Edward Ardizzone
Encyclopedia
Edward Jeffrey Irving Ardizzone, CBE
, RA
(16 October 1900 – 8 November 1979) was an English
artist
, writer
and illustrator
, chiefly of children's books.
, Tonkin
, French Indo-China, where his Algeria
n-born Italian
father was on overseas government service. Ardizzone's English mother returned to England with her three eldest children in 1905. The children were brought up in Suffolk, largely by their maternal grandmother, whilst their mother returned to join her husband in the Far East. Ardizzone was educated first at Ipswich School
and then at Clayesmore School
- where he was encouraged by his art teacher. (see: The Young Ardizzone: an Autobiographical Fragment (London 1970))
: his early experiences between Arras
and Boulogne
are illustrated and described in his book Baggage to the Enemy (London 1941). An extensive collection of his war pictures, as well as his wartime diaries, can be seen at The Imperial War Museum.
His best known work is the Tim series, featuring the maritime adventures of the eponymous young hero. The first book, Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain, was published in 1936. The most famous of the books, Tim All Alone, won the British Library Association
's Kate Greenaway Medal
for illustration in 1956. The series is often thought to have ended in 1972 with Tim's Last Voyage but that was, in fact, followed in 1977 by Ships Cook Ginger. His Sarah and Simon and No Red Paint was issued in an edition by Doubleday in 1966.http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0440076099
As well as writing and illustrating his own books, Ardizzone also illustrated books written by others, including the novels of Anthony Trollope
. His 1939 characterization of H.E. Bates's My Uncle Silas
was inimitable. Among his happiest collaborations was that with Eleanor Farjeon
, especially The Little Bookroom
.
He illustrated the Nurse Matilda
series of children's books written by his cousin, author Christianna Brand
. Both cousins heard the stories from the same grandmother - who had, in her turn, heard them from her father. He also famously illustrated A Ring of Bells, John Betjeman
's abridged version for children of his Summoned by Bells
autobiographical poem. He worked on C. Day Lewis's children's novel The Otterbury Incident
, as well as some novels by the American author Eleanor Estes
, including The Alley, Miranda the Great, Pinky Pye, The Tunnel of Hugsy Goode and The Witch Family.
He is also particularly noted for having not just illustrated the covers and contents of books but inking the title text and author's name in his own hand, giving the books a distinctive look on shelves. An example is Clive King
's Stig of the Dump
.
Ardizzone illustrated a series of books for young children by Graham Greene
including The Little Fire Engine, The Little Horse Bus,The Little Train and The Little Steamroller. He also illustrated a re-telling of the Don Quixote story for children by James Reeves
. His illustrations for the The Land of Green Ginger by Noel Langley
are classics in their own right.
Ardizzone also illustrated several telegrams for the Post Office
in the 1950s and 1960s, many of which are considered collector's items.
He was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 1970, and appointed CBE in 1971. The British Library
published an illustrated bibliography
of his works in 2003.
CBE
CBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...
, RA
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
(16 October 1900 – 8 November 1979) was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and illustrator
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
, chiefly of children's books.
Early life
Ardizzone was born at HaiphongHaiphong
, also Haiphong, is the third most populous city in Vietnam. The name means, "coastal defence".-History:Hai Phong was originally founded by Lê Chân, the female general of a Vietnamese revolution against the Chinese led by the Trưng Sisters in the year 43 C.E.The area which is now known as Duong...
, Tonkin
Tonkin
Tonkin , also spelled Tongkin, Tonquin or Tongking, is the northernmost part of Vietnam, south of China's Yunnan and Guangxi Provinces, east of northern Laos, and west of the Gulf of Tonkin. Locally, it is known as Bắc Kỳ, meaning "Northern Region"...
, French Indo-China, where his Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
n-born Italian
Italian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
father was on overseas government service. Ardizzone's English mother returned to England with her three eldest children in 1905. The children were brought up in Suffolk, largely by their maternal grandmother, whilst their mother returned to join her husband in the Far East. Ardizzone was educated first at Ipswich School
Ipswich School
Ipswich School is a co-educational public school for girls and boys aged 3 to 18. Situated in Suffolk, England in the town of Ipswich, it was founded in its current form as The King's School, Ipswich by Thomas Wolsey in 1528....
and then at Clayesmore School
Clayesmore School
Clayesmore School is an independent school for boys and girls of the English public school tradition in the village of Iwerne Minster, Dorset, England. It is a member of The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference ....
- where he was encouraged by his art teacher. (see: The Young Ardizzone: an Autobiographical Fragment (London 1970))
Career
He worked as an official war artist in World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
: his early experiences between Arras
Arras
Arras is the capital of the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. The historic centre of the Artois region, its local speech is characterized as a Picard dialect...
and Boulogne
Boulogne-sur-Mer
-Road:* Metropolitan bus services are operated by the TCRB* Coach services to Calais and Dunkerque* A16 motorway-Rail:* The main railway station is Gare de Boulogne-Ville and located in the south of the city....
are illustrated and described in his book Baggage to the Enemy (London 1941). An extensive collection of his war pictures, as well as his wartime diaries, can be seen at The Imperial War Museum.
His best known work is the Tim series, featuring the maritime adventures of the eponymous young hero. The first book, Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain, was published in 1936. The most famous of the books, Tim All Alone, won the British Library Association
Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals
The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals is a professional body representing librarians and other information professionals in the United Kingdom.-History:...
's Kate Greenaway Medal
Kate Greenaway Medal
The Kate Greenaway Medal was established in the United Kingdom in 1955 in honour of the children's illustrator, Kate Greenaway. The medal is given annually to an outstanding work of illustration in children's literature. It is awarded by Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals...
for illustration in 1956. The series is often thought to have ended in 1972 with Tim's Last Voyage but that was, in fact, followed in 1977 by Ships Cook Ginger. His Sarah and Simon and No Red Paint was issued in an edition by Doubleday in 1966.http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0440076099
As well as writing and illustrating his own books, Ardizzone also illustrated books written by others, including the novels of Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope was one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of his best-loved works, collectively known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire...
. His 1939 characterization of H.E. Bates's My Uncle Silas
My Uncle Silas
My Uncle Silas is a book of short stories about a bucolic elderly Bedfordshire man, written by H.E. Bates and illustrated by Edward Ardizzone.-Inspiration:...
was inimitable. Among his happiest collaborations was that with Eleanor Farjeon
Eleanor Farjeon
Eleanor Farjeon was an English author of children's stories and plays, poetry, biography, history and satire. Many of her works had charming illustrations by Edward Ardizzone. Some of her correspondence has also been published...
, especially The Little Bookroom
The Little Bookroom
The Little Bookroom is a collection of twenty-seven stories by Eleanor Farjeon, most in the fairy tale style, chosen by the author to represent the best of her work over the previous thirty years. The collection was first published in 1955, and led to the author being awarded the Carnegie Medal for...
.
He illustrated the Nurse Matilda
Nurse Matilda
The Nurse Matilda books were written by the British children's author Christianna Brand and illustrated by her cousin, Edward Ardizzone. The books are based on stories told to the cousins by their grandfather....
series of children's books written by his cousin, author Christianna Brand
Christianna Brand
Christianna Brand was a British crime writer and children's author.- Background :Christianna Brand was born Mary Christianna Milne in Malaya and grew up in India. She had a number of different occupations, including model, dancer, shop assistant and governess...
. Both cousins heard the stories from the same grandmother - who had, in her turn, heard them from her father. He also famously illustrated A Ring of Bells, John Betjeman
John Betjeman
Sir John Betjeman, CBE was an English poet, writer and broadcaster who described himself in Who's Who as a "poet and hack".He was a founding member of the Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture...
's abridged version for children of his Summoned by Bells
Summoned by Bells
Summoned by Bells, the blank verse autobiography by John Betjeman, describes his life from his early memories of a middle class home in Edwardian Hampstead, London, to his premature departure from Magdalen College, Oxford....
autobiographical poem. He worked on C. Day Lewis's children's novel The Otterbury Incident
The Otterbury Incident
The Otterbury Incident is a novel for children by Cecil Day-Lewis first published in 1948 with illustrations by Edward Ardizzone. Day-Lewis's second and final children's book, the novel is an adaptation of a French screenplay, Nous les gosses which was filmed in 1941.The novel is set in the...
, as well as some novels by the American author Eleanor Estes
Eleanor Estes
Eleanor Estes was an American children's author.She was born in West Haven, Connecticut as Eleanor Ruth Rosenfield.She worked as a children's librarian in New Haven, Connecticut, and New York....
, including The Alley, Miranda the Great, Pinky Pye, The Tunnel of Hugsy Goode and The Witch Family.
Clive King
David Clive King is an English author best known for his children's book Stig of the Dump . He served in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve in the last years of World War II and then worked for the British Council in a wide range of overseas postings, from which he later drew inspiration for his...
's Stig of the Dump
Stig of the Dump
Stig of the Dump is a children's novel by Clive King published in 1963. It is regarded as a modern children's classic and is often read in schools. It has been twice adapted for television, in 1981 and in 2002.-Plot summary:...
.
Ardizzone illustrated a series of books for young children by Graham Greene
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
including The Little Fire Engine, The Little Horse Bus,The Little Train and The Little Steamroller. He also illustrated a re-telling of the Don Quixote story for children by James Reeves
James Reeves
John Morris Reeves was a British writer known as James Reeves principally known for his poetry and contributions to children's literature and the literature of collected traditional songs.-Life:...
. His illustrations for the The Land of Green Ginger by Noel Langley
Noel Langley
Noel Langley was a successful novelist, playwright, screenwriter and director. While under contract to MGM he was one of the screenwriters for The Wizard of Oz...
are classics in their own right.
Ardizzone also illustrated several telegrams for the Post Office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
in the 1950s and 1960s, many of which are considered collector's items.
Style
His style is naturalistic but subdued, featuring gentle lines and delicate watercolours, but with great attention to particular details.He was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 1970, and appointed CBE in 1971. The British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
published an illustrated bibliography
Bibliography
Bibliography , as a practice, is the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology...
of his works in 2003.
Further reading
- Yorke, Malcolm (2007). To war with paper & brush: Captain Edward Ardizzone, official war artist. Upper Denby, Huddersfield: Fleece Press.