Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.


Edward Ardizzone artist

Edward Ardizzone was born in 1900 in Tonkin, French Indochina (currently Haiphong, Vietnam) and was brought to England with his siblings by his mother in 1905. He studied at the Westminster School of Art and worked prolifically throughout his career as a book and magazine illustrator. During the Second World War he was an Official War Artist, completing almost 400 sketches and watercolours.

Born: 1900 Haiphong, Tonkin, French Indochina (now Vietnam)

Died: 1979 Rodmersham Green, Kent, England

Year of Migration to the UK: 1905

Other name/s: Diz


Biography

Painter, printmaker, author and illustrator Edward Jeffrey Irving Ardizzone, CBE RA was born on 16th October 1900 in the port city of Haiphong, in what is now Vietnam, but was then known as Tonkin, in the north of French Indochina. His father, Auguste Ardizzone, then working for the Eastern Extension Telegraph Company, was a naturalised Frenchman of Italian descent, who had been born in French colonial Algeria and worked on overseas government service within the French colonial empire; his mother, Margaret, was English. In 1905, Margaret Ardizzone returned to England with her three eldest children, who were brought up in Suffolk, largely by their maternal grandmother, while she returned to the Far East to join her husband.

Ardizzone was educated first at Ipswich School and then at Clayesmore School in Wokingham from 1912, where his interest in art was encouraged. After six months at a commerce college in Bath, he spent several years working as an office clerk in both Warminster and London, taking evening classes at the Westminster School of Art in London between 1920 and 1921, tutored by Bernard Meninsky and F J Porter; he devoted his weekends to painting. In 1922 he became a naturalised British citizen and four years later, a gift of £500 from his father allowed him to become a full-time illustrator. His first major commission, in 1929, was to illustrate an edition of In a Glass Darkly by Sheridan Le Fanu and he became a regular contributor of drawings to the Radio Times, becoming celebrated for his charming, slightly whimsical style celebrating domestic life and values. In 1936 he published the first of his well-known series of books featuring the maritime adventures of its eponymous young hero, Tim, which he both wrote and illustrated. By 1939, he was holding solo exhibitions on a regular basis, including at the Bloomsbury Gallery, and later, the Leger Gallery in London. At this time, his major theme was scenes of London life. In the Second World War, he served briefly in an anti-aircraft unit, before becoming a full-time, official war artist assigned to the War Office by the War Artists' Advisory Committee. He served with the British Expeditionary Force, the British First Army, and the Eight Army abroad, and by the time he returned to England in May 1945, he had completed almost 400 sketches and watercolours (some 300 of which are in the Imperial War Museum). After the war, Ardizzone resumed his freelance career, receiving commissions including cover artwork for The Strand Magazine, promotional material for the Ealing film studios and advertising for the Guinness company. He also received a commission for a watercolour portrait of Winston Churchill and continued to write and illustrate books, exhibiting regularly at the Leicester Gallery and the Mayor Gallery in London. He also held several teaching posts including working part-time as an instructor in graphic design at Camberwell School of Art and as a visiting tutor at the Royal College of Art. In 1960 he retired from teaching and began spending more time at Rodmersham Green in Kent, before moving there permanently in 1972. He was elected ARA in 1962 and RA in 1970, serving on the hanging committee in 1969 and 1971; he was also appointed CBE in 1971 and royal designer for industry in 1974; in the same year a retrospective was held at the V&A. Edward Ardizzone died of a heart attack in 1979 at his home in Rodmersham Green. 64 of his sketchbooks were donated by his widow to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford; a posthumous centenary tour was organised by Wolseley Fine Arts from 2000-2003.

Related books

  • Malcolm Yorke, To War With Paper and Brush: Captain Edward Ardizonne, Official War Artist (Upper Denby: Fleece Press, 2007)
  • Nicholas Ardizzone, Edward Ardizzone's World - The Etchings and Lithographs (London: Unicorn Press and Wolseley Fine Arts, 2000)
  • Edward Ardizzone, Indian Diary (London: Bodley Head, 1984)
  • Gabriel White, Edward Ardizzone (London: Bodley Head, 1979)
  • Artists in an Age of Conflict - Edward Ardizzone, Recorded interview with Conway Lloyd Morgan, IWM, London, 1978, Acquisition No. 004525/05
  • Edward Ardizzone, Diary of a War Artist (London: Bodley Head, 1974)
  • Edward Ardizzone, The Young Ardizzone, (London: Studio Vista, 1970) (and London: Slightly Foxed, 2010)
  • Edward Ardizzone, Baggage To The Enemy (London: John Murray, 1941)

Public collections

Related organisations

  • Ipswich School (student)
  • Clayesmore School (student)
  • Westminster School of Art (student)
  • Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts (teacher)
  • Royal College of Art (tutor)
  • Society of Industrial Artists (fellow)
  • Royal Academy of Arts (academician)

Related web links

Selected exhibitions

  • New Grafton Gallery, London, England (1975)
  • Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England (1973)
  • The Mayor Gallery, London, England (1970, 1962)
  • Leicester Galleries, London, England (1958, 1955, 1951, 1948)
  • The Nicholson Gallery, Leek, England (1939)
  • Leger Gallery, London, England (1934, 1932, 1931)
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Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Edward Ardizzone]

Ben Uri library

Publications related to [Edward Ardizzone] in the Ben Uri Library