Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1935 Budapest, Hungary

Year of Migration to the UK: 1956

Other name/s: László Győző Ambrus , Victor G. Ambrus, Gyozo V. Ambrus, Gyozo L. Ambrus, G. L. Ambrus

Biography

Illustrator and teacher Victor Ambrus was born to Irén (nee Tóth) and Győző Ambrus in Budapest, Hungary on 19 August 1935. Encouraged by his father, an industrial chemist, his main interests as a child were drawing and history, and he would sketch horses during holidays in the countryside. After secondary education at St Imre Cistercian College, Budapest from 1945–53, he stayed in the capital, attending the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts where he studied drawing, anatomy, and print-making. His final year, however, was interrupted by the unsuccessful 1956 Hungarian Revolution against the Soviet-backed government, and his accommodation came under fire from the Soviets. In the building’s basement, he watched the Russian invaders, working from a list of names, shoot four of his friends (Pitts and Eccleshare, 2021). Fleeing to Austria in December of that year, Ambrus was offered the choice of making a new life in England or the USA, and he chose the former in the hope of studying in the tradition of English illustrators E H Shepard and Arthur Rackham (Artist’s Official Website). He first lived in Blackbushe in Hampshire, England, attended Farnham School of Art in Surrey, and subsequently was admitted to the School of Graphics at the Royal College of Art (RCA), London, where he gained a Royal Scholarship, studying there between 1957 and 1960. Depicting war and torture, his RCA works were considerably darker in subject and appearance than his later illustrations, a reflection of his experiences witnessing ‘the brutal siege of Budapest’ aged nine (Pitts and Eccleshare, 2021). In 1958 he married fellow student Glenys R. Chapman, who like Ambrus would go on to illustrate children’s books.

Ambrus began exhibiting at the Royal Academy of Arts’ Summer Exhibitions during his studies at the RCA, showing in 1959, 1963 and 1966 and later on in his career. On completing his studies he worked for an advertising agency, but after two years returned to Farnham where he taught at the School of Art while working as a part-time illustrator. Between 1963 and 1985 he lectured there and at the Guildford and Epsom Schools of Art (all now part of the University for the Creative Arts). This period also saw his contributions as an illustrator for publications with Oxford University Press (OUP), resulting in him being considered one of the illustrators responsible for the ‘boom’ of ‘good reading material’ in Britain alongside names such as Margery Gill and William Stobbs (The Times, 1965). Ambrus illustrated books such as Ruth Manning-Sanders’ The Glass Man and the Golden Bird: Hungarian Folk and Fairy Tales, published by OUP in 1968. He also had solo publications with OUP, writing and illustrating Horses in Battle and Mishka, both published in 1975. For these publications combined he won the Library Association’s prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal for the second time, having won it ten years prior for The Three Poor Tailors (1965). He was awarded a fellowship at the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers in 1973 and the Royal Society of Arts in 1977.

‘Britain was the place where he could continue to draw, to put into books the illustrations and stories he had already imagined’ (Pitts and Eccleshare, 2021). Over his career, Ambrus contributed to almost 300 children’s books. He illustrated classic stories retold by new authors, such as Bernard Miles’ Favourite Tales from Shakespeare (1976) and James Riordan’s retelling of Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio (1988). In 1991, the creator of the television programme Time Team, Tim Taylor, asked for Ambrus’ involvement after being impressed by his ‘The Story of Britain’ in Reader’s Digest. In 1994 Ambrus began working as the programme’s illustrator when it piloted on Channel 4, reimagining ancient and historical scenes at the sites of archaeological excavations carried out by the team. Ambrus was elected a member of The Pastel Society in 1993 (later serving as vice-president), the year he won the Daler Rowney Prize. In 1996 he was awarded The Royal Academy of Arts, Arts Club Drawing Prize. Between 1998 and early 1999, his illustrations were included in The World of English Picture Books show, supported by the British Council and touring several locations in Japan, alongside other notable illustrators such as Quentin Blake, Brian Wildsmith, and Charles Keeping. In 2010 a solo show of his work, Pictures of the Past, was held at National Trust: Sutton Hoo, Woodbridge in Suffolk. In 2016 the Museum of Somerset in Taunton Castle celebrated his work in a retrospective, The Art of Victor Ambrus, in association with many of the early Time Team programmes being made in Somerset.

Having suffered from Parkinson’s disease, Victor Ambrus died in Farnham, England on 10 February 2021. He was survived by his wife and their sons, Mark and Sándor. His work can be found in the UK public domain in the Government Art Collection.

Related books

Victor Ambrus, Drawing on Archaeology: Bringing History to Life (Stroud: Tempus, 2006)
Victor G. Ambrus and Michael Aston, Recreating the Past (Stroud: Tempus, 2001)
Victor G. Ambrus, How to Draw the Human Figure (New York: Chartwell Books, 1989)
Carlo Collodi, Pinocchio, retold by James Riordan, illustrated by Victor G. Ambrus (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988)
Bernard Miles, Favourite Tales from Shakespeare, illustrated by Victor G. Ambrus (London, New York, Sydney, Toronto: Hamlyn, 1976)
'Oxford University Press', The Times, 14 July 1976, p. 7
Victor Ambrus, Mishka (London: Oxford University Press, 1975)
Victor Ambrus, Horses in Battle (London: Oxford University Press, 1975)
Helen Griffiths, Just a Dog, illustrated by Victor Ambrus (London: Hutchinson, 1974)
'Books for the Young', The Times, 8 November 1965, p. 13
M. R. Hodgkin, 'Introducing Illustrators: Victor G. Ambrus', Junior Bookshelf, Vol. 28, Iss. 2, 1964, pp. 80-85

Public collections

Government Art Collection

Related organisations

Association of Archaeological Illustrators and Surveyors (patron)
Daler Rowney Prize (prize-winner)
Epsom School of Art (teacher)
Farnham School of Art (student and teacher)
Guildford School of Art (teacher)
Kate Greenaway Medal (recipient)
Oxford University Press (illustrator)
Royal College of Art (student and associate)
Royal Society of Arts (fellow)
Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers (fellow)
Society of Antiquaries of London (fellow)
Society of Graphic Art (hon fellow)
The Pastel Society (member and vice-president)

Selected exhibitions

The Pastel Society Annual Exhibition 2021, Mall Galleries, London (2021)
The Art of Victor Ambrus, Museum of Somerset, Taunton (2016)
The Pastel Society Annual Exhibition 2014, Mall Galleries, London (2014)
Pictures of the Past, National Trust: Sutton Hoo, Woodbridge (2010)
Artists' Kew, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, London (2006)
World of Seven English Picture Book Artists, exhibition patronised by the British Council and toured in Japan (1998-1999)
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London (1995)
Sixth Exhibition: Victor Ambrus, Patrick Heron, Carol Packard, New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham (1976)
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London (1976)
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London (1975)
The Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers 91st Annual Exhibition, Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, London (1973)
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London (1966)
The Children's Book Show, FBA Galleries, London (1965)
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London (1963)
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London (1959)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Victor Ambrus]