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Edward Bawden 1903– 1989 The Lieder Singer and Accompanist c.1933 Pen and ink with collage 8 ¾ × 11 inches (22 × 28.5 cm) Signed with initials Bawden was a versatile and prolific printmaker, illustrator, and painter in watercolour. But he gave equal importance to his work as a commercial designer, creating posters and advertisements for many of leading brands and institutions in England: Shell, Fortnum & Mason, Twinings, London Transport, and others including film studios and food manufacturers. Born in Braintree, Essex, Bawden was a precocious artist, spending one school day a week at the School of Art in Cambridge; from here he went to the Royal College of Art. He was a distinguished war artist working largely in the Middle East. After the war his reputation continued to grow, as did his body of work. At the end of his life, in 1989, Bawden was honoured with a retrospective exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Taking in all aspects of his artistic production, Peyton Skipwith noted that Edward Bawden has enriched our visual language as much as any of his more widely acclaimed peers – Paul Nash, Stanley Spencer, Francis Bacon and Lucien Freud included. |