Contents  Volume 22 Spring 2025 Issue 83

Editorial 

Welcome to Illustration 83

Simon Brett

The late Simon Brett was an outstanding practitioner of wood engraved illustrations. An accomplished draughtsman, he illustrated a wide range of literary texts that ranged from Shakespeare to Byron, and from Richardson’s Clarissa to George Eliot’s Middlemarch. Joe Whitlock-Blundell explores Brett’s creative approaches in his work for the Folio Society.

News and Reviews

A round-up of interesting new and forthcoming exhibitions for all tastes, along with information on events.

Laurence Anholt

Anholt is a writer and illustrator with a deep interest in art history and a strong capacity to make that subject intelligible to youthful audiences. His series, “Anholt’s Artists” brings the Masters to life in lucid writing and overwhelmingly beautiful illustrations which capture the artists’ styles and interests. In candid conversation with the Editor, Laurence reveals his philosophy of book making.

Charlotte Gastaut

This French illustrator/writer is well-known for her vivid and humorous children’s books, which often play on the relationships between words and images. Amy Hunter introduces Gastaut’s immersive art, focusing on a favourite book which recounts the adventures of Prudence – and her dealings with her parents.

Sara Midda

Is a highly inventive artist whose work, to quote her entry on the Chris Beetles website, “ranges in character from delicate, jewel-like watercolours to sharply humorous, even surreal, ink drawings.” Sara currently has an exhibition at the Chris Beetles Gallery and Phoebe Bowsher discusses her work in detail.

A Notable Gallery

Running a commercial art gallery is both a challenge and the source of great satisfaction. Alex Godfrey explains how he and his wife set up their company in Harrogate and how they have dealt with illustrators such as Mick Manning, Mark Hearld and Edwina Ellis, among many notable others.

The Great Exhibition of 1851

Like all such events, this epoch-making event presented an “official” and an “unofficial” face to the world. For the organizers it was a sensational demonstration of Britain’s commercial and industrial power; for others, it raised issued of class and race. Professor Catherine Golden examines the two sides of the show at the Crystal Palace.

Vincent Van Gogh and English Engravings

The Dutch genius is often regarded as one of world’s great originators – and he was. But he was also influenced by other artists, among them British black-and-white illustrators such as Fildes and Herkomer. Peter S. Smith takes a detailed look at Vincent’s response to images appearing in The Graphic, some of which informed the painter’s most famous works.

“JOB” is barely known in the English-speaking world but should be: a great colourist, he rendered the life of Napoleon and the French Revolution in brilliant detail and intense visual effects of space, light, and colour. Brian McAvera, our French specialist, writes expertly of this unusual artist.

George Adamson

Adamson was a highly versatile cartoonist and graphic satirist with a sharp eye for caricature, although he also produced poetic designs for book covers, notably for Ted Hughes’s The Iron Man. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of his passing Dr Mark Bryant draws on previously unpublished material and information from the Adamson estate.

New Talent

Hatty Wassell, an undergraduate at the University of Gloucestershire, is an intriguing new talent. Hatty explains her ideas and ambitions.

Resources

Look and Learn

Information about the latest contributions along with details of important resources.

Contributors

Joe Whitlock Blundell was Production and Art Director of The Folio Society for over 30 years, and was responsible for the design of over 1000 titles during that time. He is also a photographer with several books and one-man shows to his name. Since retiring from Folio in 2018 he has continued both activities through his company Blundell Studios.

Amy Hunter is a graduate of the MA course in Children’s Book Illustration at Cambridge School of Art. She was shortlisted for the V&A Student Illustrator of the year Award in 2022. For many years she has illustrated children’s educational publishing. Amy particularly enjoys opportunities to shine a fresh light on an old text in order to engage a new audience.

Phoebe Bowsher is a Gallery & Programme Coordinator, and has worked at Chris Beetles Gallery for three years following her Master’s degree in Museum Collections. Chris Beetles opened Chris Beetles Gallery in St James’s, London in 1984. The gallery exhibits a variety of illustrations throughout the year and hosts an annual “Illustrators” show in November. Chris is a world expert in illustration and has written books on artists such as Louis Wain, Stanley Roy Badmin and Mabel Lucie Atwell.

Alex Godfrey studied painting at Edinburgh College of Art and worked as teacher and curator before setting up the Godfrey & Watt gallery in 1985. As Alex Malcolmson he exhibits his own work from Shetland to Cornwall.

Catherine J. Golden is professor of English and the former Tisch Chair in Arts and Letters at Skidmore College. She is the author of Serials to Graphic Novels: The Evolution of the Victorian Illustrated Book(Gainesville, FL: UPF, 2017), Posting It: The Victorian Revolution in Letter Writing(Gainesville, FL: 2000), and Images of the Woman Reader in Victorian British and American Fiction(Gainesville, FL: UPF, 2003). She is also editor or co-editor of five additional books and numerous articles on topics ranging from Charlotte Perkins Gilman to Victorian illustration, literature, and culture. 

Peter S. Smith, RE, studied Fine Art at Birmingham School of Art and Design (BA (Hons) Fine Art; Printmaking at Wimbledon School of Art (MA Printmaking,) and was West Midlands Fine Art Fellow 1977–1979. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers and a member of the Society of Wood Engravers, His works are in public and private collections, including Tate Britain, the Ashmolean, Oxford and the British Museum. He has a studio at the St Bride Foundation, London, where he teaches wood engraving.

Brian McAvera is a playwright, art critic, curator and, occasionally, an art historian. His best-known plays are the cycle Picasso’s Women, which have been translated for productions into over 20 languages. His most recent book is a critical study of the Irish artist, Graham Gingles (“Graham Gingles Boxed In,” Cyphers, Secrecy And Sensuality, F.E. McWilliam Gallery, 2022). Brian is an avid collector of French nineteenth century illustrated books.

Dr Mark Bryant was an editor in literary and academic book publishing before becoming a writer, journalist, lecturer and curator. He has written for the Independent, History Today, British Journalism Review, Military History Monthly and other publications. His books include the Dictionary of 20th Century British Cartoonists and Caricaturists, and he has contributed articles to Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. He is a former trustee of the Cartoon Museum, London.