Two Illustrators

Books dealing with children's book illustration appear in a limited number of formats: they focus on one illustrator and explore his or her life, career, and artwork in detail; they analyze a number of illustrators working during a given period or in a common style; or they compare and contrast how a number of illustrators in different times have dealt with the same book or genre of material.

Both books reviewed here fit the first format. Gabriel White's book on Edward Ardizzone is an excellent biography and analysis of his artwork. However, the analysis is seriously unbalanced; between 1929 and 1976 Ardizzone illustrated 170 books, yet only two chapters are devoted to a discussion and analysis of his book illustrations. What is written is instructive, but it merely serves to whet the appetite for a more definitive work.

White begins with a discussion of Ardizzone's childhood, suggesting that his keen visual awareness, appetite for small detail, and retentive memory served as a source of inspiration for his art. The relationship between these childhood gifts and his book illustrations then waits while the author discusses Ardizzone's early drawings of Maida Vale and his work as a military artist in World War II. The analysis of Ardizzone's illustrated books begins with a statement of his philosophy of illustration: the illustrator is both stimulated and constrained by the textual material he is illustrating, but his primary task is to create a visual world that corresponds to that which the author is describing. Powers of observation and recollection, as well as a knowledge of the processes by which the artwork will be reproduced, are central to the fulfillment of this task.

White divides Ardizzone's work into three periods to show the development of his style of illustration. The first period, 1929-47, established the basic characteristics of that style, particularly his pen and ink work—a simple line, contrasting areas of black and white, and open edges. The illustrations are appealing in their simplicity and their ability to communicate with children in a style similar to one a child might employ. The second period, 1947-65, produced some of his finest work, notably the illustrations for Victorian classics by Dickens, Thackeray, and Trollope. At the same time Ardizzone was illustrating the works of four contemporary authors—Maurice Gorham, James Reeves, Eleanor Farjeon, and Mary Lewis. Unfortunately, the analysis of Ardizzone's artistic contribution to books by all these authors is limited to seven illustrated pages. Obviously little more than a line or two can be said about each, rather sad since this period is Ardizzone's richest in scope and versatility. The second chapter on his book illustrations includes a brief discussion of only four books from Ardizzone's third and most prolific period of children's book illustration, 1965-76.

While Knox's book also attempts to show the relationship of the artist's early life to his illustrations, it is less successful than White's. Perhaps the family members who contributed to the book were too close to their subject; the finished product is a detailed biography that does surprisingly little to link E. H. Shepard's life to his work, except to note that he was the son of a middle-class English family and that he illustrated books for his middle-class peers.

The two best chapters in the book were written by Penelope Fitzgerald and Bevis Hillier; they deal with Shepard's development as a black-and-white illustrator. Fitzgerald discusses English illustrators of the 1860s, particularly Charles Keane, and their impact on Shepard's work. Hillier defines for the first time the characteristic style of Shepard's drawings and attempts to mark his place in the history of English illustration. These two chapters are too brief to serve as more than an introduction to the study of Shepard's work, but when they are taken in conjunction with his two autobiographical pieces on his childhood, one can...