Embracing
Untitled illustration for Jackanory (Mary Plain Goes to America) , 1972
British illustrator Janina Ede (1937-2018) created covers and illustrations for over 100 books from the 1950s to the 1980s. In the 1970s, she made illustrations for Jackanory, a BBC television programme. During each episode, an actor read a story, while specially-commissioned illustrations were shown on screen. For the televised version of Mary Plain Goes to America, Ede created paintings on large boards. These allowed the camera to pan across her image, showing a little at a time. BBC1 had only been in colour for three years, and so Ede used bold colours painted in gouache and reflective collaged foil to make the most of the new technology. This storyboard illustration was produced by Janina Ede for Jackanory episode #1426, 'Mary Plain Goes to America: Part 1 - An invitation'. It aired on 13 November 1972.
Cover jacket for "The Numbers of Our Days", 1959
British illustrator Janina Ede (1937-2018) created covers and illustrations for over 100 books from the 1950s to the 1980s.
Untitled, 1855
Eleanor Vere Boyle (1825 – 1916) illustrated poetry and prose by some of the most popular authors of her time. She regularly drew and painted using ink and watercolour, sketching landscapes, animals and her children from life. She also made drawings from her imagination, often reflecting spiritual themes.
Untitled (rough cover illustration for "The Numbers of Our Days"), c. 1959
British illustrator Janina Ede (1937-2018) created covers and illustrations for over 100 books from the 1950s to the 1980s.
Untitled illustration for Jackanory (Just So Stories: The Cat who Walked by Himself), 1973
Janina Ede (1937-2018) created covers and illustrations for over 100 books in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. Many of her illustrations feature animals, which she drew from life. In the 1970s, Ede was commissioned to create large colourful illustrations for the BBC children’s television series, Jackanory. Each episode was dedicated to a story read by an actor, while specially commissioned illustrations were shown on screen during each programme. Some of these illustrations were for programmes featuring stories by author Rudyard Kipling. His ‘Just So’ stories were short tales that imagined how various animals attained their distinguishing features. Kipling set the stories in parts of India, West Asia and Africa. His descriptions of places and people included racist and exoticised stereotypes. Ede’s illustrations draw extensively on Kipling’s descriptions, and therefore reflect the racism in his work, as well as the prevailing stereotypical views that existed in 1970s Britain. Her own personal views are not documented. This storyboard illustration was produced by Janina Ede for Jackanory episode #1452, 'Just So Stories - The Cat that Walked by Himself'. It aired on 3 January 1973.
Untitled (rough cover illustration for "The Numbers of Our Days"), c. 1959
British illustrator Janina Ede (1937-2018) created covers and illustrations for over 100 books from the 1950s to the 1980s.
Illustration for Beauty and the Beast (Beauty embracing the dying Beast), c. 1875
Eleanor Vere Boyle (1825 – 1916) illustrated poetry and prose by some of the most popular authors of her time. She regularly drew and painted using ink and watercolour, sketching landscapes, animals and her children from life. She also made drawings from her imagination, often reflecting spiritual themes. This illustration is from Boyle’s 1875 retelling of Beauty and the Beast, a fairy tale where a woman is imprisoned by a monster and falls in love with him. Unlike other illustrated versions before or since, Boyle gave her beast walrus-like tusks and flippers. In several of her illustrations, Boyle used shell gold – a mixture of finely ground gold powder and gum arabic (tree sap) that would have been stored in a shallow seashell. In the final publication, the caption for this illustration reads, "Ah dear Beast, she said: Alas that my unkindness should thus slay thee."
Untitled, 1846
Eleanor Vere Boyle (1825 – 1916) illustrated poetry and prose by some of the most popular authors of her time. She regularly drew and painted using ink and watercolour, sketching landscapes, animals and her children from life. She also made drawings from her imagination, often reflecting spiritual themes.
Illustration for Beauty and the Beast (the wedding), c. 1875
Eleanor Vere Boyle (1825 – 1916) illustrated poetry and prose by some of the most popular authors of her time. She regularly drew and painted using ink and watercolour, sketching landscapes, animals and her children from life. She also made drawings from her imagination, often reflecting spiritual themes. This illustration is from Boyle’s 1875 retelling of Beauty and the Beast, a fairy tale where a woman is imprisoned by a monster and falls in love with him. Unlike other illustrated versions before or since, Boyle gave her beast walrus-like tusks and flippers. In several of her illustrations, Boyle used shell gold – a mixture of finely ground gold powder and gum arabic (tree sap) that would have been stored in a shallow seashell. In the final publication, the caption for this illustration reads, "Love is the magic, that makes all things fair."
Jo Brocklehurst, Untitled (portrait with Val Drayton (left)), 1982
Jo (Josephine) Brocklehurst (1935 - 2006) studied at Central Saint Martins and began her career as a fashion illustrator. She later focused on portraiture, drawing directly from models at her studio in West Hampstead and in nightclubs and theatres in Berlin, London and New York. Her work documents the alternative subcultures of the 1970s, 80s and 90s that went on to shape mainstream fashion and performance scenes. In the 1980s, Brocklehurst drew a series portraits of members of the Kill Your Pet Puppy collective who were living in a squat close to her studio. Attracted to their anarcho-punk dress and ethos, she said “I felt that they understood very well what was going on in the world, what was in it for them”.
Untitled, Date unknown
Eleanor Vere Boyle (1825 – 1916) illustrated poetry and prose by some of the most popular authors of her time. She regularly drew and painted using ink and watercolour, sketching landscapes, animals and her children from life. She also made drawings from her imagination, often reflecting spiritual themes.
