David Gentleman
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David Gentleman Charing Cross Underground Station | |
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| Born | David William Gentleman[1] 11 March 1930[1] London, England |
| Education | Royal College of Art |
| Occupation(s) | Artist and designer |
| Known for | Illustrations |
| Spouses |
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| Children | 4, including Amelia |
| Parents |
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David William Gentleman
His themes include paintings of landscape and environmental posters to drawings of street life and protest placards. He has written and illustrated many books, mostly about countries and cities. He also designed a number of British commemorative postage stamps.
Biography
Gentleman was born in
He has lived and worked on Gloucester Crescent in Camden Town since 1956, and also in Suffolk, travelling only for work. He has four children: a daughter by his first wife Rosalind Dease, a fellow-student at the RCA, and two daughters and a son by his second wife Susan Evans, the daughter of the writer George Ewart Evans. His and Susan's daughter Amelia, a Guardian journalist, is married to Jo Johnson, brother of former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
His work is represented in Tate Britain,[2] the British Museum,[3] the Victoria and Albert Museum[4] the Imperial War Museum,[5] the Postal Museum, London[6] and the Fitzwilliam Museum.[7]
Works
Watercolours and drawings
Gentleman paints and draws landscapes, buildings and people, and uses drawing in his design work. Many of his watercolours have been made in London and
His drawings and watercolours have been reproduced on textiles and wallpapers, dinner plates for
Wood engravings and a mural on the Underground
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Gentleman's early wood engravings were for
In 1978,
Books
Between 1982 and 1997, Gentleman wrote and illustrated six travel books: David Gentleman’s Britain, London, Coastline, Paris, India and Italy, and more recently London You’re Beautiful, 2012, In the Country, 2014 and My Town: An Artist’s Life in London, 2020. He also wrote and illustrated four books about a small child on holiday: Fenella in Ireland, Greece, Spain and the South of France.
Illustration
Gentleman has illustrated many books by other people, including drawings for the cookbook Plats du Jour. In 2009 he painted watercolours to illustrate Ask the Fellows Who Cut the Hay by
Stamps, coins, and logos
Between 1962 and 2000, Gentleman designed 103 stamps for the Post Office, making him the most prolific stamp designer in Britain at that time.
His stamp designs included an album of experimental designs commissioned by Tony Benn, the then Postmaster General, to show how stamps could dispense with the large photograph of the Queen then mandatory, or alternatively replace it with a smaller profile silhouette derived initially from Mary Gillick's coinage head. More than 40 years later, the wider range of subjects, the profile and the simpler designs that it made possible remained a feature of all British special stamps.[10]
He won the Phillips Gold Medal for postage stamp design in both 1969 and 1979.[11]
In 2022, the Royal Mail issued a set of six stamps commemorating Gentleman's designs.[12][13]
The
Posters
Gentleman has designed posters for public institutions including
On the eve of the
Lithographs and screenprints
Gentleman's first lithographs were posters for a
Bibliography
Surveys of Gentleman's work
- David Gentleman, 'Bridges on the Backs', in Parenthesis; 14 (2008 February), p. 7–9
- The wood engravings of David Gentleman. Montgomery: Esslemont, 2000) ISBN 0-907014-17-8
- David Gentleman – Design. Brian Webb and Peyton Skipwith. (Antique Collectors' Club, 2009) ISBN 978-1-85149-595-5
- Peter Tucker, 'David Gentleman as book illustrator', in The Private Library; 4th series, 1:2 (1988 Summer), p. 50–100
- Mel Calman, 'The Gentleman touch', in Penrose Annual; 69 (1976), p. 157–168
Books by Gentleman
- Bridges on the backs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961.
- Design in miniature. London: Studio Vista, 1972. ISBN 0-8230-1322-7
- A cross for Queen Eleanor: The story of the building of the mediaeval Charing Cross, the subject of the decorations of the Northern Line platforms of the new Charing Cross Underground Station. London: London Transport, 1979. ISBN 0-85329-101-2
- David Gentleman's Britain. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1982. ISBN 0-297-78621-0
- David Gentleman's London. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1985. ISBN 0-7538-0700-9
- Westminster Abbey. (With Edward Carpenter.) London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1987. ISBN 0-297-79314-4
- A special relationship. London: Faber and Faber, 1987. ISBN 0-571-14992-8
- David Gentleman's Coastline. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988. ISBN 0-297-79314-4
- David Gentleman's Paris. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1991. ISBN 1-84188-052-3
- David Gentleman's India. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1994. Delhi: Tara Press, 2005. ISBN 81-87943-71-8
- David Gentleman's Italy. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1997 ISBN 0-340-64913-5
- Artwork. London: Ebury, 2002. ISBN 0-09-188652-X*
- Ask the Fellows Who Cut the Hay. Framlingham, Full Circle Editions, 2010 ISBN 978-0-9561869-2-8
- London, You're Beautiful: An Artist's Year. Penguin, 2012 ISBN 978-1-846-14473-8
- In the Country. Framlingham, Full Circle Editions, 2014 ISBN 978-0-9571528-5-4
- My Town: An Artist’s Life in London. Particular Books, 2020 ISBN 978-1846149757
Books for children by Gentleman
- Fenella in Greece. London: Cape, 1967.
- Fenella in Ireland. London: Cape, 1967.
- Fenella in the south of France. London: Cape, 1967.
- Fenella in Spain. London: Cape, 1967.
Books illustrated by Gentleman
- ISBN 0-7195-5532-9
- Blunden, Edmund. The midnight skaters. Ed. C. Day-Lewis. London: Bodley Head, 1968.
- Brooke, Justin, and Edith Brooke. Suffolk Prospect. London: Faber & Faber, 1963.
- Brown, John Russell. Shakespeare and his theatre. New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1982. ISBN 0-688-00850-XHarmondsworth: Kestrel, 1982.
- Brown, John Russell. Shakespeare's theatre. New York: Harper Collins, 1982.
- Clare, John. The shepherd's calendar. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1964.
- ISBN 978-0-9561869-2-8
- Evans, George Ewart. The crooked scythe: Anthology of oral history. London: Faber & Faber, 1993. 1995. ISBN 0-571-17194-X
- Evans, George Ewart. The pattern under the plough: Aspects of the folk-life of East Anglia. London: Faber & Faber, 1971. ISBN 0-571-08977-1
- Evans, George Ewart. The strength of the hills: An autobiography. New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1985. ISBN 0-571-13550-1
- Evans, George Ewart. Where beards wag all: The relevance of the oral tradition. London: Faber & Faber, 1970. ISBN 0-571-08411-7
- "Francine" (Cosette Vogel de Brunhoff). "Vogue" French cookery. London: Peerage, 1984. ISBN 0-907408-86-9
- Gray, Patience, and Primrose Boyd. Plats du jour; or, foreign food. Harmondsworth, Middx: Penguin, 1957. London: Prospect, 1990. ISBN 978-1-903155-60-8
- Grigson, Geoffrey. The Shell book of roads. London: Ebury, 1964.
- Haggard, F. Rider. King Solomon's mines. Barre, Mass.: Imprint Society, 1970.
- Hoban, Russell. The dancing tigers. London: Jonathan Cape, 1977, 1979. London: Red Fox, 1991.
- Hooker, Jeremy, ed. Inwards where all the battle is: A selection of Alun Lewis's writings from India. Newtown, Powys: Gwasg Gregynog, 1997. ISBN 0-948714-73-5
- Hornby, John. Gypsies. London: Oliver & Boyd, 1965.
- Jonson, Ben. The key keeper: A masque for the opening of Britain's Burse, 19 April 1609. Tunbridge Wells: Foundling Press, 2002.
- Kipling, Rudyard. The jungle book. New York: Limited Editions Club, 1968.
- Kipling, Rudyard. The jungle books. Easton Press: The 100 Greatest Books Ever written, 1985.
- Langstaff, John M. The 'Golden Vanity'. New York: Harcourt Brace, Jovanovich 1972. ISBN 0-437-54106-1
- Langstaff, John M. St George and the dragon. New York: Atheneum, 1973.
- Lees, Jim. The ballads of Robin Hood. Cambridge: Limited Editions Club, 1977.
- Moreau, Reginald E. The departed village: Berrick Salome at the turn of the century. Oxford University Press, 1968. ISBN 0-19-211186-8
- Morpurgo, Michael. Our Jacko. Walker Books, 2018. ISBN 978-1-4063-6613-6
- Notestein, Lucy Lilian. Hill towns of Italy. London: Hutchinson, 1963. Boston: Little, Brown, 1963.
- Pudney, John. Bristol fashion: Some account of the earlier days of Bristol Aviation. London: Putnam, 1960.
- Simon, André L. What about wine? All the answers. London: Newman Neame, 1953.
- Stallworthy, Jon. A familiar tree. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978. ISBN 0-19-520050-0
- Steel, Flora Annie, ed. Tales of the Punjab, told by the people. London: Bodley Head, 1973.
- Stockton, Frank. The griffin and the minor canon. (With Charles Dickens, "The magic fishbone.") London: Bodley Head, 1960.
- Vallans, William. A tale of two swannes. London: The Lion and Unicorn Press, 1953.
- Ward, Aileen, ed. The poems of John Keats. New York: Limited Editions Club, 1966.
- Woodgate, Leslie. The Penguin part song book. Harmondsworth, Middx: Penguin, 1955.
- ISBN 0-370-01118-X
- Wyss, Johann. Swiss Family Robinson. New York: Limited Editions Club, 1963.
Exhibitions
Solo exhibitions of watercolours by Gentleman
- India, Mercury Gallery, London, 1970.
- South Carolina, Mercury Gallery, London 1973.
- Kenya and Zanzibar, Mercury Gallery, London, 1976.
- Nauru and Samoa, Mercury Gallery, London, 1981.
- Britain, Mercury Gallery, London, 1982.
- London, Mercury Gallery, London, 1985.
- The British Coastline, Mercury Gallery, London, 1988.
- Paris, Mercury Gallery, London, 1991.
- India, Mercury Gallery, London, 1994.
- Italy, Mercury Gallery, London, 1987.
- City of London, Mercury Gallery, London, 2000.
- David Gentleman: from Andalusia to Zanzibar, Fine Art Society, 2004.
- Recent work, Fine Art Society, 2007.
- David Gentleman at eighty, Fine Art Society, 2010.
- Gentleman, David (2012). London, you're beautiful : an artist's year. London: Particular. OCLC 774640062.
David Gentleman: London, You're Beautiful, Fine Art Society, 2012.[15]
- David Gentleman: In the Country, Fine Art Society, 2014.
- David Gentleman: My Town: An Artist’s Life in London, Patrick Bourne & Co, 2020.
Retrospective exhibition
- Gentleman on Stamps, The British Postal Museum & Archive, London, 2009–2010.
- "The Kite Needs the String: the book illustration of David Gentleman", Manchester Metropolitan University Special Collections, 2010–2011.
References
- ^ a b c "Gentleman, David (William)". Who's Who 2017. Oxford University Press. 2017. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
- ^ David Gentleman in the gallery catalogue. Retrieved 14 May 2010.
- ^ For example this print.
- ^ See for example "Interior design in the archives" Archived 27 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine, Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 14 May 2010.
- ^ "Stop the War Coalition Poster Number 3 [No]".
- ^ "Design by David Gentleman".
- ^ As may be verified via the museum's search facility Archived 16 May 2010 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Edward Thomas: Selected Poems | the Folio Society".
- ^ "David Gentleman -Unadopted Designs and Issues". Archived from the original on 30 May 2011.
- ^ "Gentleman on Stamps – A Revolution in British Stamp Design". Archived from the original on 14 August 2009.
- ^ "News of the World: Top stamp award for David Gentleman" in Gibbons Stamp Monthly, Vol. 53, No. 4, September 1979, p. 59.
- ^ Thomas, Tobi (18 February 2022). "Special Royal Mail set pays tribute to man who put stamp on British design". The Guardian.
- ^ Jones, Alan (18 February 2022). "New stamps pay tribute to Royal Mail designer David Gentleman". The Independent.
- ^ "No longer a Gentleman", London Evening Standard, 1979.[vague]
- ^ David Gentleman: London, You're Beautiful – Fine Art Society Archived 5 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine, 2012
External links
- David Gentleman: images of postwar Britain, Guardian (article)
- Fifty years of looking and learning for artist David (interview)
- The stamp of a master, Guardian interview by John Cunningham, prompted by the publication of Artwork.
- In the spotlight, an interview by Gordon Milne, about Gentleman's stamp designs
- Interview in The Hindu about David Gentleman's India
- Outlining India, Gentleman style
- List of Gentleman's stamp designs
- Scenes from the streets Exhibition review Camden New Journal
- Gentleman on Stamps – an online exhibition produced by The British Postal Museum & Archive
- Review of In the Country by Michael Prodger of The Guardian
- Review of My Town: An Artist’s Life in London by Kathryn Hughes in The Guardian
- Review of My Town: An Artist’s Life in London by Christian House in the Financial Times
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