Edward Ardizzone
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Edward Jeffrey Irving Ardizzone, CBE, RA (16 October 1900 - 8 November 1979) was a writer and illustrator, especially of children's books.
Ardizzone was born at Haiphong, Tonkin, French Indo-China where his father was on overseas government service. His father, though born in Algeria, was of Italian parentage. Ardizzone arrived in England in 1905, and was educated at Ipswich School. He was brought up by his grandparents whilst his parents continued their work overseas.
His best known work is the Tim series, featuring the maritime adventures of the eponymous young hero. The first book, Tim and the Brave Sea Captain, was published in 1936. The most famous of the books, Tim All Alone, won the British Library Association's Kate Greenaway Medal for illustration in 1956. The series ended with Tim's Last Voyage in 1972.
As well as writing and illustrating his own books, Ardizzone also illustrated books written by others, including the novels of Anthony Trollope. He worked as an official war artist in World War II.
He illustrated the Nurse Matilda series of children's books written by his cousin, author Christianna Brand. Both cousins heard the stories from the same grandfather. He also famously illustrated A Ring of Bells, John Betjeman's abridged version for children of his Summoned by Bells autobiographical poem. He worked on C. Day Lewis's children's novel The Otterbury Incident, as well as two novels by the American author Eleanor Estes: The Alley and The Tunnel of Hugsy Goode.
He is also particularly noted for having not just illustrated the covers and contents of books but inking the title text and author's name in his own hand, giving the books a distinctive look on shelves. A particularly notable example is Clive King's Stig of the Dump.
Ardizzone illustrated a series of books for young children by Graham Greene including The Little Fire Engine, The Little Horse Bus and The Little Steamroller. He also illustrated a re-telling of the Don Quixote story for children by James Reeves.
Ardizzone also illustrated several telegrams for the Post Office in the 1950s and 1960s, many of which are considered collector's items.
His style is naturalistic but subdued, featuring gentle lines and delicate watercolours, but with great attention to particular details.
He was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 1970, and appointed CBE in 1971. The British Library published an illustrated bibliography of his works in 2003.
Ardizzone died of a heart attack in 1979.
