Le Figaro

As Searle began to branch out into editorial and illustration assignments on the Continent during the 1950s he did several cartoons for French newspaper Le Figaro Littéraire.

Perdu dans le Labyrinthe Londonien, pen and ink, 12 x 13.5", Figaro, 18 February, 1955

Vroomp!!! Crrakk!! Zok!!! (1966)
Pen and wash, 35.2 x 49.1 Collection Monica Searle
Le Figaro Littéraire, October 20, 1966

The Square Egg & The Vicious Circle (1968), Page 15
Ronald Searle (1973) Cabinet des Estampes, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, Catalogue number 153
Searle & Searle (2001), Catalogue number 16, page 39

 From Stephen Nadler's  'Attempted Bloggery' site



Also:

FIGARO LITTERAIRE (LE) N° 1072 DU 03/11/1966 - LES ALLEMANDS VUS PAR RONALD SEARLE ET HEINZ HUBER 

Ici Londres N°368 25 Fevrier 1955 - Ronald Searle Maître De L'humour Noir -

ECHO REVUE INTERNATIONALE N° 26 DU 01/10/1948 - RONALD SEARLE

 LIBERATION N° 6055 DU 03/11/2000 -RONALD SEARLE CROQUE LA VIE.

Stop, Magazine Arristique et Littéraire N° 72 - Ronald Searle - la Blonde du Texas - Barbarella - la Femme Modele

Court Drawing

Searle's multi-faceted career saw him master several disciplines: caricatures for TV Guide magazine, travel reportage for Holiday magazine, animated film titles, book illustration, theatre design, war artist, political cartooning and, perhaps less known, court trial artist. The most high profile case he covered was, of course, the trial of Adolf Eichmann in 1961. Searle was the sole draughtsman amongst a throng of photographers which is exactly why the magazine wanted his unique perspective. This chapter of Searle's career deserves a post of its own but here are a few of the drawings he made in Jerusalem.

Commissioning Searle to cover the Eichmann trial may well have occurred to Life's editor after an earlier assignment the artist had completed for the magazine.  In 1957 Searle had been dispatched by Life to cover the trial of the notorious John Bodkin Adams case. He was a doctor accused of over prescribing narcotics to an elderly patient in whose will he was named as a beneficiary. This masterful drawing appeared as a double-page spread in the 22 April, 1957 issue of Life magazine along with the following portraits of the defense and prosecution lawyers and key witnesses.

The courtroom drawing above is, I would say, comparable to Searle's tour de force depiction of Winston Churchill's last speech in the House of Commons, again for Life magazine (4th April, 1955).

'The accused'

The incredible thing about these drawings is they were all done from memory. Sketching was not permitted in British courts. He got around this by surreptitiously drawing on tiny note paper in his lap & taking multiple toilet breaks where he would rapidly draw from his notes and what he could memorise! With only a week's deadline to collate the necessary research the Old Bailey assignment turned out to be much effort for little remuneration, 'at least the Eichmann trial went on for months!' Searle joked.

Courtesy of the Chris Beetles Gallery here are some of those notes and sketches made in the court room.

In the following article Searle reveals his process behind a cartoon version of the Old Bailey.

Perhaps inspired by Life magazine a French publication 'Marseille magazine' commissioned Searle to illustrate a similarly sensational trial that gripped France in 1963, that of the 'gang de pétanques' in Marseille.

To see more of the 'Marseilles' court drawings (plus the Churchill speech picture) check out this post 

Sketch of the 'Fuchs trial' 1950 presided over by Lord Goddard.

 Lord Goddard 1956

Illustration of a British Judge for a 1962 print advertisement for Beetle Dough Molding Compound

 From 'Merry England'

Marseille

The March 15th, 1963 edition of Marseille Magazine carried an intriguing profile of Searle accompanied by a couple of photos and a drawing I'd not seen elsewhere. The article states he was in the city on assignment for Life magazine to cover the trial of the 'pétanque gang' but missed the appointment due to being bedridden with flu since arriving in France. He made do with the testimony of lawyers, judges and press photographs.

' . . . pour assister, à Marseille, au procès du 'gang de la pétanque', il a traverse l'Atlantique, comme envoyé special du magazine 'Life'. Mais il a dû réaliser son reportage-dessiné à travers les témoignages des avocats, des juges, des journalistes at à l'aide de documents photographiques, une grippe l'ayant cloué au lit dès son arrivée en France.'

I don't think the drawings were ever published in Life but I believe these are the drawings Searle made. The pétanque players are in the collection of the Wilhelm Busch – Deutsches Museum für Karikatur und Zeichenkunst, Hanover.

This stunning panorama of the Marseille palais de justice is held at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at OSU, Columbus, Ohio. It's a large format drawing and Searle took great care with the likenesses of all the accused and the defender and prosecutor, noting their names along the bottom edge of the picture.

Signed and dated lower right. Caricatures identified by the artist: Voiron, Bonacorsi, Maitre Paoli (defense), A. Ceccaldi, Maitre Tramoni (defense), Donnat, Ricci, Quaranta, Bernasconi, Hugues, Bontempi, David, E. Ceccaldi, Alardon, Agaccio, Maitre Grisoli (defense)

The Billy Ireland Library also has this depiction of the judges presiding over the case: Gaudaire, Vincentelli (President), Lucciardi

 The article is somewhat obsessed with the artist's financial rewards since becoming 'le dessinateur le plus féroce du monde' stating that his drawings for French, American, English, Italian and German magazines reap at least 1,500 francs and that Life offered 10,000 francs for a drawing of Winston Churchill's last speech in Parliament  (a drawing of staggering detail that deserved the price).

The article estimates that in the past decade the Searle produced 3000 drawings which I can only conclude is no exaggeration after seeing so many in collections around the world.
Revealingly the last sentence drops this bombshell: 'his last humorous story was devoted to the US Department of Foreign Affairs. President Kennedy phoned him to ask him for three drawings : one for Nixon, one for (Secretary of State) Dean Rusk and one for himself.'
This was published in the December 1961 issue of Holiday magazine and one can only speculate as to which of those famous politicians chose which drawing . . . ?