To the beach!

As we all long to get back outside during this pandemic here's three views of the beach by Searle in three wildly different styles.

Nymolle

Lilliput magazine

Punch magazine 14th August, 1957

The Thin Man

Writer Patrick Campbell was one of Searle's earliest collaborators and the alter ego they developed for a series of stories that ran in Lilliput magazine marked the debut of the fully formed 'thin man' figure that represented the artist's trademark style.  As I wrote in the post on 'London Opinion' where we see the earliest incarnation of the proto 'thin man' by the early 50s Searle's style had matured and the cartoon version of Campbell was fully formed.

It has been observed that Searle's predilection for drawing his cartoon characters with thin, gangly limbs was influenced by his time starved half to death with his comrades as prisoners of the Japanese during WWII. Their emaciated, skeletal bodies would have undoubtably marked the young artist but I wonder if that explanation might be too obvious. Skinny cartoon characters are inately funny, as are chubby characters or old or infantile, Searle found the humour in all body types as in the illustration below. 

'Three Years At The Opera' by Patrick Campbell. From Lilliput (1949)

It might be that Searle was more influenced by the fact that he happened to work in his formative partnerships with two very tall and skinny authors. Searle spent much of the forties drawing in dark theatres on preview night as caricaturist for Punch magazine. Seated next to him with his knees under his chin would be the magazine's theatre critic Eric Keown, renowned for his height (6'7) and gangliness. (Read this post for more on Punch theatre and Keown)

Dublin-born Campbell was six foot five and made his name writing for the Irish Times despite being landed gentry.

'A Long Drink of Cold Water' (1949) collected stories from Lilliput magazine, 'A Short Trot With A Cultured Mind' (1950), 'An Irishman's Diary' (1950) reprinting material from the Irish Times, 'Life In Thin Slices' (1951) original material plus more collected from Lilliput

Original cover art for 'Life in Thin Slices'

The reproduction of artwork in 'Lilliput' magazine was never great. In these shots taken from the original drawings for a Campbell & Searle Lilliput story we can observe the nuanced tonal work in the ink wash and Searle's lively penmanship.

Note the rain achieved by scratching back into the surface of the art board

Searle worked hard to find inventive and interesting compositions. This one staged from behind the main character is striking; the two characters lost in a jumble of legs but connected by the minimal yellow tint.

Searle's 'thin man' would evolve into the character Mr. Lemonhart the mascot of Lamb's Navy Rum. The tall, gangly gent in the yellow suit would feature in dozens of advertisements, posters, billboards and commercials for which Searle designed the artwork. A comprehensive collection of 'Lemonhart' images can be viewed here

Patrick Campbell

Life's a beach

Before the summer ends let's visit Brighton with Searle and Holiday magazine. . .

The original cropped up on eBay a few years back but it had some tear damage

I've posted these wonderful, full colour images from 'Lilliput' magazine (1947) before but they're worth looking at in this context.

This Punch cover is a decade later 14th August 1957

This was a short article in 'Holiday' magazine on Russian resort Yalta

 The Yalta image above is echoed in Searle's depiction of American beach scenes such as this Florida beach again for 'Holiday' magazine.

Searle's Hawaii beach scenes are incredible

Some just go to the beach to get away from it all

John Bull magazine

'John Bull' magazine was a similar publication to 'The Strand' and 'Lilliput'.

'The magazine was published by Odhams from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. Similar in style to the iconic American magazine The Saturday Evening Post, the John Bull covers encapsulated post-war Britain and employed some of Britain's finest illustrators.' - Wikipedia

Illustrations in the magazine John Bull in 1947 & 1948

March 20th 1948. Jockey scene cover. 20 pages.

April 9th 1949

"One for All, All for One" by Herbert Hodge illustrated with a Ronald Searle cartoon

April 24th 1948 "Oh to be a Salesman" by Herbert Hodge with an illustration by Ronald Searle

April 30th 1949. "Peak Season for Love" by Herbert Hodge with an illustration by Ronald Searle

November 12th 1949. 32 pages. b/w Ronald Searle advert for Bev coffee essence with a Fireman theme

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. . .