MARY EVANS PICTURE LIBRARY
Issue 8, Autumn 2012
Published by the Mary Evans Picture Library 59 Tranquil Vale, London SE3 0BS T: 020 8318 0034 www.maryevans.com E: pictures@maryevans.com
1
......
London’s Burning
4
......
You’re the Top!
6
......
Clubland
8
......
Cutting a Dash - the Linocut
10
......
David Wright, a very British pin-up
12
......
The Sketch competition
Nameplate image ClassicStock/Mary Evans
A terrible fire broke out, driven on by a high wind with incredible noise and fury.It might in all things resemble the last conflagration of the world. his original inscription on the Monument, the Doric column erected in 1677 to commemorate the Great Fire of London, conveys something of the intense power of the f irestorm which engulfed the City in early September 1666 causing the destruction of over 13,000 houses and the original St Paul's Cathedral amongst many other buildings. It was a catalyst in the development of f ire services, leading eventually to the creation of the London Fire Brigade. It was, however, the notion of saving property rather than life that encouraged insurance companies to introduce their own brigades. The f ire mark was placed on the exterior of a building so that individual brigades could identify whether the property was insured by them. In theory, a f ire would only be tackled if a brigade spotted the f ire mark of their own company amid the leaping flames.
T
In 1833, to achieve a more public-minded service, the insurance off ices amalgamated to form the London Fire Engine Establishment. Its f irst Chief Off icer,
James Braidwood, brought experience and eff iciency to the service, and a far-sighted understanding of f ire safety and prevention. Sadly, however, f ire was to claim his life some 30 years later in the Cotton's Wharf f ire on Tooley Street, considered the most devastating in London since 1666. The f ire risk there was alarming. The warehouses were as much as f ifty feet tall making it diff icult for water, under inadequate pressure, to reach the upper floors. Goods were stacked without understanding of their properties under heat, or their potential reaction with each other. Hemp in the warehouse where the f ire began on 22nd June 1861 appears to have ignited spontaneously, spreading to a lethal mix of oil, tallow, tar, cotton, sugar, sulphur, silk and saltpetre, an ingredient of gunpowder. The iron f ire doors had been negligently left open, fanning the flames with a fresh supply of oxygen and allowing the f ire to flourish. Within a couple of hours, the saltpetre exploded, causing the Firefighting in 1678, tradecard of John Keeling (image 10001817) All images this page Mary Evans Picture Library
Fireman wearing the insignia of the Sun Fire Office. Aquatint by W H Pyne, 1808 (image 10179985)
London Fire Brigade/Mary Evans
collapse of a warehouse wall directly onto Braidwood, killing him instantly. Unable to recover his body due to the f ierceness of the blaze, he remained there for three days. Queen Victoria wrote in her diary, "poor Mr Braidwood...had been killed...and the f ire was still raging. It made one very sad." Two weeks later, the f ire f inally out, eight great warehouses had been destroyed and insured losses were estimated at two million pounds. The insurance f irms, still running the service, felt unable to continue funding f ire safety in the capital.
James Braidwood, first Chief Officer of the London Fire Engine Establishment (image 10535452)
In 1866, with the creation of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, the responsibility for f ighting f ires passed from private companies to the state. Under the eagle eye of Captain Eyre Massey Shaw, Braidwood's successor as Chief Off icer, the
The saltpetre exploded, causing the collapse of a warehouse wall directly onto Braidwood. Mary Evans Picture Library
Captain Eyre Massey Shaw, Chief Officer of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade (image 10079026)
number of stations and recruits increased, as did the technology employed by the new brigade. Shaw's f irst act after taking control was to purchase six new steam f ire engines, while the introduction of f ire alarms and wireless telegraphy speeded up response times. Shaw was a natural leader, a strict disciplinarian, and devoted to the problems of f iref ighting. He was also a socialite, and maintained a lifelong friendship with the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) who found attending f ires, and even helping to put them out, a fashionable and exciting diversion, insisting a complete kit be kept for him at one of the central London stations. In the complex arena of theatre f ires, Shaw's influence was to prove lasting. A series of devastating f ires in theatres around the world in the 19th century brought home the importance of safety. Shaw was asked to report on 41 London theatres and set about obtaining architectural drawings for each, as well as full information on audience numbers, escape routes, and any existing arrangements for protection from f ire and smoke. Unguarded gas lighting; careless storage of flammable props, scenery and costumes; blocked gangways; inadequate exits and absent dividing walls or f ire curtains between stage and auditorium were just some of the issues he encountered. His recommendations, in Fire escape in use in 1846, Player’s Cigarette card (image 10134997) Mary Evans Picture Library
time, greatly contributed to improved safety conditions, though not swiftly enough to prevent the deaths of 186 people in the destruction of the Theatre Royal in Exeter, Britain's worst theatre f ire. The First World War brought more changes. The strength of the London Fire Brigade at the outbreak of the war was reduced when 400 or so men, around a third of its numbers, immediately joined up. In 1916, however, when conscription was introduced, it was imperative that f ires caused by increasingly frequent Zeppelin air raids were tackled by professionals, who were thus exempted from the bill. The service moved swiftly towards motordriven appliances and motor pumps as brigade horses, used for pulling steam f ire appliances, were requisitioned for the front. The last horse-drawn appliance was withdrawn from service in 1921. The worsening political climate in the 1930s led to the formation of the Auxiliary Fire Service in January 1938, a volunteer organisation to supplement the Fire Brigade in the event of war. Women were accepted into the service for the f irst time in a range of roles from telephonists to despatch riders. By September 1939, the brigade had been strengthened by 23000 auxiliaries and 2000 emergency f ire appliances, providing invaluable support throughout the Blitz and flying bomb campaigns in which thousands of V1 and V2 rockets rained down on the London region, turning the capital into a city ablaze once more. Jessica Talmage 2012
London Fire Brigade/Mary Evans
Horse-drawn steamer at Greenwich fire station, 1904 (image 10535377)
Barnet fire brigade in 1900 (image 10535470)
Houses of Parliament destroyed by fire in 1834 (image 10006433)
Above: 23 Queen Victoria Street collapsing in flames due to incendiary bombs dropped during an air raid on 10th May 1941(image 10534781) Left: firefighters practise, 1949 (image 10535118)
Above: Auxiliary Fire Service firefighters taking a tea break in 1940 (image 10534539) and an A.F.S. badge (image 10534759) Left: A blaze caused by a bombing raid on Queen Victoria Street , 1941 (image 10534688) Below: horse-drawn steam fire appliance, Victorian scrap, c.1890 (image 10236749)
Mary Evans represents the archive of the London Fire Brigade which holds extensive documentation of the fire service in London from the 19th century to the present day. We continue to assist the LFB in editing and scanning valuable material from their holdings. To view images currently online type %LFB into the search box on www.maryevans.com. All images this page London Fire Brigade/Mary Evans except top right & bottom left Mary Evans Picture Library
REVEALING THE ARCHIVE
The Rise and Fall of Margaret, Duchess of Argyll
Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans
You’re the Top! “
You’re the nimble tread of the feet of Fred Astaire, You’re Mussolini, You’re Mrs Sweeny, You’re Camembert
”
n 1934, Cole Porter wrote the lyrics for 'You're the Top', for his musical, Anything Goes.
I
Two names (and a cheese) are probably familiar from this verse, but who, might you wonder, was Mrs Sweeny? Why would she be immortalised in verse by one of the 20th century's great lyricists? Spend a day in the archive at Mary Evans, and you'll soon become familiar with Mrs Sweeny. Ethel Margaret Whigham (always to be known as Margaret at her own insistence) was born 1st December 1912 in Renfrewshire to self-made businessman, George Hay Whigham and his wife Helen Hannay, daughter of a wealthy cotton magnate. An only child, she spent her early years in New York - in a duplex on Park Avenue - where her best friend was the Woolworth's heiress, Barbara Hutton. In 1926, her parents made the decision to remove their teenage daughter from Prohibition America, and settled in England, at a comfortable house by Ascot racecourse.
4
Margaret Whigham, Mrs Charles Sweeny. Photograph for The Bystander ‘Beauties’ series (No.2) by John Everard, The Bystander, 22nd May 1935 (image 10425719)
“Who cares what will win the Gold Cup, when one is in an agony to know what Miss Margaret Whigham’s Thursday frock will be like?” posed awkwardly by a pond as a counterpoint to the inset pictures of her with Max Aitken at the Carlton and Eddie Tatham at the Café de Paris. Margaret's striking appearance singled her out. Frequently described as 'beautiful', she epitomised brittle, thirties chic. Pencil thin (all the better to wear those slinky, bias-cut evening dresses), with dark, neat, swept back bobbed hair, her green eyes were slightly
Photograph by Madame Yevonde in The Sketch, 27th April, 1938 (image 10638548)
Yevonde Portrait Archive/ILN/Mary Evans
Around the time of her 'coming out' in 1930, Margaret begins to make an appearance in the magazines we hold here in the archive. In January that year, still only seventeen, she is featured in a small photograph in The Bystander, snapped at St. Moritz with the Marquess of Donegal. By April, her photograph appears in The Queen, centre stage in a cluster of 'important debutantes'. More importantly, The Sketch chose to feature her likeness, captured by society artist Olive Snell, on their cover, announcing
the dance her parents were giving her on 1st May. Hailed, 'Deb of the Year' (the qualif ications for which were never completely clear), Margaret quickly became the darling of the society c o l u m n s , omnipresent at smart events and glamorous nightclubs throughout the elegant 1930s. Some claimed her father hired a publicist but she always denied the accusation. As if to underline the point, The Bystander featured her in 1932 seeking 'sylvan solitude' at her parents' Ascot home
hooded, giving her an air of languid boredom and her thin, painted lips gave her a maturity and sophistication lacking in more wholesome, mousey girls. She was, without exception, always immaculately dressed. 'Who cares what will win the Gold Cup (at Ascot), when one is in an agony to know what Miss Margaret Whigham's Thursday frock will be like?' quivered The Bystander in June 1932.
estranged from her daughter the Duchess of Rutland. But the magazines we hold record the feted, heady days of her glamorous youth and remind us that the idea of celebrity is nothing new. Whatever 'it' was, Mrs Charles Sweeny possessed it - in bucket-loads. Luci Gosling 2012 Mary Evans holds complete runs of The Sketch, The Tatler and The Bystander, all excellent sources for people of the moment.
Within a year of her f irst Season, Margaret had accepted a proposal from the Earl of Warwick, only to suffer cold feet and call it off. In 1933, when she f inally walked up the aisle with American golfer Charles Sweeny in a Norman Hartnell dress, the crowds outside Brompton Oratory brought traff ic to a halt in Knightsbridge. The mid-1930s were to mark the apogee of her popularity, a rise witnessed and no doubt aided by a number of the library's archived magazines. She appears in Harper's Bazaar modelling Molyneux dresses, is caricatured in The Bystander by Sirra and is pictured at the Embassy Club (her favourite) in a cartoon by John Reynolds. In 1935, she was one of seven 'Bystander Beauties' photographed in colour by John Everard, looking particularly arresting in a dark green evening dress and white fur stole.
Margaret with the Aga Khan (r) at a race meeting at Newbury in 1931. Prince Aly Khan, the Aga Khan’s son, had fallen in love with Margaret the previous year, but the romance was discouraged by her parents. The Tatler, 7th October 1931 (image 10639873)
All images this page Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans
She divorced Sweeny, with whom she had two children, in 1947 and married the 11th Duke of Argyll four years later, a union that eventually turned sour and was to mark the turning point in her charmed life. Margaret described him as 'a f iend and a sadist' and embarked on a string of affairs. There is a theory that a nearfatal fall down a lift during a visit to the dentist in 1943 had altered her irrevocably, causing nymphomaniac tendencies. In September 1959, the Duke started divorce proceedings on the grounds of adultery, a four-year case that would drag the Duchess's name through the mud. During the course of the prosecution, photographs showing her in flagrante delicto with a 'headless man' made the case into one of the most sensational of the sixties. She lost and was subjected to a vehement character assassination by the judge. From 'the top' to the very bottom, Margaret Argyll had enjoyed the best of life and endured a particularly cruel fall from grace. She died penniless in 1993 in a Pimlico nursing home,
Margaret with the 11th Duke of Argyll, Ian Campbell, who she married in 1951, pictured standing by a portrait of Lord John Campbell, later the 7th Duke. Photograph in The Tatler, 5th December 1956 (image 10639874)
Top left, bottom right: ‘Number Engaged’ featuring Margaret Whigham and Charles Sweeny. The Bystander, 7th December 1932 (image 10638705) 5
CLUBLAND ONDON IS PRE- EMINENTLY THE
'L
OF CLUBS,' ANNOUNCED ROBERT MACHRAY IN 'THE NIGHT SIDE OF LONDON', A GUIDE TO THE CAPITAL'S NIGHTLIFE WRITTEN IN 1902. At the time, Machray estimated f ifty clubs 'of well-established position' thriving in London, while over 100,000 individuals were members of at least one of the recognised clubs to be found around town, approximately 125 of which were for gentlemen and a somewhat unsatisfactory dozen for ladies.
National Magazine Company/Mary Evans
CITY
Pall Mall and Athenaeum Club, Osbert Lancaster in Harper’s Bazaar, June 1953 (image 10578504)
The rise of clubs was a distinct feature of the nineteenth century, mushrooming around St. James, Piccadilly and Pall Mall in such proliferation during the period that the area's alternative name became simply 'Clubland'. A man's club was where he could meet with others of similar tastes, intellect, social standing and political aff iliation, where they could have the convenience of a London address (considerably cheaper for bachelors than keeping a house). It was where they could entertain friends in style, play a game of cards in genteel society, enjoy a good dinner at a moderate price (particularly in the Reform Club, which boasted Alexis Soyer as their chef ) and which provided a refuge from domestic worry. Indeed, many gentlemen employed the cliched excuse of 'I was delayed at the club', when returning late to the marital home. Pall Mall must have been a frenetic flurry of building activity in the 1830s as one palatial club premises after another sprang up along the thoroughfare. The magnif icent Athenaeum Club was designed by
the twenty-four-year-old Decimus Burton in 1829, in a Classical style with a frieze added, at great expense, by the sculptor, John Henning. The club was formed in 1824 as, 'as a meeting place for men who enjoy the life of the mind' and has boasted, over the years, no fewer than 52 Nobel Prize winners as members. Next to the Athenaeum, is the Travellers' Club, established in 1814, with its clubhouse designed by Charles Barry in 1832. According to a 1918 guidebook, membership could be gained by 'travelling from the British Isles, to a distance of 500 miles from London, in a direct line.' Next along is the Reform Club, also built by Barry in 1838-9, and formed to provide a congenial home for members of the Liberal party and supporters of the Reform Bill. Its rival, the Carlton Club, established by the Duke of Wellington to resist the Reform Act, stood right next door. It was destroyed by bombing during World War Two and relocated to St. James's Street. Pall Mall was also home to the Royal Automobile Club, the Army and Navy Club, the Oxford & Cambridge Club and the
Cigar-smoking gentleman (image 10125396) Mary Evans Picture Library 6
A group of gentlemen in their London club, 1864 (image 10035321) Mary Evans Picture Library
Marlborough Club. The latter, a club whose members were within the social circle of King Edward VII, was formed in 1869, in protest at the banning of smoking at White's Club. The Marlborough also suffered air raid damage, but White's,
Detail from the betting book at White’s, 1751: Lord Montfort wagers Lord Ravensworth one hundred guineas that Mr Gibbon is alive on the 12th of April 1759, reproduced in the Illustrated London News, 11th April 1914 (image 10640370) Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans
London's oldest gentlemen's club founded in 1693, remains to this day at 37, St James's Street, where it moved in 1775. It began as a Chocolate House, opened by Francis White, but became distinguished for gambling, with huge wagers won and lost, leaving many a nobleman facing f inancial ruin. The famous betting book, comprising some 250 pages of wagers on a variety of subjects, makes mind-boggling reading. The popularity of clubs gained pace as the nineteenth century progressed. By the end of the century, women had begun to set up their own clubs in answer to the exclusively male territory in Pall Mall and St. James's. The Graphic ran a series on 'Our Ladies' Clubs' in 1908, and included The Alexandra Club, the f irst ladies' club, opening in 1884, whose rules stipulated that, 'Gentlemen are under no circumstances admitted,' although small boys under seven were allowed, 'on condition they remain perfectly quiet'. Others were the Hope Club, for women engaged in business; the Lyceum Club on Piccadilly, formed in 1903 to 'bring together the cultured women of the world for mutual knowledge'; and the Pioneer Club, which extolled temperance and ran a series of Thursday evening debates. Sporting clubs began to welcome both men and women. The Bath Club, in Piccadilly, ran swimming contests attended by King Edward VII. It was where the current Queen, along with Princess Margaret, learned to swim. Prince's Skating Club catered to society on wheels, while Ranelagh and Hurlingham combined polo with pleasure gardens.
Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans
"In town let me live then, in town let me die, For in truth I can't relish the country, not I; If one must have a villa in summer to dwell, Oh, give me the sweet shady side of Pall Mall." Luci Gosling 2012
Princess Elizabeth at the Bath Club, Piccadilly, in 1939 (image 10243993)
Imagno/Mary Evans
Background image Grenville Collins/Mary Evans
Dining room of the Hope Club for women, The Graphic 28th May 1904
But the notion of the quintessential English (image 10640374) Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans gentlemen's club, the one we imagine in novels and see in period f ilms and television dramas, remains in the raref ied and hushed interiors of St. James's. A surprising number of the clubs established over the past two and a half centuries survive today, continuing to provide a home from home for their members. It is little wonder that Captain Charles Morris of the Life Guards opined:
The smoking room of the Reform Club, on Pall Mall, in 1969 (image 10554598)
7
–THE LINOCUT
CUTTING A DASH 8
LINOLEUM, WITH
MORE COMMONLY ASSOCIATED
FLOOR
COVERINGS,
HAS
THE
POTENTIAL TO PRODUCE STUNNING RESULTS WHEN USED IN PRINTMAKING. Designs range from posters and bold silhouettes to delicate, multicoloured studies of nature. As lino is relatively inexpensive and far easier to cut into than wood, it is popular with schools as a means of introducing children to printmaking. Due to the ease of carving, and cheapness of material, there have been those who consider the medium suitable only for amateurs. The abundance of beautifully vivid linocuts that exist is the best argument against this stance. Whilst it may well be an accessible medium, it is by no means an easy one to master.
It was in the manufacture of wallpaper in 1890s Germany that the linocut was first employed in relief printmaking. Ten years later the Die Brücke artists, including Erich Heckel and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, adopted the technique initially referring to their linocuts as traditional woodcuts which were regarded as a more respectable medium. The dynamism and energy that the artists sought to convey was perfectly suited to the graphic quality and expressive lines in linoprinting. In England during the 1920s and 1930s, the artist Claude Flight ran a printmaking workshop at the Grosvenor
Self-portrait with pipe by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner c.1905 (image 10444134) Interfoto/Mary Evans
School of Modern Art that focused primarily on the linocut. Flight recognised that the radical simplification inherent in linoprinting was perfect for evoking what he called 'the speeding up of modern life … hustle … and restlessness' in the city around him. He also acknowledged and celebrated its accessibility to the proletariat as a truly democratic art form. Picasso began creating linocuts in the late 1950s and his association First World War brothel by Bruno Vogel, 1926 with the medium, (image 10272756) along with that of Interfoto/Mary Evans Matisse who produced some 70 linocuts in his lifetime, raised the profile of linoprinting and helped to secure its reputation as a professional print form. Picasso introduced the reductive print method, using a single piece of lino and cutting away one colour at a time. It is sometimes referred to as the suicide method because it leaves little room for error and by the end of the process, the lino is no longer usable. Contemporary wildlife artist Robert Gillmor, whose work the library represents, produces beautiful linocuts using a separate lino block for each colour, layering these on top of one another to complete the print. Often with this process, a key block is produced which establishes the composition and guarantees the registration of colour areas. Having dabbled with lino printing myself, I tend to keep things simple and use a single lino block (with just one colour) for each artwork. The process is
PRINTING matters
Partridge in a pear tree (image 10058728) Robert Gillmor/Mary Evans
Peacock amidst flowers (image 10527943) Tess Hines/Mary Evans
relatively straightforward although carving the design can take many hours. I begin with a pencil drawing on paper which I then transfer to the lino. It's important to be aware that the image will be the mirror of the final picture - especially when text is involved! The design is then carved into the surface of the block using a sharp v-shaped gouge. The areas intended to remain the colour of the paper are cut away, whilst the lino left in relief retains the ink. Most cutters have removable heads, so a very fine v-point tip can be used for detailed carving, with a broader one for larger areas of space. Once the picture has been carved I use a roller (also called a brayer) to distribute paint evenly across the surface, lay a piece of paper over this and, with a clean roller (or baren) press down firmly. A relief printing press can be used at this stage which would ensure an even pressure across the plate. By far the most exciting part of the process comes at the end, lifting the paper to reveal the final printed image. Tess Hines 2012 9
David Wright
A VERY BRITISH PIN-UP
The Siren by David Wright in The Sketch, 1st January 1941 (image 10217025) 10
n 1st January 1941, 'The Siren,' a pin-up by the artist David Wright, appeared in The Sketch, a long-running weekly magazine reporting on theatre news, stage and f ilm stars, sport, fashion, society, cartoons and miscellaneous morsels of popular interest. It was the f irst of what would amount to 169 separate illustrations Wright completed for the magazine between 1941 and 1953. Known as 'David Wright's Lovelies', they were designed as a single page, to be f ixed loosely into the magazine for easy removal by readers who could literally 'pin up' a picture in bars, pubs, barrack rooms and off icers' messes. They even made their way into a scene in the 1953 f ilm, 'Angels One Five', gracing the wall of an RAF base. We may be familiar with the cheeky American pin-up girls of artists such as Gil Elvgren and Alberto Vargas, but David Wright, who served as an Army driving instructor in North Wales during the war, created a new breed of thoroughly British pin-up.
O
All images Estate of David Wright/Mary Evans
Cover of Modern Weekly by David Wright, 28th August 1933 (image 10223876)
A British soldier, ‘John’, sketching in World War Two, painting by David Wright, April 1943 (image 10583671)
Wright was born a century ago, on the 12th December 1912, into an artistic family. His uncle, Gilbert Wright, worked for illustrated weekly paper, The Graphic, and David Wright started his own illustration career at his studio after leaving school at the age of 13. He specialised in fashion and during the 1930s produced designs and covers for women's magazines such as Home Chat and Modern Weekly, examples of which we hold in the library. It was during this time that he was to meet one model, Esmé Little, who would become his
Many of the pictures had titles that reflected the preoccupations of war, perhaps laced with a sly double-entendre. wife and his muse, and who inspired and posed for many of the 'Lovelies' admired by readers of The Sketch.
Cover of The American Weekly by David Wright, 7th August 1949 (image 10533312)
After some years as a jobbing illustrator, The Sketch commission was David Wright's big break and an instant hit with both civilians and troops (a number of whom wrote to him to communicate their appreciation). Clad in diaphanous lingerie, or more modestly, in chic 1940s jackets and uniforms, the 'Lovelies' echo Esmé's faultlessly slim f igure and striking features. They exude feminine allure, a tantalising aloofness and an elemental and powerful sex appeal. While Vargas, Elvgren et al championed a glossy, air brushed wholesomeness, Wright drew elegant seduction. Many of the pictures had titles
that reflected the preoccupations of war, perhaps laced with a sly double-entendre. 'Streamline Fuselage', shows a girl in her underwear admiring her stocking-encased legs for instance. 'Final Inspection' depicts a woman admiring her topless reflection in a mirror, while 'Spitf ire' features a f iery redhead (Esmé) barely covered by a striking red and black dress. Wright had hit on a winning, and very individual, pin-up formula. In 1944, David Wright's agent won him a commission for a number of front cover illustrations for The American Weekly magazine, at f irst under the series title of, 'Highlights to Charm.' The magazine had an astonishing circulation of 50 million, due to the fact it was produced as a supplement to almost every local newspaper across the United States. It established Wright in the f irmament of great pin-up artists. Interestingly, his covers for The American Weekly are far more modest with a girl-next-door flavour, designed for an audience that was a touch more conservative than the British at war. Wright was kept busy into the early 1950s as he also began to produce centrefolds for Men Only magazine. He was in demand with advertising companies and used his talents for drawing a shapely leg for Kayser Bondor stockings and for a series of Schweppes advertisements (asking 'Are you a Schweppicure?) that again, made his work familiar to many. Book cover design work for Sexton Blake Library and The Book Club emanate a rather pleasing Bmovie kitsch. The f inal decade of his life was spent working tirelessly on a strip cartoon – Carol Day – for the Daily Mail, which followed the adventures of Carol, a tall, leggy blonde fashion model. The work was relentless; he was advised to rest by doctors in March 1967, but died two months later at the age of only 55. As with most commercial artists of the 20th century, David Wright was prolif ic and versatile, but the success of his pin-ups unarguably runs as an enduring theme through his work. In his centennial year, plans are afoot at Mary Evans to highlight David Wright and his art, including a book which is due to be published in 2013. Just as his work delighted British and Americans during World War II and the two following decades, we think it is time for his art to be seen and enjoyed by new and future generations. Luci Gosling 2012 Mary Evans Picture Library are exclusive representatives of the Estate of David Wright. Use keyword David Wright to see more.
11
The
Sketch - Art & Actuality THE SKETCH MAGAZINE, a complete run of which from 1893-1958 is held at Mary Evans as part of the Illustrated London News archive. Billed as a magazine of 'art and actuality', it had since its launch as a glamorous and gossipy sibling to the Illustrated London News, nurtured some of the last century's best-loved illustrators. William Heath Robinson, whose genius contraptions have been enjoyed by generations, attributed his fame to the decision of Bruce Ingram, then editor of The Sketch, to publish him in the magazine, admitting in his autobiography, “I was fairly launched on my career as a humorous artist.” Other artists who were championed by The Sketch include George Studdy of Bonzo fame and Lawson Wood, who drew the wily orang-utan, Gran'pop. The Sketch had an established track record where pin-ups were concerned. In 1915, the work of Austrian artist Raphael Kirchner was published in an exclusive deal with the artist's representatives in Britain, the Bruton Galleries. The 'Kirchner Girls' were an instant hit and were a taste of what was to come. Aimed at a cosmopolitan readership, The Sketch thoroughly embraced the playful nudity and erotica of the 1920s with artists like Rebel Stanton, A.K. Macdonald, Hal Bevan Petman (known for his 'Petman Girls') and the French artist Suzanne Meunier regular contributors of artwork. David Wright, Britain’s foremost wartime pinup artist (see inside, pages 10-11), also found his big break there. The next series of Downton Abbey will see one of the characters employed at The Sketch magazine. We wonder if Lady Mary will be shocked by the magazine's risque content?!
I
LLUSTRATION WAS IMPORTANT TO
A
B
C
Our competition this issue highlights The Sketch’s ability to nurture emerging artists. Photographer Angus McBean’s work was regularly featured in the magazine from 1937 when he was commissioned to photograph a number of leading actresses inspired by the surrealist art of the era. All you have to do to have the chance of winning £100 of Amazon vouchers is match up the actresses with their McBean portraits. Send your answers to me&you@maryevans.com by 15th November 2012. The winner will be the first chosen randomly from correct entries after the closing date, and will be notified by 23rd November.
D
E
1. Vivien Leigh 2. Gladys Cooper 3. Edith Evans 4. Flora Robson 5. Peggy Ashcroft 6. Margaret Lockwood
F Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans
We would be happy to receive your comments about ME & You. Please email us at me&you@maryevans.com.