| E.H. Shepard |
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E.H.
SHEPARD Born on the 10th of December 1879, in St. John's Wood,
at No. 55 Springfield Road. Ernest Howard Shepard was the youngest
of three children
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In
his first volume of his memoirs, 'Drawn from Memory', Shepard
vividly recounts memories of his early life, reinforcing
some of the more memorable moments with illustrations. An
example of this is featured below. Septimus (the horse)
is pictured in the background, a gift to Shepard from his
'Godmother-Aunt'. He thought that there must have been some
"divine influence" leading his Aunt "away from the more
useful gifts" and "that the Angel Garbriel disguised as
the shop walker in Mr. James Shoolbred's Store, has led
her to Septimus".
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Even
at this early age, Shepard loved to draw and sketch whatever
he saw, whether at home, at school, when staying with his
three Aunts or visiting the Zoo. However his special fascination
was with uniforms, weapons and stories of battles. After
winning a couple of scholarships at the Royal Academy Schools,
for his work in oil and watercolour, it was at the Royal
Academy that Shepard first exhibited two paintings in 1901.
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married Florence Chaplin, a fellow art student in 1904.
Within five years they had a son, Graham and a daughter,
Mary (Who later became famous as the illustrator of Mary
Poppins.).
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In
1907, Shepard managed to fulfill his ambition and two of
his drawings were sold to Punch magazine. He was soon accepted
as a regular Punch artist, becoming a permanent member of
staff in 1921. The January 16th 1924 issue of Punch saw
Shepard's first collaboration with A.A.Milne with 'Puppy
and I'. Later there were many more collaborations, including
the much loved and well known 'When we were very young'
and 'Winnie The Pooh'. Whilst working on the illustrations
for 'Winnie The Pooh', Shepard took extreme care to try
and meet Milne's very detailed requirements for the artwork.
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This
involved Shepard visiting the author's home, so as to acquire
the feeling of the countryside round about. He also met
Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, Kanga and Roo, on which the illustrations
were to be based.
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Another
firm favourite of all Shepard fans has to be the collaboration
with Kenneth Grahame on 'The Wind In The Willows'. Although
he had already illustrated books for Grahame before ('The
Golden Age' and Dream Days'), it was with 'The Wind In The
Willows' that Shepard again perfectly captured the essence
of the characters and matched them in his illustrations.
Shepard's greatest success apart from the collaborations
with Milne and Grahame, had to be the three anthologies
that he illustrated for George Bell; 'Everybody's Pepys',
'Everybody's Boswell' and 'Everybody's Lamb'. They came
to be known as the 'Shepard Classics'.
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The
1930's proved to be a very busy time for Shepard. During
this time he illustrated 14 books as well as the frontispieces
and dust wrappers for other books. Book commissions after
the war were scarce, although in 1945 he did illustrate
two books; Housman's 'Happy and Glorious' and Grahame's
'Bertie's Escapades'.
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| 1952
saw Shepard's last political cartoon for Punch magazine;
new editor Malcolm Muggeridge dismissed him from the staff.
In 1957 Shepard's work took a different direction, as
he made his debut as an author with the before mentioned
'Drawn From Memory'. He quickly followed this up with
a second installment of his life in the book 'Drawn From
Life'.
Another outstanding achievement was when Ernest Howard
Shepard, in 1972 was awarded the OBE - a whole 71 years
after his first paintings were exhibited at the Royal
Academy. Shepard died on the 24th March 1976, sadly just
a few months short of being able to celebrate 'Pooh's'
Golden Jubilee. Although invariably it is works such as
'Winnie The Pooh' and 'The Wind In The Willows' that Shepard
will be remembered for illustrating; upon looking into
his other works works such as Punch and Happy and Glorious
we discover what a versatility he displays as an illustrator.
It was through his attention to detail, his dedicated
attitude and his prolific illustrations that he has become
one of the world's best known, loved and praised illustrators.
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