Flower of Cities

 

Searle illustrated a chapter in the beautifully produced anthology on London 'Flower of Cities' (Parrish, 1949). His drawings appear alongside many contemporary artist and writers. 

Searle's work became synonymous with the city in which he lived and made his name after the war. See more here and here and here

The screen-printed style of the day in book-jacket design:

Early Searle

I'm slowly piecing together Ronald's early, post-war career after he was liberated from captivity by the Japanese and returned to England. Even in the prison camp he maintained a tiny notebook with miniscule thumbnail ideas for cartoons in the belief that survival would mean resuming his career as a cartoonist which had started  to take off just as he enlisted.

This is one of the earliest examples I've found of his cartoons published in Punch magazine. He was twenty seven years old at this point and eager to make an impression in the London magazine cartooning field.

Punch March 5 1947 Vol CCXII 5539

That same month the venerable compendium of contemporary satire published another cartoon

Punch March 26 1947 Vol CCXII 5542

In this newspaper clipping from 1948 we see Searle's early work already making an impression on the Continent.

The following I unearthed in the vaults of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

December 1947


For more early Searle also see Lilliput pt.1  and London Opinion and The Strand

Looking at London

This is from Looking at London which Searle illustrated ...his wife, Kaye Webb supplying the text. It was published in 1953 by the News Chronicle.Lasdun was, of course, one of Britain's leading Modernist architects. Pre-war he had worked with Wells Coates and been associated with the MARS group. Later he worked with Berthold Lubetkin's Tecton practice. His best-known building is the National Theatre. Ronald Searle lived in a house designed by Lasdun at 32 Newton Road, Paddington.
(Fray Bentos Flickr set)