Laurie Tayler (Lawrence Bush Tayler) was born in Victoria, Australia, in 1873 and trained at the National Gallery of Victoria School in Melbourne from 1908 to 1911. He immigrated to England in 1913, settling in London, where he worked as a painter, cartoonist, illustrator and poster artist. Laurie Tayler died in London, England, in 1972.
Painter, cartoonist, illustrator and poster artist, Laurie Tayler (Lawrence Bush Tayler) was born in Victoria, Australia, in 1873, but grew up in Melbourne. where he spent his formative and early professional years. He received his formal artistic training at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School between 1908 and 1911, during which time he exhibited with the Victorian Artists' Society and contributed illustrations to a number of Australian periodicals, among them New Idea, Native Companion and Lone Hand. He was also a member of the Melbourne Savage Club, an artistic and social organisation, for which he contributed programme illustrations. In parallel with his painting practice, Tayler designed at least six series of comic postcards, all monogrammed 'LTB', as well as advertising cards for Prince's Court, a Melbourne amusement park. In March 1912 he held a solo exhibition in Melbourne, which included the oil on canvas, The Novelette (1912), depicting a servant girl reading a novel while engaged in domestic tasks.
In 1913 he immigrated to England, settling in London and establishing himself as an illustrator and poster artist. Tayler's practice in England was wide-ranging and commercially oriented, encompassing book illustration, poster design, magazine illustration and oil painting. During the First World War he designed British propaganda postcards and also contributed cartoons from London to the Australian Bulletin. His book illustration commissions included Arthur Quiller-Couch's The Delectable Duchy, a collection of tales set in Cornwall, and several English children's books. By December 1924 he was contributing humorous illustrations to Pearson's Christmas Magazine alongside notables such as H.M. Bateman, W. Heath Robinson and Alfred Leete. Tayler contributed to the gift publication The Sketch Book, advertised in The Tatler in December 1926. In the 1930s he provided illustrations for Mary Grant Bruce's Billabong novels and to Vauxhall Motorist magazine. He also designed the undated Great Western Railway poster, The Arcadian Coast, Cornwall, presenting the coastal landscape of south-west England as a holiday destination. During the Second World War Tayler continued his satirical and illustrative work: he illustrated He's a Perfect Little Gentleman, the Swine (Raphael Tuck and Sons, 1941), a war booklet with text by Ronald Frankau, offering an extended satirical commentary on Hitler through eighteen cartoons.
Tayler maintained active connections with the Australian art world, following his emigration. He participated in the Australian Art Exhibition at Spring Gardens Gallery, London, in 1924 and 1925, and also sent work to the New Gallery in Melbourne in 1925. During the Second World War he was among the London artists who continued to exhibit, despite the disruptions caused by the Blitz; in early 1941 he featured in an exhibition of works by London artists who had been bombed out of their studios or homes, held at Wakefield City Art Gallery, alongside Olga Lehmann and Helen Kapp.
Laurie Tayler died in London, England, in 1972. In the UK public domain his work is represented in the Science Museum Group Collection, which holds his Great Western Railway poster The Arcadian Coast, Cornwall.The Ben Uri Research Unit welcomes contributions from researchers or family members who may have further biographical information.
Michal Mel
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Laurie Tayler]
Publications related to [Laurie Tayler] in the Ben Uri Library