Edward Ardizzone Retrospective @ House of Illustration

Popped along to the Edward Ardizzone exhibition at the House of Illustration the other day.
Johnny the Clockmaker was one of my favourite books when I was a child, so it was wonderful to see them roughs and layouts up close.

Here’s Ardizzone’s self portrait.

He was commissioned by quite a few commercial clients, including the Radio Times. I thought this Guinness poster was great. Ardizzone wasn’t so sure. It was his only poster to be displayed on street hoardings, and he wrote to his daughter once it was posted to say ‘London is now plastered with a rash of them, and I creep around feeling rather ashamed of myself. The multiplicity is overpowering and destroys what little virtue there may be in the job.’

I also was excited to see the illustration he’d created of the Festival of Britain’s tin fountain. A guide I’d spoken to at the Southbank had referred to the bucket fountain, but didn’t have any reference for how it looked. Now we know.