Edmund Blampied
Edmund Blampied | |
---|---|
Lambeth School of Art, London; London County Council School of Photoengraving and Lithography; Saint Martin's School of Art, London. | |
Occupation(s) | Artist and etcher |
Spouse | Marianne van Abbé |
Edmund Blampied (30 March 1886 – 26 August 1966) was one of the most eminent artists to come from the
Early years
Edmund Blampied (in
Art school
In January 1903, aged 16 years old and barely able to speak English, Blampied left Jersey to study at the
In September 1905 Blampied transferred from the Lambeth School of Art to the
Etching
Blampied’s earliest etchings are dated December 1909, suggesting that he did not begin to learn this technique until the academic year 1909–1910; his teacher at Bolt Court was Walter Seymour. Blampied’s prints were first shown at an exhibition of students' work in March 1914, where his etching of an ox cart was noted by the correspondent of The Times.[2] The first print believed to have been published was an etching entitled At the wings (illustration removed) which was reproduced in the Annual Report of Bolt Court in 1914. Blampied later recorded his method of working on zinc for etching and copper for drypoint in Ernest Stephen Lumsden's treatise The Art of Etching, published in 1925. Blampied wrote: "I generally chose from amongst my various drawings one which would tend to produce a successful plate. I do not trace on to the copper, but copy a few important lines on to the bare metal with litho-chalk. I then sketch over this with an ordinary sewing needle and rub in a little black oil-colour. . . From the first my efforts are to improve on the sketch until I consider the plate finished. . . In very few cases do I touch a plate after the first proof, so the majority have but one state. If I am dissatisfied with either the composition or details, I prefer to start afresh upon another plate rather than make radical alterations."[3]
Independent artist
At the end of 1911, while he was developing his skills as an etcher, Blampied decided to try his luck as an independent artist with his own studio. The rapid developments in colour printing and the advertisers of the time were creating a great deal of work for commercial artists for book and magazine publishers in London. The first recorded illustration was for a piece of sheet music entitled Glamour Valse, published in 1911 by Ascherberg, Hopwood and Crew. Blampied quickly gained commissions to provide drawings for
Blampied’s etchings were brought to the attention of the art dealers and publishers Ernest Brown and Phillips of the Leicester Galleries in London through an introduction from H. Granville Fell, an artist and art editor. The Leicester Galleries offered Blampied a contract and three prints were shown to the general public in February 1915 in the first of a series of exhibitions of prints called Modern Masters of Etching. Blampied's most famous print, called Driving home in the rain, which had been designed in 1913 and transferred to a zinc plate in 1914, was not shown at the Leicester Galleries until November 1916 where, according to a Jersey newspaper of that time, it received a great deal of attention and admiration.
On 5 August 1914 Edmund Blampied married Marianne van Abbe (b Amsterdam 27 August 1887, d Jersey 11 May 1986) who was the sister of Dutch-born artists Joseph and
Military service
When conscription was introduced in Britain in 1916, Blampied returned to Jersey in the autumn of that year to be prepared to be called up for military service. In June 1917 he was classified as not fully fit for active service and was put on guard duties in the Royal Jersey Militia. Although there was a gap in commissions for illustrations while he settled into military life, by early 1918 he had re-established his connections with the Scottish book publishers Thomas Nelson and Sons of Edinburgh, for whom he illustrated many children’s books and annuals during and immediately after the war.[4]
Blampied quickly re-established himself in London in September 1919 after his return from Jersey and his etchings were acknowledged by the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers who elected him an Associate in March 1920 at the same time as the wood engraver Gwen Raverat.[5] He was elevated to the full fellowship a year later. Blampied was elected at the end of what has been called the "etching revival", but there was still a strong market for prints, mainly as an inexpensive investment in art.
In October 1920 Blampied held his first solo exhibition of 28 etchings and drypoints at the Leicester Galleries, many of which were prints that had been held back because of the war. Driving home in the rain was shown but the copy had been lent, suggesting that all proofs had been sold. His first exhibition of drawings and etchings in the US was held at Kennedy and Company in New York in early 1922.
Gold medal at 1925 Paris exposition
Blampied had started to experiment with lithography in 1920, as two lithographs were shown at his first solo exhibition, but they had been transferred to a lithographers' stone from paper, and he wanted to learn how to draw directly onto the stone. Blampied turned to Archibald Hartrick, a founder member of the
In 1925 the
In 1924, having been inspired by an exhibition at the Leicester Galleries of models in wax by
Illustrations for books and magazines
While developing his skills as an etcher and lithographer in the early 1920s Blampied continued to work extensively for magazines and contributed hundreds of political cartoons and decorative drawings to The Bystander magazine between 1922 and 1926; he illustrated short stories by
Blampied held his first exhibition of paintings and drawings, rather than prints, at the Leicester Galleries in February 1923 while continuing regularly to exhibit his prints at the annual shows of the Royal Society of Painter Etchers and Engravers and the Senefelder Club of British lithographers, named after Alois Senefelder, the inventor of the method. Blampied was a member of the Council of both societies for periods between 1924 and 1938.
Travel in Tunisia
At the end of 1926 Blampied gave up his work for books and magazines, sold his house and studio in south London, and travelled in southern France and north Africa for about 5 months. Some of his drawings from this period were bought by Martin Hardie for the Victoria and Albert Museum and for Eton College, a private school. For the next three years after his return to London in April 1927, Blampied designed many prints, mostly using drypoint, dabbled in abstract art during an illness to produce what he called his "Colour symphonies", and produced watercolours and oils for a major exhibition held in May 1929 at the galleries of Alex. Reid and Lefevre.
Blampied as humorist
When the market for etchings collapsed during the great depression in the early 1930s, Blampied reinvented himself as a cartoonist and caricaturist at an exhibition in 1931 called "Blampied’s Nonsense Show". This brought out his love of the absurd and led to his only book, obscurely entitled Bottled Trout and Polo. In this period Blampied also published more than 30 humorous lithographs, many of dogs, that are not recorded in either of the catalogues raisonné (see Bibliography).
After illustrating a new edition of
Peter and Wendy
In May 1938 Blampied was elected to the
German occupation of Jersey
By the time Peter and Wendy was published Blampied had moved from London to Jersey with the intention of settling there. Even though by June 1940 it was clear that the Channel Islands would not be defended from the Germans, Blampied and his
The lack of
Post-war years
Blampied did not return to London after the war but remained in Jersey, mostly working in oils and watercolours, except for a series of 12 silhouettes he published in 1950 and a few etchings in 1957 and 1958, one for the Print Collector's Club of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers which was shown at the
Blampied held three major exhibitions of his work in Jersey, in 1946, 1951, and 1960 and continued to sell his watercolours and oil paintings in the UK and US, mostly at the annual exhibitions of the Royal Society of British Artists and through the dealers Annans in Glasgow and Guy Mayer in New York. A large exhibition of his work was held at the John Nelson Bergstrom Art Center and Museum, Neenah, Wisconsin in July 1954. His last exhibition was held at the Barreau Art Gallery of Jersey Museum in October 1964.
Blampied died in Jersey on 26 August 1966, aged 80 years. His ashes were scattered in St Aubin's Bay, Jersey.
Body of work
Blampied was a prolific illustrator and over 600 issues of magazines and newspapers have been recorded containing his work between 1905 and 1939. His illustrations appear in around 50 books, and he designed the dust jacket for some 150 other books, mostly novels.
During his career Edmund Blampied produced some 200 etchings and drypoints, and more than 80 lithographs and lithographic prints, many of which depicted rural life in his beloved island of Jersey. His scenes of collecting seaweed, called vraic, from the beaches of the island using a horse and cart were, he said, his signature tune.
Besides his work in the visual arts, he also amused himself and his friends by writing poetry in Jèrriais,[8] signing himself as Un Tout-à-travèrs. In 1933, La Chronique de Jersey, a French language newspaper, considered publishing a booklet of Blampied poems illustrated by the artist himself, but the plans came to nothing. In 1938 two of his poems were set pieces at the Jersey Eisteddfod. In 1944 he wrote words for an insulting anti-Hitler song entitled La chanson Hitleur and provided illustrations for two poems written by Winter Le Brocq.
Blampied’s prints, drawings and pictures are in the collections of:
Illustrations and photograph reproduced by kind permission of the Estate of Edmund Blampied.
Notable books illustrated by Edmund Blampied
All published in the UK unless otherwise noted.
- 1912 Me as a Model by W. R. Titterton: Frank and Cecil Palmer and Mitchell Kennerley, US
- 1914 The Money Moon by Jeffery Farnol: Sampson Low, Marston.
- 1915 The Chronicles of the Imp by Jeffery Farnol: Sampson Low, Marston.
- 1919 Two little scamps and a puppy by Angela Brazil: Thomas Nelson and Sons.
- 1919 Terry and Starshine by Amy Whipple: Thomas Nelson and Sons.
- 1920 John’s visit to the Farm by Evelyn Sharp: Thomas Nelson and Sons.
- 1920 At the Farm by Evelyn Hardy: Thomas Nelson and Sons.
- 1921 The Jolly ABC by Blam: Thomas Nelson and Sons.
- 1921 The Breezy Farm ABC by Blam: Thomas Nelson and Sons.
- 1921 Blam’s Book of Fun: Thomas Nelson and Sons.
- 1922 Black Beauty by Jarrolds.
- 1923 Untamed. The Horses of the Wild by David Grew: T. Fisher Unwin (3rd imp).
- 1923 Trapping Wild Animals in Malay Jungles, by Charles Mayer: T. Fisher Unwin (4th imp).
- 1924 The Zoo Book: Thomas Nelson and Sons.
- 1924 Duckworth and Co.
- 1931 Dodd, Mead and Company, US.
- 1934 Albert goes through by J. B. Priestley: William Heinemann.
- 1936 Bottled Trout and Polo, by Blampied: George Newnes.
- 1937 Hand-picked Howlers by Cecil Hunt: Methuen.
- 1937 Cours de Francais I. En route by E. Saxelby: Ginn and Co.
- 1938 More Hand-picked Howlers by Cecil Hunt: Methuen.
- 1938 Cours de Francais II. En march by E. Saxelby: Ginn and Co.
- 1939 Ripe Howlers by Cecil Hunt: Methuen.
- 1939 Cours de Francais III. En France by E. Saxelby: Ginn and Co.
- 1939 The Blampied edition of J.M. Barrie: Hodder & Stoughton.
- 1940 Hand-Picked Proverbs by Cecil Hunt: Methuen.
- 1945 Jersey in Jail 1940 - 45 by Horace Wyatt. Jersey: Ernest Huelin.
Selected bibliography
- Campbell Dodgson (1926). A Complete Catalogue of the Etchings and Drypoints of Edmund Blampied. London: Halton and Truscott Smith.
- Malcolm Salaman (1926). Modern Masters of Etching No. 10 Edmund Blampied. London: The Studio.
- E.L. Allhusen (1926) The etchings of Edmund Blampied. Print Collector’s Quarterly13 (1): 69 - 96.
- Print Collector’s Quarterly19 (4): 298 -319.
- Harold J. Baily (1937). Blampied: artist and philosopher. Print Collector’s Quarterly24 (4): 363 - 393.
- Marguerite Syvret (1986). Edmund Blampied. London: Robin Garton.
- Jean Arnold & John Appleby (1996). A Catalogue Raisonné of Etchings, Drypoints and Lithographs of Edmund Blampied. Jersey: JAB Publishing.
- Andrew Hall (2010). Edmund Blampied. An Illustrated Life. Jersey: ISBN 978-0-9562079-2-0
References
- ^ The Jersey Weekly Press and Independent, 21 November 1901, page 7.
- ^ The Times, 17 March 1914, page 5.
- ^ Lumsden, E.S. (1925). The Art of Etching. London: Seeley Service.
- ^ Hall, A. (1999). Edmund Blampied's illustrations for books published by Thomas Nelson and Sons. Annual Bulletin of the Société Jersiaise vol 27, no 3, 410–425.
- ^ Newbolt, F. (1930). The History of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers 1880–1930. London: The Print Collectors' Club.
- ^ a b Hall, A.(2010). Edmund Blampied. An Illustrated Life. Companion bibliography. Jersey: Jersey Heritage.
- ^ Hall, A. (2011). The bookplates of Edmund Blampied. The Bookplate Journal vol. 9, no. 2, 59-61.
- ^ Blampied, Edmund (1997). Lé Niolîn Biampi. Les Nouvelles Chroniques du Don Balleine Vol. I, Nos 32, 33, 34. Jersey: Le Don Balleine.
External links
- The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Imagebase
- The Central St Martins School of Art Museum
- Jersey Heritage Trust
- Bibliography of Edmund Blampied
- 21 artworks by or after Edmund Blampied at the Art UK site
- Jersey in Jail - Video
- Edmund Blampied at Library of Congress, with 6 library catalogue records
- Modernes artistas ingléses: Edmund Blampied (from "La Pluma : Revista Mensual de ciencias, artes y letras 12 (1929), june, pp. 52-64, in Spanish, with numerous reproductions)