HOLIDAY magazine: Morocco 1965

Searle's Morocco drawings for HOLIDAY were never published in the magazine although several made it into print in book collections of Searle's work. Here's a rare treat for Searle fans: photos of the sketches he made on location which were the basis for the worked up paintings.
















Back at his hotel in the evenings Searle would work up finished illustrations based on his location sketches, notes and ideas.

















The Morocco series is quite atypical of Searle's style-featuring an even broader, looser stye than usual with watercolour washes used more than line-work. This is especially apparent in the next example, photographed from the original in the collection of Monica Searle.

Happy NewYear 2010

Searle's New Year image for French satirical journal SineHebdo. (Thanks to François Moret)


If there are any readers in France who may have Searle's illustrations for SineHebdo or LeMonde please email me at the address in my blogger profile. It would be great to see more of Searle's recent work.

A report on my latest meeting with Ronald Searle is up on my blog. I've updated the Lemon Hart Rum section.

The King's Breakfast

In 1963 Searle & Toye collaborated again on a short live-action film The King's Breakfast "a dramatisation in dance and mime, of the A.A. Milne poem about a king who had no butter for the royal slice of bread" (imdb)

The kitchen

The King's gym

 Maurice Denham as the King (thanks to Brian Sibley)

Yak El-Droubie sent in some wonderful shots taken by Douglas Webb on the set of The King's Breakfast. The sets, seemingly painted by Searle's hand, match his designs perfectly.  Like the 1954 Chelsea Arts Ball it's always a thrill to see Searle's work transferred into 'three dimensions'-imagine being on set in a 'walk-in' Searle painting!

I found all these wonderful designs on Photographers Direct.com but they're all very low-res and I couldn't get anywhere contacting the agency directly.  Please contact me  at the address in my Blogger profile if anyone has more info on the photographer/rights holder

Songbooks & Record Covers

Reader and contributor Stephen Nadler reminded me that an edition of Flanders & Swann's songs was published with cover illustrations by Searle.

Original artwork in the Searle Archive, Karikatur Museum, Hannover. 

Program cover-Canmore Opera House, Vancouver, BC: November 1980

Searle also illustrated a collection of Tomfoolery composer Tom Lehrer's work called 'Too Many Songs by Tom Lehrer and not enough drawings by Ronald Searle'.

'Poisoning Pigeons in the Park'

'We Will All Go Together When We Go'

Searle contributed this image to an illustrated collection of Beatles lyrics portraying John Lennon.

Lennon (a published cartoonist himself) famously remarked-

". . . I started trying to draw like Ronald Searle when I was about eight. So there was Jabberwocky and Ronald Searle I was turning into by the time I was thirteen. You know, I was determined to be Lewis Carroll with a hint of Ronald Searle."

CD cover for Ricet Barrier's 'La Mythologie'

 

 

See also the 'Theater Design' section here