Picture this : the artist as illustrator

This is a fascinating book edited by Sylvia Backemeyer who worked in the position of

Head of the Central Saint Martins Museum Collection. The book is a collection of essays

celebrating Illustration as taught at Central St Martins London, in the last 100 years.

Noel Rooke was teaching there in 1905 and he initiated black and white book illustration

as part of the Book Production course. The initial medium used was wood engraving

and in the following 30 years most British wood engravers had come under his influence or

been taught by him directly. Clare Leighton, John Farleigh, Ray Marshall, Ray Garnett,

Lynton Lamb and Margaret Pilkington all trained under Rooke.

The book has chapters on Book Illustration / Jackets, Fashion Illustration, Cartoons and Comics,

Publicity and Advertising and is available here.

John Burningham 1970

S.R.Badmin 1943 and  Clarke Hutton 1945

Clarke Hutton 1948

Dorothea Braby 1938

Barnett Freedman 1937

Paul Hogarth (top) 1953                        John O Connor (bottom) 1964

Sheila Jackson 1947

This last one by James Boswell from ‘ Look back in Anger’  1962, reminds me of  Graham Byfields’ work

in ‘ This Time Last Week ‘ by Leslie Thomas. A wonderful book describing growing up in London as

an Orphan in the 1940’s and 50’s. Well worth a read for it’s amusing tales.