Edward Ardizzone: Artist and Illustrator

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Tim All Alone (1956) was awarded the first Kate Greenaway medal - England’s most prestigious award for illustration. Peter Yates (1920-1982) was born in Leytonstone, East London, to Frank Yates, manager of a marine chandlery and Frances Margaret (née Clarke). In 1936 he completed the first part of what would be his defining series of work, the first of the ‘Tim’ books: Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain. Ardizzone illustrated some novels by the American author Eleanor Estes, including Pinky Pye, The Witch Family, The Alley, Miranda the Great, and The Tunnel of Hugsy Goode (1958 to 1972).

An artist and illustrator of consummate draughtsmanship, Edward Ardizzone's many book illustrations are recognised all over the world. His early experiences between Arras and Boulogne are illustrated and described in his book Baggage to the Enemy (London 1941), while Diary of a War Artist, published in 1974, described his later experiences during the conflict. By 1939 Ardizzone was regularly holding one-man exhibitions at the Bloomsbury Gallery and, later, the Leger Gallery. He left behind him a wealth of acclaimed artistic work and a significant contribution to the canon of book illustration. Takashashi references the Grosvenor School in her linocuts (Cyril Power, Sybil Andrews; Lill Tschudi, see Artists).

From 1931-33 Tschudi lived in Paris and studied with the Cubist artist André Lhote, then with the Futurist Gino Severini at the Academie Ronson, and finally under Fernand Léger at the Academie Moderne. Ardizzone is particularly noted for having not just illustrated the covers and contents of books, but inked in the title text and author's name in his own hand, giving the books a distinctive look on shelves. He also wrote and illustrated his own children’s books, such as Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain. But whilst firmly within this tradition, these artists were also modernisers, especially in the adoption of new subject matter. Edward Jeffrey Irving Ardizzone, CBE RA (16 October 1900 – 8 November 1979), who sometimes signed his work " DIZ", was a British painter, printmaker and war artist, and the author and illustrator of books, many of them for children.

Spowers trained at the Melbourne National Gallery Art School (1911-17) and gained a reputation for black and white children’s story illustrations.He would encourage and help to further her career, and act as point of liaison in England whilst she worked abroad. In it he established an illustrative style that continued throughout his later work and has endured ever since: each line, thick and generous, was put down with both thoughtfulness and ease, resulting in images that are at once carefree and confident but which retain above all else an empathy with their characters.

Tschudi was first introduced to the linocut when, still a school-girl, she saw an exhibition of the colour cuts of animals by Norbertine Bresslern-Roth (1891-1978).

Attached to the Eighth Army, he adapted extremely well to military life and made many friends especially among war correspondents, enabling him access to transport and networks that he required. Born in Haiphong, Indo-China, Ardizzone – whose work was sometimes signed DIZ or E A – studied art under Bernard Meninsky and F J Porter at evening classes at Westminster School of Art in 1920–1. After the War, Ardizzone resumed his freelance career and received commissions from The Strand Magazine for cover artwork, from the Ealing film studios for promotional material and from the Guinness company for adverts.