The art director at The New Yorker knew Searle was the right illustrator for this story! (from 2002)
The Mythical Fortune That Fuelled America’s Greatest Fraud
Posing as a British lord, Oscar Hartzell convinced thousands of Americans that they could get a piece of the Sir Francis Drake estate—a multibillion-dollar inheritance that didn’t exist.
The shadow Ronald Searle's style casts over other cartoonists is pervasive. It was said once you've seen his style it's hard to draw any other way. From Mad Magazine's Mort Drucker and Jack Davis to the Disney artists on '101 Dalmatians' and the character design on Pixar's 'Soul' his influence can be detected. Contemporary cartoonists and illustrators such as Peter De Seve, Nick Galifiniakis and Richard Thompson have all publicly doffed their caps to the master.
Here's an Arnold Roth with commentary by Jules Feiffer. Using a cat's tail asa brush may be alluding to the story of Searle doing that as a POW: a couple of kittens had wandered into Changi gaol and Searle apparently made use of the tails after they were eaten! If Roth had read that anecdote in Searle's book 'To The Kwai and Back' he certainly made a less gruesome gag out of it!
Feiffer commentary: "Arnold had an early period in which he was living in England, and he was trying to be Ronald Searle. And this is very Searle looking. When he got rid of trying to be Searle, he became one of the most original and interesting artist in the business and he remains underappreciated. Arnold is brilliant. He has done covers for The New Yorker and his artwork has appeared in TV Guide, Sports Illustrated and Esquire. He was part of the Harvey Kurtzman crew and his cartoons and illustrations were in the magazines Harvey edited. Arnold has never gotten the attention he deserves. I love this work even if this is still him being very Ronald Searlish. Arnold, over the years, has quietly become one of our most original and evocative cartoonists. And he is blessed with a great wife, Caroline."
The British caricaturist Ronald Searle was on a four day visit of Germany on invitiation of SDR. Interview with Ronald Searle. (August 26th 1959)
While we're on the subject of auctions don't fall for any of the pathetic fakes that continually crop up at "reputable" auction houses. This one just sold at Raffan Kelaher & Thomas in Australia "attributed to Ronald Searle".
This pathetic St. Trinians girl sold at another Australian auction house, Lawsons, for $600 AUD.
To the keen eye of a Searle enthusiast the weak, unstructured drawings betray their amateurish forgery. Searle's style was loose and vital but never sloppy. His finished works were worked up from numerous rough sketches and had elegant compositions.
I've tried to alert a well-known British auction house in the past who were oblivious to selling a fake Searle but rebuffed my accusation affronted that their "expert knowledge" was called into question. Which instantly made them into Searle-esque stuffy, art dealer snobs!
Sometimes these fakes will pop up on eBay too with the "attributed to Ronald Searle" or "after Ronald Searle" but don't fall for it.
