Recent finds

 

Ronald Searle Slightly Foxed But Still Desirable: the wicked world of book collecting "Full sheep of indeterminate age"

'In the gardens of the Palais Royals, Paris' (1979)

'Farm, Ashley Falls' (April, 1963)

'Hail, hail to thee Great Golden Snail' (1968)

'Insect Play'

'Paraguayan Dictator' HOLIDAY magazine (1969)

'The Stalls'

'The Mourners Mourned'

Hello Ronald

British cartoonist Ronald Searle (1920 - 2011), the creator of the St Trinian's School cartoons, gets a surprise visit from actress Hattie Jacques (1922 - 1980) at his studio in Bayswater, September 1952. Jacques is appearing in the' revue 'The Bells of St Martins' at the St Martin's Theatre, as a St Trinian's schoolgirl. (Photo by George Konig

'The Seductress' (sold at auction)

'For Neck Tumor...' from "take One Toad' (sold at auction)

Jazz Man

Sketches of 'The King of New Orleans Jazz' Al Hirt found during research on my book 'Ronald Searle's America'.

Sketchbook pages courtesy of Chris Beetles Gallery, London.

Searle was on assignment in New Orleans for HOLIDAY magazine.

 I found the original in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian and they kindly provided a hi-res image for the book. The reproduction in HOLIDAY magazine omitted Searle's notation 'Al Hirt at Dan's Pier 600, New Orleans'.

Early Searle

 

'Self Portrait' 1949 (Tate museum)

Photograph by Wolfgang Suschitzky, 1946

I'd love to identify the artwork on the easel; looks like a depiction of horses.

TV guide

Interior spot illustration added to the TV guide section here

'Pay TV movie Guide'

'Beauty Factory'

(Offensive stereotypes portraying offensive TV shows published Dec. 10th, 1977)

l'amour c'est...

Poster signed by Searle for the 1971 film 'L'amour c'est gai, l'amour c'est triste'  directed by Jean-Daniel Pollet with dialogue by Remo Forlani. Distributed by Argos Films who presumably engaged the artist to create the poster or perhaps Searle was friends with the film-makers since he was living in Paris during this period.

Hand-written credits by Searle.

Réal : Jean-Daniel Pollet

Scén : Rémo Forlani

Scén+ :J.D. Pollet

Genre : Comédie

Producteur :  Anatole Dauman

Musique de :  Jean-Jacques Debout

Photo de :  Jean-Jacques Rochut

Distributeur :  Argos Films

Dialogue de :  Rémo Forlani

It Must Be True

IT MUST BE TRUE "It was all in the papers" 

Written by Denys Parsons & illustrated by Searle

Published by Macdonald, London, 1952 (fourth imp. March 1953

'Denys Parsons was the undisputed king of the misprint and over the years he compiled many best-selling volumes. It Must Be True brings together the very best of these timeless clangers dredged from the daily press across the English-speaking universe from the Berkhamsted Gazette to the Bulawayo Chronicle. Including both bizarre accidents of typesetting and delightful editorial bungles, most of the mishaps bring a hilarious unintentional new meaning, while others allow an inspired breed of nonsense to reign for a brief but glorious moment.'

It seems these books by Parsons proved popular and the publisher, Macdonald, put out several collections with illustrations by the best of the day including Haro and Anton (whose early influence on Searle's style can be detected).

Before the Parsons books Searle illustrated 'This England' published by Turnstile Press in 1949 -'a collection of newspaper cuttings, submitted by readers and published each week in The New Statesman and Nation'.

Remembering Ronald Searle

 

Remembering Ronald ten years after his death on December 30th, 2011 at 91 years old. View photos of him throughout his life here

The Rake's Progress pt.3

The British Museum website has steadily uploaded images of prints and drawings from its collections including the Ronald Searle material. I was able to visit the museum and look through the original drawings of 'The Rake's progress' in 2009 but time was limited and I couldn't request to see everything. However the website turns up this fascinating artifact- 

Searle's rough draft sketchbook in which he compiled the sketches with the finished printed cartoons. It's insightful to see how Searle altered the compositions between the rough and the final image.

(Click on an image to go through them full screen)

This gag on the final page is fun. No one would see this but Searle and you and I decades later.

See 'The Rake's Progress' pt.1 here and pt.2 here