Brand new HOLIDAY!

My latest haul of vintage HOLIDAY mags yielded some exciting Searle illustrations. High quality scans to follow soon-for now here's a sneak peek!

Auction

Regular contributor Mr Nadler has started his own blog with a nice write up on Searle originals at auction.  Read it here

POW

Here is a contribution that I've been meaning to post for ages! Many thanks to Bronwen Barry who shared this story of her grandfather's acquaintance with Ronald Searle.

"Geoffrey Brameld--my Grandfather, my Mum's Dad-- In India 1939, not long before he went away to war and was captured by the Japanese; he was a POW in Singapore(and I think Siam) for about 6 years.  He was in the Changi camp with a very young artist named Ronald Searle for a time.When he was released he weighed 120 lbs, he was 6'6".

On one of my trips to England as a kid of 11(in 1967) I distinctly remember Grandpa (who was quite frail at the time-- he died in 1969) bringing out some rather yellowed rolled up drawings Searle had done in the camps and given him.. very like the ones we know from the Kwai book. Grandpa treasured these.. I thought they were amazing.. For the past 30 years I've been asking after these drawings.. and no one in the family(including my late grandmother)ever seemed to know what happened to them.. Heartbreaking. 

Though we've all been touched by the Searle drawings in the Kwai book,it remains impossible to imagine what those fellows went through in those camps..My Grandfather was 40ish at the time, and, though he was always slender, for his height (as you well know) 120 lbs. is beyond emaciated.(He never told me this firsthand-- it was my Mother who told me of his condition upon release.) Though he (as did most people back then) smoked like a train, his health never really recovered after the POW experience... He died of emphysema at the age of 69 in 1969).
As for the missing drawings-- I wish to heaven there was an attic somewhere I could rummage through. Alas, since I've spent my whole life in Canada and the US, and my grandparents were by then back in England, people have since moved, died and so forth.Any living relatives who would know anything at all claim they have never come across them; so I just have to let the whole idea go,and assume I've been told the truth.

 When I wrote to Mr Searle I mentioned my Grandfather in detail, hoping he might remember him, as clearly they knew each other well enough for a London follow-up and the drawing given (along with an autographed copy of Souls in Torment).When he kindly replied, he said his memory re: the camps was no longer as sharp as it once was, so unfortunately he couldn't recall him.]

And last but not least, the above mentioned drawing that Mr Searle gave my Grandfather for my Mum in London in 1954.As both my parents have now passed on,it is as you well may imagine, one of my most cherished possessions..."


(Many thanks to Bronwen-sorry it took so long to publish!)

Le Monde

21 drawings from Le Monde are on show at the Galerie Vision, Tourtour between 5 July-5 October.

In his eighties Searle was invited to contribute a political cartoon to French journal Le Monde. This ongoing series is regarded by the artist as amongst his favourite.
A selection is published in this collection at right (French edition shown)

'Planete Poubelle'

'Et les rues sont pavees d'or'

'Le Sherif'

'Pollution'

'Middle Eastern Neighbours'

'UbuHussein'

'Africa: The Knife of Damocles' 

Le Monde,  4 April 1995

Cartoon Museum collection © Copyright the estate of Ronald Searle and the Sayle Literary Agency.

In these shots taken from the originals in the collection of the Karikatur Museum, Hanover we can see Searle's thought process behind the editorial illustrations for Le Monde

And the final 'Tapis Magique' ('Magic Carpet')

Again, here we see the artist experimenting with the composition

'Le Semeur' ('The Sower')

Update summer 2011

I've updated the TV Guide section with some higher quality images including a scan of this 1990 Halloween cover.

I can't believe I missed Michael Sporn's excellent post on 'Energetically Yours'!  Director Dave Hilberman's son sent a batch of scans of original cels from the project-anyone who has seen the somewhat faded print on YouTube will be impressed by the vivid colour of the original cels.  Check them out here

Another animation historian Amid Amidi of Cartoon Brew recently put me in touch with another relative of Dave Hilberman who had unearthed this fun sketch in his garage.  I think it's safe to identify this as by Searle's hand and seems to be a discarded idea from the film.  I'll add all this new material to the Energetically Yours section.

I've added a couple of new images to the songbooks section here.

Several Lemon Hart Rum images added to this section.

I've started a new blog highlighting a special book I put together with the artists at Pixar for Ronald's 91st birthday. Check it out over here

Thanks to Cassie McGettigan who sent me this shot of her friend wearing a Searle design for the Met Opera, 1982.  Anybody with more info on these Rhinemaidens or Searle's work for the Met?

This sleeping Valkyrie was possibly made for the Metropolitan Opera in 1987.

'Guilio Cesare In Egitto' for the Metropolitan Opera, 1988

I stumbled upon this article reprinting a 1949 story by Freddy Bloom accompanied by a Searle illustration typical of that period.

Searle in Canada

Searle's trip to Canada in the 60s as reported on in the UK newspaper The Sun.

The report as originally published in full colour in HOLIDAY magazine, April 1964
(Thanks to Brendan Amphlet & Uli Meyer for the scans)

This would later lead to a commission from The Hudson's Bay Company to illustrate their calender, the drawings for which were subsequently published in the book THE GREAT FUR OPERA, 1970.

The Hudson’s Bay Company A TRICENTENNIAL REPORT Having worked like a beaver to overcome three centuries of plunging thermometers, recalcitrant Indians, and fierce competitors from Quebec and the U.S.A., it remains today the continent’s most durable trading enterprise By DAVID LAVENDER With drawings by RONALD SEARLE American Heritage Magazine, April 1970 Vol. 21, Issue 3.

More from HOLIDAY magazine here

Searle's Sustenance

I found some interesting Searle rarities in the this obscure collection: 'All the Art That's Fit to Print (And Some That Wasn't) Inside The New York Times Op-Ed Page' by Jerelle Kraus (Columbia University Press 2009)

'Searle had already sent us the perfect portrayal when an Op-Ed poem lamented our planet's thirst for petroleum products.'

"My drawing for 'Summer Poems' (1995) was killed by the Times because an editor (Howell Raines) detected an erection in it.  That's his fantasy of course, since nothing is more pure than the image of a man being sick in the street."

Updates

Michael Sporn has posted scans from THE FEMALE APPROACH over on his blog

Thanks to contributor Chris Bale I'm able to fill in the gaps with the 'Toujours Provence' drawings that appeared in the Sunday Telegraph magazine. Follow this link to see the scans.

Being Squeezed?

(Image courtesy of Derek Brazell at the AOI with permission for mRonald Searle)

"Ronald Searle, influential illustrator and AOI Patron, has created a new image to help the Pro-Action campaigning committee promote its aims. It is part of our new ‘Being Squeezed?’ advert."


The AOI

Ronald Searle Suite

Cartoon Brew recently picked up on my article on Energetically Yours.  The comments section threw up some interesting leads . . .

Magazine Illustration 3: Argosy

Argosy  March 1961  'The Fastest Pen in the West' 

Argosy (UK) [v26 # 4, April 1965]  Searle in Paris


More Ronald Searle Magazine Illustration

Part 1 TV Guide

Part 2 HOLIDAY