Edward Ardizzone

Edward Ardizzone (1900-1979) was an English book illustrator.

Early life

He was born in China but moved to England in 1905. His father was Italian by birth but a naturalised Frenchman. His mother was English and he was naturalised in 1922. He was educated at Ipswich Grammar School and Clayesmore School then spent six months at a college of commerce.

Career

He worked at first as a clerk in the City of London. In the evenings he took classes at Westminster School of Art and became a professional artist in 1926. Up to 1939 he worked as a painter, mainly in water-colour, and as a graphic artist. His first major commission, in 1929, was from Peter Llewelyn Davies to illustrate In a Glass Darkly by J. Sheridan Le Fanu.

He made drawings for Radio Times and Punch; he illustrated picture books that he wrote himself. He served in an anti-aircraft regiment, 1939. He became an official war artist in 1940; his work was recorded in Baggage to the Enemy (1941) and Diary of a War Artist (1974); there are some 300 water-colours of this period in the Imperial War Museum. After World War II, he returned a to free-lance career, exhibiting, doing water-colour portraits, and illustrating books, including his own Tim All Alone (1956), and poems by Walter de la Mare.

He was an instructor in graphic design at Camberwell School of Art up to 1960. He visited South India for UNESCO, training students in silk-screen printing in 1952. He was elected ARA in 1962 and RA in 1970; he was awarded the CBE in 1971.