The Thin Man

Writer Patrick Campbell was one of Searle's earliest collaborators and the alter ego they developed for a series of stories that ran in Lilliput magazine marked the debut of the fully formed 'thin man' figure that represented the artist's trademark style.  As I wrote in the post on 'London Opinion' where we see the earliest incarnation of the proto 'thin man' by the early 50s Searle's style had matured and the cartoon version of Campbell was fully formed.

It has been observed that Searle's predilection for drawing his cartoon characters with thin, gangly limbs was influenced by his time starved half to death with his comrades as prisoners of the Japanese during WWII. Their emaciated, skeletal bodies would have undoubtably marked the young artist but I wonder if that explanation might be too obvious. Skinny cartoon characters are inately funny, as are chubby characters or old or infantile, Searle found the humour in all body types as in the illustration below. 

'Three Years At The Opera' by Patrick Campbell. From Lilliput (1949)

It might be that Searle was more influenced by the fact that he happened to work in his formative partnerships with two very tall and skinny authors. Searle spent much of the forties drawing in dark theatres on preview night as caricaturist for Punch magazine. Seated next to him with his knees under his chin would be the magazine's theatre critic Eric Keown, renowned for his height (6'7) and gangliness. (Read this post for more on Punch theatre and Keown)

Dublin-born Campbell was six foot five and made his name writing for the Irish Times despite being landed gentry.

'A Long Drink of Cold Water' (1949) collected stories from Lilliput magazine, 'A Short Trot With A Cultured Mind' (1950), 'An Irishman's Diary' (1950) reprinting material from the Irish Times, 'Life In Thin Slices' (1951) original material plus more collected from Lilliput

Original cover art for 'Life in Thin Slices'

The reproduction of artwork in 'Lilliput' magazine was never great. In these shots taken from the original drawings for a Campbell & Searle Lilliput story we can observe the nuanced tonal work in the ink wash and Searle's lively penmanship.

Note the rain achieved by scratching back into the surface of the art board

Searle worked hard to find inventive and interesting compositions. This one staged from behind the main character is striking; the two characters lost in a jumble of legs but connected by the minimal yellow tint.

Searle's 'thin man' would evolve into the character Mr. Lemonhart the mascot of Lamb's Navy Rum. The tall, gangly gent in the yellow suit would feature in dozens of advertisements, posters, billboards and commercials for which Searle designed the artwork. A comprehensive collection of 'Lemonhart' images can be viewed here

Patrick Campbell

Deadline!

Ronald was fastidious about annotating and cataloguing his work.  Every original I've seen has been marked in pencil with subject or title, date and often the client. No other artist I've encountered has been so meticulous about recording their output-those charged with organizing his archive have most of the work done for them!

He kept a daily journal and was an inveterate correspondent, mostly by mail, then in later life with fax and email. During the 1950s to keep track of the insane, over-lapping deadlines for all the jobs he took on, he maintained carefully plotted charts.

The example below gives us an idea of just how many projects he had on the go at any one time- it never fails to surprise me how prolific Searle was!

'Nobody who visited the Bedford Gardens studio could fail to be impressed by Ronald's 'Deadlines' chart, a thing of terrible and complex beauty involving the interests of Punch, Tribune and the Sunday Express; Lilliput, where the Patrick Campbell series continued (there were Campbell books, too); a sequence of ephemeral magazines of the Left (Circus, Seven, Our Time), in which Paul Hogarth was involved; and any number of more or less specialist publications, from The Bookseller to W. H. Smith's trade circular.'      - Russell Davies

Searle's prolific output during the 50s was formidable but he couldn't take on every offer of work. The social circle he moved in at the time must have yielded countless commissions such as this one from actor Tristan Jellinek:

Dear Mr Jellinek

I'm sorry to be turning down your idea which would have been fun to do - but I'm so hopelessly tied-up with long term stuff that I daren't take another tempting job on!

But thank you for asking me.

Yours sincerely

Ronald Searle

(October 5, 1954)



Commissions like menu covers may seem trivial but were probably quick to do and paid relatively well. I've seen several Searle illustrated menus for private dinners and events.

Omar Khayyam Club menu cartoon drawn by Ronald Searle 1955 Poem by Jack Lambert

Front has a saucy Ronald Searle cartoon & poem signed within print with a poem. Rear page is a Poem by J. W. Lambert ( Jack Lambert who is listed as present).

The Omar Khayyám Club in London was established in 1892 by Frederic Hudson, Clement Shorter and George Whale.  Jack Walter Lambert (1917-86), literary and arts editor for the Sunday Times & author.

-Ebay