Tag: Artist

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History

Ernest Charles Wallcousins(1883 – 1976)

by Howard Coster, half-plate film negative, 1926
by Howard Coster, half-plate film negative, 1926

Ernest Wallcousins was a renowned and successful painter and illustrator famed for his portraits of Sir Henry Wood, the conductor of the Proms for over 50 years, and for that of Sir Winston Churchill. Wallcousins worked across a wide range of medium and subjects; a book illustrator in the early years of the 20th Century, he designed posters in the 1920’s, including one for the London Underground in 1925 and was renowned for his illustrations of Royal occasions (Macconal-Mason), whilst Wikipedia has limited information about his work as an illustrator.

The photo is provided under Creative Commons Licence from The National Portrait Gallery (NPG x24399).

Keep Calm and Carry On Artist?

Almost certainly the designer for the first three posters for the Ministry of Information, including Keep Calm and Carry On, see TNA INF 1/720, p69, minutes from a meeting on 18.5.39:

Keep Calm and Carry On PosterOutdoor Publicity: The sub-committee had established contact with Mr Wall-Cousins who had produced some preliminary poster roughs which might, however, be more profitably considered by the meeting next week, when they would be in a more finished condition.

In June, he was still designing poster-roughs, which were submitted for inspection by 8th June 1939, discussions and designs continued, with Surrey Dane suggesting ‘Keep calm. Do not panic’ the following week, and poster designs signed off in early August.

 

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History

Lionel Rich: War Artist

I’m gradually clearing out my hard drive, and came across this saved in my PhD files, and thought you might like it:

Lionel Rich: War Artist

One of his designs:

 

Categories
History

The Art of War

Artists’ ability to portray the human cost of war makes them invaluable, even in the era of 24-hour news, argues Peter Hill

The position of “war artist” may sound old-fashioned, but not only does it have a respectable pedigree, it is thriving. Before the camera was invented, war artists would often record heroic scenes of battle, or daily life in the Forces. Later, during the First World War, artists such as Paul Nash exposed the horrors of trench warfare. Henry Moore’s sketches of the London Blitz depicted civilians sleeping on London Underground platforms and succeeded both as historic records and aesthetically moving works of art. Some, like Scottish artist Peter Howson, who was sent to Bosnia by the Imperial War Museum and The Times in 1993, were badly traumatised themselves by the horrors they had to record.

Over the years, many countries – including the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the US, France, Germany, Japan and China – have sent artists into war zones. But why is this still necessary in the 21st century, when we “see” war on a nightly basis on our television screens?

Read full story, and read about many of the wartime poster artists.

Categories
History

Challenges To Biography (AHRC)

Why the network?

Clearly academic biographers from different disciplines, freelance biographers, and theorists of biography can and do meet – but too often their engagement with each other is haphazard. A research network can consolidate fragile lines of communication across disciplines, between practitioners and theorists, and between scholars and non-academic writers.

How easy to join in?

That was incredibly simple to do. I went to ‘comment’, which prompted me to register. Before too long I was in the WordPress interface (which I’m used to using/is incredibly straightforward anyway), and had posted  short entry re: my artist biographies (always great to be able to share the knowledge that has been collated more widely).

Categories
History

The Culture Show

Here are “my” posters again… well, I have written the most about them 🙂 I’m still watching the programme, and it seems to be mostly about “Art” with a capital A, which many posters are not considered as, but the initial summary shows Presenter Alastair Sooke talking to the Art Dept @ the Imperial War Museum about the Keep Calm and Carry On Posters.

See just before 25 minutes in … straight in with Keep Calm and Carry On… but no mention of the fact that Keep Calm and Carry On was never used, and the great quote I believe I used in my thesis, Times describing ‘Freedom is in Peril’ as ‘patronising & insipid’. YES – the posters are more iconic than much art, because they faced everyone (and his name is Abram Games, not Abraham Games :-)!)…