles; the broad cartoons of St. Trinians and the Patrick Campbell series; and more naturalistic illustrations accompanying short stories.

'Life in the Studio' 1946

These two studies are in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

Two sketches for 'Artist & Model' a cartoon for Lilliput magazine. Searle thoroughly explored the composition and forms of his figures before working up the final drawing. It looks like the first one was almost final then abandoned?

The same here: a study and a more worked up final but I'm not aware of them seeing publication in Lilliput.

October 1946

'"GIRLS, GIRLS! - A LITTLE LESS NOISE, PLEASE"' Lilliput, October 1946.
 Hurrah for St. Trinian's, London, 1948. 

January 1947 

'Cave!'
Lilliput, January 1947.

Hurrah for St. Trinian's, London, 1948, p. 57. 

March 1947

'The Place Where it Happened'

A Report by Honor Tracy

Lilliput magazine May 1949

'The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag'

A Short Story byJim Corbett

Lilliput magazine April-May 1951

'All Correct, Sir

A Short Story by Bill Naughton

Lilliput magazine May-June 1951

'Maisie was a Lady

A Short Story by Paul Vincent Carroll

Lilliput magazine June-July 1951

'Honesty's A Jewel'

A Short Story by Roderick Milton

Lilliput magazine Nov-Dec 1951

Searle only illustrated two covers for the magazine as far as I know.

Many of Searle's contemporaries worked for the magazine too; James Fitton, Anton, Walter Trier, Gerald Hoffnung et al. and it was well known as a compendium of the best of British illustration in the 1950s. Even the Disney animators were familiar with it and an hommage found its way into 'One Hundred & One Dalmations' (1961), perhaps a tacit admission from a film which stylized its art direction directly after Searle's work.

Searle's artwork was so ubiquitous during this era that even in an issue absent of Searle's editorial illustrations there would still be advertisements illustrated by him.

See my Lilliput blog for more. . .