Charles Tunnicliffe

Charles Frederick Tunnicliffe
Born 1 December 1901
Langley, Macclesfield, England
Died 7 February 1979 (aged 77)
Malltraeth, Anglesey, Wales
Nationality British
Awards Fellow of the Royal Academy
RSPB Gold Medal
OBE

Charles Frederick Tunnicliffe R.A. (1 December 1901 – 7 February 1979)[1] was an internationally renowned naturalistic painter of British birds and other wildlife. He spent most of his working life on the Isle of Anglesey.

Life

Tunnicliffe was born in 1901 in Langley, Macclesfield, England, and spent his early years living on a farm in nearby Sutton, where he saw much wildlife. As a young boy he attended Sutton St. James’ C.E. Primary School and he went on to win a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in London.[2]

In 1947 he moved from Manchester to a house called "Shorelands" at Malltraeth, on the estuary of the Afon Cefni on Anglesey, where he lived until his death in 1979.

Work

Tunnicliffe worked in several media, including watercolor painting, etching and aquatint, wood engraving, woodcut, scraperboard (sometimes called scratchboard), and oil painting.

A Snowy Owl, Anglesey, date unknown.

Much of Tunnicliffe's work depicted birds in their natural settings and other naturalistic scenes. He illustrated Henry Williamson's Tarka the Otter.[2] His work was also used to illustrate Brooke Bond tea cards and as a result was seen by millions of young people in the United Kingdom during the 1950s and 1960s. He also illustrated a number of books, including the Ladybird books. His work was characterised by its precision and accuracy, but also by the way in which he was able to portray birds as they were seen in nature rather than as stiff scientific studies.

From March 1953, he painted many of the cover illustrations for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds's (RSPB) magazine Bird Notes, and several for the later Birds magazines. Two of the originals are on long-term loan to the gallery at Oriel Ynys Môn, but in 1995 the RSPB sold 114 at a Sotheby's auction, raising £210,000; the most expensive being a picture of a partridge, which sold for £6,440.[3]

At his death, much of his personal collection of work was bequeathed to Anglesey council on the condition that it was housed together and made available for public viewing. This body of work can now be seen at Oriel Ynys Môn (The Anglesey Gallery) near Llangefni.

His work is still celebrated with the Charles and Winifred Tunnicliffe Memorial Art Competition, which is held annually at Hollinhey Primary School, Sutton, which itself is built on land which was formally part of the farm he lived on as a boy.[4]

Honours

Tunnicliffe was the subject of a 1981 BBC Wales television documentary, True to Nature, produced by Derek Trimby and narrated by Robert Dougall.[6][7]

Bibliography

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

At least 250 books used Tunnicliffe's illustrations, including:

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ Wildlife Art
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales. John Davies, Nigel Jenkins, Menna Baines and Peredur Lynch (2008) pg892 ISBN 978-0-7083-1953-6
  3. ↑ RSPB Birds magazine, Vol 16 No 01, February–April 1996, page 10
  4. ↑ Charles and Winifred Tunnicliffe Memorial Art Competition at Hollinhey Primary School
  5. ↑ The Charles Tunnicliffe Society: A Short Biography
  6. ↑ Sketches of Birdlife, with introduction and commentary by Robert Gillmor. Gollancz. ISBN 0-575-03036-4
  7. ↑ Bfi page on True to nature

External links

See also