Paris Sketchbook (1950)

 

Original ed. 1950. US ed. 1957

'Pont Neuf'

'Assemblée Nationale'

'Oscar Wilde's Tomb, Père-Lachaise Cemetery'

'St. Paul'

'Montmartre'

'Bookseller, Rive gauche'

'Place Dauphine'

This stunning piece is not in the 'Paris Sketchbook' it appeared later in 'Holiday' magazine I believe. 

Fernandel

Searle and his first wife, Kaye Webb, met famous French vaudevillian Fernandel on their first trip to Paris. A portait dated 29th May 1950 appeared in their 'Paris Sketchbook'.

 In 1958 Searle would again capture the actor for Punch magazine's review column of Parisian Theatre

A card with a sketch by Searle and inscribed by Fernandel dated 30th October 1958

Punch theatre critic, Eric Keown, wrote 'Fernandel is fifty, his real name Fernand Desire Constandin.  He was born in Marseilles, where his father sang in cafes. . . At twenty he went to Paris to appear at a music-hall, and was discovered overnight.  Now he is the idol of France, and his vast, friendly smile warms the armies of his fans throughout Europe and America . . . His enormous brown eyes, of surpassing honesty, look right into you while he is talking.  He thinks before he speaks, and then speech is reinforced by a running commentary of natural mime.  He has beautiful hands.'

London Opinion

'London Opinion magazine gave Searle some of his earliest commissions after returning from the war. In this May 1946 issue we see how comparitively crude Searle's cartoon style was (these cartoons may well have been based on sketches he made as a POW).  By October 1950 we see his style has become more sophisticated and an early incarnation of the 'thin man' appears- the typical character Searle would later evolve into the Patrick Campbell stories and then Mr. Lemonhart.
The St. Trinians girls too make an early appearance.

Scans from ECC blog

April 1947 (found here)

From the May 1948 issue of London Opinion and The Humorist (source)

 October 1950 (Cover by Bruce Angrave)

The following, from 1953, are from the Full Table site 

For more early Searle work see also The Strand magazine, Lilliput, Men Only and John Bull sections.

Achilles

While on a Greek theme here's Searle's cover illustration for Robert Graves' Homeric translation 'The Anger of Achilles'

The US edition had interior illustrations too.

An extract appeared in Harper's Bazaar 1959

Portrait of Graves, 1950