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 & 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.

Searle Centenary

 March 3rd marks the centenary of Ronald Searle's birth. The Searle archive in Hanover will host a special exhibition opening in April 'Searle 100'. Chris Beetles' gallery in London has a brief selling show of Searle originals.

Rizzoli Publishing in NYC recently released a lavish book on iconic travel mag HOLIDAY written by Pamela Fiori. It beautifully reproduces covers and articles from the magazine's hey-day in the 1960s. The magazine used many illustrators but the book highlights three; Hirschfeld, Bemelmans and Searle. Publisher info here and you can preview it here

More on Searle and HOLIDAY here

London-based animator and film-maker Uli Meyer has finished a test sequence for a proposed feature film of Searle and Willans' 'Molesworth' which he will be pitching at Cartoon Forum. The teaser will go online March 5th.

Ronald told me that he fully expected to live to 100 and I didn't doubt it as robust as he was in his ninth decade. But after his wife, Monica, passed away he joined her six months later. It was a real honor to know them at both at the end of their lives and hear the stories from lives well-lived. Raise a glass today to a giant of illustration and cartooning - the maestro Ronald Searle.

From Sydney's Daily Telegraph:

Searle's Centenary!

Happy new Year! March 3rd, 2020 is the centenary of Ronald Searle's birth. The first institution to celebrate will be the Wilhelm Busch museum in Hanover which houses the Searle Archive.

Details translated from this article.


'From April 18 to July 5, the Museum Wilhelm Busch celebrates the 100th birthday of the English illustrator Ronald Searle, whose artistic legacy the museum preserves as a permanent loan from the Lower Saxony Foundation.

Formative experiences in the Second World War made Searle a traveler and seeker, always curious about the people and what drives them. The so-called "Ronald Searle Archive", located in the museum, is therefore more than "just" an archive: It encompasses the majority of Ronald Searle's eight decades of artistic oeuvre, his collection of historical caricatures, his specialist library and the actual archive with diaries and personal notes, project sketches, specimen copies and correspondence with fellow artists and publishers. It also contains historical artist correspondence such as that of the English cartoonist George Cruikshank (1792-1878).

This complex inventory makes it possible to work out and present a variety of connecting lines between the individual collections. The exhibition draws from the abundance of this archive with the aim of providing visitors with intensive insights into a complex artist's personality along central geographic anchor points from Singapore to England and Germany to Tourtour in France and two themed islands on "Animation" and "Private Life" To tell contemporary history. Access to the museum's online collection gives an insight into the immediate work with Ronald Searle's estate. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog with numerous illustrations. It is funded by: Lower Saxony Foundation.

Reindeer

One of Searle's long running 'characters' was the reindeer which he used to great comic effect on multiple occasions. A relative of Searle's similarly pathetic horse motif, the reindeer says everything about the human condition.

 Young Elizabethan magazine, January 1959

 Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog

 This later cover was used as the basis for this promotional snow globe.

...and here's a version of the image sans reindeer

Holiday magazine

Christmas card design 1992

This piece is in the art collection of the British Parliament 'The ancient and rather touching ceremony of proceeding towards Christmas' 2009

More Christmas ephemera here

Grosz

A seminal influence on the young Ronald Searle was the work of George Grosz. Apparently he took a small book of Grosz's work to war when he enlisted. Recently sold at auction: an original drawing given to Searle by the wife of one of his artistic idols George Grosz.

GEORGE GROSZ (GERMAN 1983-1959)
FEMALE NUDE

Taken from a sketchbook dated 1912/1913, with pencil inscription from the family of the artist to Ronald Searle, pen and ink on paper

The sheet 23cm x 18cm (9in x 7in)

Note: The work is inscribed 'for Ronald Searle, To remember the placing of the Grosz plaque in Berlin on 6 December 1977, from Martin and Peter Grosz and his wife'. It is also inscribed by Ronald Searle to the reverse 'by George Grosz, taken from a sketchbook, dated 1912/1913, by Peter Grosz, Berlin, 7 December 1977, RS.'

American Gothic

 Searle's 'Atlantic City' sketchbook.

  Searle's 'Catskills' sketchbook.

  Searle's 'Hawaii' sketchbook.