Ardizzone

Quentin Blake

Edward Ardizzone CBE, RA (1900-1979) is regarded as the most influential illustrator of modern times. Working as a clerk in a shipping office he practiced his drawing on a doodle pad and in evening classes Westminster School of Art. Chosen by Sir Kenneth Clark, then director of the National Gallery, Ardizzone was made official war artist between 1940-1945. Stationed with the 8th army he drew and recorded the horror, humour and comraderie of the campaign in North Africa , the Blitz, and the war in Italy. An extensive collection of his war pictures, as well as his wartime diaries, can be seen at The Imperial War Museum, London. National collections of paintings, manuscripts and lithographs can be seen at the Tate, London, and the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

After the war Edward Ardizzone worked prolifically, illustrating over 200 books. He has become well known by generations of parents and children alike for his Little Tim books featuring the maritime adventures of the eponymous young hero.

Widely regarded as the father of the modern children's book, he first published Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain in 1936. He won the British Library Association's Kate Greenaway Medal for illustration for Tim All Alone, in 1956. He also provided illustrations for a number of other well-known children's books, including Clive King's cave hero, Stig of the Dump, and publications in The Listener and The Radio Times.

Edward Ardizzone died in 1979, but left behind a treasured pictorial legacy. Ardizzone Print, run by Ardizzone's grandson, is set up to showcase and purchase, limited edition prints, reproduced from the original paintings, drawings, stone lithographs and illustrations, including work from his Little Tim series.

All pictures are reproduced under licence from the Ardizzone estate.