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Brain Cocktails
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Abbott
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Taste
'Tea-sipping Ceremony '
'Sommelier'
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Men Only
Men Only was another early men's magazine like London Opinion or Lilliput where Searle found employment immediately after the war. And, as I've mentioned in posts on those publications, we see Searle developing his style; sometimes appropriating the style of other successful cartoonists and illustrators of the time like Anton and James Fitton. Even his signature is evolving.
July 1946
October 1946
Thanks to contributors for the scans/pics. See the section on London Opinion for more
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Sold!
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Fakes!
While we're on the subject of auctions don't all for any of the pathetic fakes that continually crop up at "reputable" auction houses. This one just sold at Raffan Kelaher & Thomas in Australia "attributed to Ronald Searle".
To the keen eye of a Searle enthusiast the weak, unstructured drawings belie their amateur forgery. Searle's style was loose and vital but never sloppy. His finished works were worked up from numerous rough sketches and had elegant compositions.
I've tried to alert a well-known British auction house in the past who were oblivious to selling a fake Searle but rebuffed my accusation affronted that their "expert knowledge" was called into question. Which instantly made them into Searle-esque stuffy, art dealer snobs!
Sometimes these fakes will pop up on eBay too with the "attributed to Ronald Searle" or "after Ronald Searle" but don't fall for it.
More fake Searles here and here
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Slave
Historical illustration for 1950s Punch magazine described as "A bound African bent inside the map of Africa is ready to break his shackles".
The original art sold at auction in California a couple of years ago.
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Merry England
'May I have the pleasure?'
inscribed "Merry England (page 37) London 1956"
"Remembrance of things past..."
Published within Punch on 21 December 1955, p. 733 as one of five drawings under the title 'May I Have the Pleasure?' and also within the artist's Merry England (1957) on p. 38
'The Pipes! The Pipes!'
- The Edinburgh International Festival of Drama Opens Tomorrow
Illustrated: News Chronicle, Saturday cartoon issue, August 21, 1954
Literature: Ronald Searle, 'Merry England', Perpetua Books, London, 1956, pp.106-107.
"If music be the food of love..."
Published in Punch, 14 March 1956, page 314.
Also published within Searle's Merry England (London, 1957), page 100.
'May I have the pleasure?'
inscribed "Merry England (page 37) London 1956"
Inspired by Sandro Botticelli's celebrated painting "The Birth of Venus", this large caricature was first published in Punch (May, 1953), and again in Searle's Merry England, London, 1956, p.91
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Paris Sketchbook
'Pont Neuf'
'Assemblée Nationale'
'Oscar Wilde's Tomb, Père-Lachaise Cemetery'
'St. Paul'
'Montmartre'
'Bookseller, Rive gauche'
'Place Dauphine'
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King Edward VII
Spectacular drawing for HOLIDAY magazine, 1958.
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Germany
The British caricaturist Ronald Searle was on a four day visit of Germany on invitiation of SDR. Interview with Ronald Searle. (August 26th 1959)
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Searle's influence
The shadow Ronald Searle's style casts over other cartoonists is pervasive. It was said once you've seen his style it's hard to draw any other way. From Mad Magazine's Mort Drucker and Jack Davis to the Disney artists on '101 Dalmatians' and the character design on Pixar's 'Soul' his influence can be detected. Contemporary cartoonists and illustrators such as Peter De Seve, Nick Galifiniakis and Richard Thompson have all publicly doffed their caps to the master.
Here's an Arnold Roth with commentary by Jules Feiffer. Using a cat's tail asa brush may be alluding to the story of Searle doing that as a POW: a couple of kittens had wandered into Changi gaol and Searle apparently made use of the tails after they were eaten! If Roth had read that anecdote in Searle's book 'To The Kwai and Back' he certainly made a less gruesome gag out of it!
Feiffer commentary: "Arnold had an early period in which he was living in England, and he was trying to be Ronald Searle. And this is very Searle looking. When he got rid of trying to be Searle, he became one of the most original and interesting artist in the business and he remains underappreciated. Arnold is brilliant. He has done covers for The New Yorker and his artwork has appeared in TV Guide, Sports Illustrated and Esquire. He was part of the Harvey Kurtzman crew and his cartoons and illustrations were in the magazines Harvey edited. Arnold has never gotten the attention he deserves. I love this work even if this is still him being very Ronald Searlish. Arnold, over the years, has quietly become one of our most original and evocative cartoonists. And he is blessed with a great wife, Caroline."
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The Admiral and the Con Man
The art director at The New Yorker knew Searle was the right illustrator for this story! (from 2002)
The Mythical Fortune That Fuelled America’s Greatest Fraud
Posing as a British lord, Oscar Hartzell convinced thousands of Americans that they could get a piece of the Sir Francis Drake estate—a multibillion-dollar inheritance that didn’t exist.
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Saintly
A St. Trinians piece from an old Chris Beetles catalogue that I don't think I'd ever seen.
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'The Female Approach' 1949
Original cover art.
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Searle the art instructor
A fascinating item at auction recently reveals Searle to be a mentor to a fellow artist while incarcerated in Changi Gaol by the Japanese in WWII. I'd never heard of him teaching in this capacity before - it's definitely his hand-writing - but he did give me pointers on sketching when I met him and showed him my sketchbooks.
Searle's own art training was cut short when he enlisted. On the long voyage by sea to Singapore he drew what he encountered - Polish sailors, Mombasa, India and kept drawing as a prisoner. He turned his incarceration into a kind of art school experience, documenting the incidents in the camp, sketching caricatures of fellow inmates and designing theater play backdrops and programs, Christmas cards and also singular 'magazines' that were disseminated between the men.
'Searle (Ronald) British Cartoonist (1920-2011) and Cotterell (Thomas George). A two sided als in blue ink from Searle to Cotterell dated June 14 1945 from Changi Gaol (Singapore) in which he artistically criticises Cotterell's portrait of his wife (watercolour profile on paper 135 x 115mm signed and dated verso '45). Both laminated for preservation, with transcripts.
Note: Both men were Japanese Prisoners of War and were held at Changi Gaol '
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Animal Farm
Here's a tantalizing prospect: imagine Orwell's 'Animal Farm' illustrated by Searle... he never did it of course but a second-hand bookseller turned up this item - a 1962 edition, Seaerle's own copy, with notations in his hand and a folded sheet with notes.
Ralph Steadman illustrated a marvelous edition in the 90s but a Searle version would've been something, no?
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'I Have No Gun But I Can Spit'
'I Have No Gun, But I can Spit'. An Anthology of satirical and abusive verse selected by Kenneth Baker
-Published by Eyre Methuen, London, 1980
Original artwork.
View a comprehensive gallery of 'Book Covers' by Searle at the link in the list on the right.
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Take One Toad
Some of the original drawings from 'Take One Toad' (1968) have been sold at auction in recent years. They're stunning, large-format, color drawings. The book is a good size too and there are sometimes prints on eBay which don't have the image dissected by the gutter of the book.
See my page dedicated to 'Take One Toad'here
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Khrushchev
Alternative version
Nikita Khrushchev in New York, 1960
pencil, pen and brown ink and watercolour
Holiday Magazine, New York, 1960.
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