William Heath Robinson

An original British 20th Century drawing by British illustrator Heath Robinson

1921

William Heath Robinson (British, 1872 - 1944) 'Boring The First Tunnel With An Early Type Of Rotary Excavator, And The Red Flag', circa 1935 (railway ribaldry was published in this year) The former signed 'W. Heath Robinson (lower left) and inscribed with title (lower left and right) The former to mount 14 X 10.1/4in. (35.5 X 26cm.) The latter 1.1/2 X 8.1/2in. (3.8 X 21.6 cm.) Literature: Railway Ribaldry, first published by the Great Western Railway, Paddington, 1935. William Heath Robinson was an English cartoonist and illustrator best known for drawings of ridiculously complicated machines for achieving simple objectives. During the First World War, he drew large numbers of cartoons, depicting ever-more unlikely secret weapons being used by the combatants. In the UK the term "Heath Robinson" entered popular language during this time as a description of any unnecessarily complex and implausible contrivance. Its continuing popularity was undoubtedly linked to Second World War Britain's shortages and the need to "make do and mend". In the course of his work, Robinson also wrote and illustrated three childrens books including The Adventures of Uncle Lubin (1902) which is regarded as the genesis of his depiction of unlikely machines. The inventions he drew were frequently powered by steam boilers or kettles, heated by candles or a spirit lamp and usually kept running by balding, bespectacled men in overalls. There would be complex pulley arrangements, threaded by lengths of knotted string. One of his most famous series of illustrations accompanied the first Professor Branestawm book written by Norman Hunter. The stories provided a perfect backdrop for Robinson's drawings. One of the automatic analysis machines built for Bletchley Park during the Second World War to assist in the decryption of German message traffic was named "Heath Robinson" in his honour. He died in September 1944 during the Second World War and is buried in East Finchley Cemetery. The Heath Robinson Museum in Pinner opened in October 2016 to house a collection of nearly 1,000 original artworks owned by The William Heath Robinson Trust. In the Wallace and Gromit...

Sven Berlin (British, 1911 - 1999) Stag on alert Pen and ink Signed and dated 'SVEN 95' (lower edge) 7.7/8 x 11 in. (20 x 28 cm.) Sven Berlin, born in Syd...

ALBERT RUTHERSTON, RWS (1881-1953) The Meeting with Caius Lucius – Illustration for The Tragedie of Cymberline Signed with initials l.r. Pen and ink Unframed 4.5 by 13 cm., 1 ¾ by 5 in. (mount size 39.5 by 33 cm., 15 ½ by 13 in.) Provenance: Estate of the artist Exhibited: London, Sally Hunter Fine Art, Albert Rutherston, Drawings, Theatre Designs and other Treasures, 2016, no.65 The present work was illustrated in Cymbeline, published by Ernest Benn in 1923. The series was a collaboration between Rutherston and Harley Granville-Barker following on from their work together 11 years earlier at the Savoy Theatre and celebrating the quatercentenary of the Shakespeare Folio edition. Born Albert Daniel Rothenstein, he was the youngest of the six children of Moritz and Bertha Rothenstein, German-Jewish immigrants who had settled in Bradford, Yorkshire in the 1860s. He and his siblings proved to be a hugely talented and artistic family, his elder brother became Sir William Rotherstein (1872-1945), the artist and director of the Royal College of Art; two of his other siblings, Charles Rutherston and Emily Hesslein, both accumulated major modern British and French art collections and his nephew Sir John Rothenstein was direct of the Tate Gallery. He was educated at Bradford Grammar School before moving to London in 1898 to study at the Slade School of Art where he became close friends with Augustus John and William Orpen. He met Walter Sickert during a painting holiday in France in 1900 and by introducing Sickert to Spencer Gove became instrumental in the beginning of the Camden Town Group. He was one of Sickert’s most frequent companions and was one of the original members of the Fitzroy Street Group. Rutherston had a sociable and attractive personality, he frequently travelled abroad with other artists including Max Beerbohm, Spencer Gore, Walter Russell and Edna Clarke Hall...

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