I’ve now reached Volume Seven of this 10 volume set, the contents of which are:
VOLUME SEVEN: Great painters of all nations – how they lived and what they achieved; Literature through the ages – The lives of the great poets; The lives of the great composers – a story of music and musicians; Literature through the ages – Great books and their writers; Wonders of architecture – The story of the builder and his art; Great thinkers of all nations – From the ancient philosophers to the scientists of to-day
My aim, as usual is to show and chat about the artwork I find interesting or that may help fans of certain artists find their work in obscure places. I tend to avoid art that’s reprinted from other works unless it’s particularly striking!
Christopher Gifford Ambler
We’ve talked about Ambler in depth when looking at his work in Volume Five. In this volume, besides the image above he also contributed several full page scenes of scientists, like the one above between pages 367 and 395.
Richard Howard Penton (RHP)
You can read about Penton in Volume Two‘s entry. I scanned this as I thought it stood out as atmospheric – and a bonus was the signature!
UNKNOWN ARTIST – again!
I think – and am willing to be corrected – this is the same artist whose work appears in Volume Five who I described as an early Joyce Mercer – for want of a better indexing/search term! I’m hoping one day to find out who she is (and I feel it is a ‘she’) and then amend these entries with her name.
ELLIS SILAS
Silas is mentioned in Volume Four and this image is added here as I always liked the fictional character of Long John Silver. There is other work by Silas in this volume.
ERNEST ARIS (Alfred Ernest Walter George Aris, FZS, SGA)
Aris is so well known, I need say nothing, but search the blog and you’ll trip over lots of examples of his wonderful work.
“B LACK” = Barbara Lack??
Why have I written B. Lack? I tried to search for “Black” and even in Buckman’s Dictionary of artists in Britain since 1945, there are 10 artists listed with that surname. Even eliminating those born too close to the (guessed at) publication date of these illustrations, we still have too wide a field. But then, I looked more closely at the signature. Why does the ‘l’ look so cursive? Is it perhaps that this is “BLack” as in B. Lack? Buckman lists a Barbara Dacia Lack
Barbara Dacia LACK fl. from 1940s— Artist in many media including textile design who attended Perse School in Cambridge, then the College of Art there, followed by Royal College of Art. Showed at RA, in the provinces and abroad. Continued to live in Cambridge for many years, latterly at Temple Sowerby, Penrith, Cumbria.
Wikipedia have a project called “Women in Red” where there are links to -as yet – non-existent wiki pages on women artists who are mentioned in at least 2 art biographical dictionaries. They have this entry with these cited works:
Barbara Dacia Lack or Barbara Lack, 1907–2004 – cited in
- David Buckman (2006). Artists in Britain Since 1945 Vol 1, A to L. Art Dictionaries Ltd. ISBN 0 953260 95 X.
- Sara Gray (2019). British Women Artists. A Biographical Dictionary of 1000 Women Artists in the British Decorative Arts. Dark River. ISBN 978 1 911121 63 3.
Unfortunately I can’t seem to track down the latter to borrow but assume that’s where the date of Lack’s death came from. Their artwork appears very competent and interesting and I’d love to know more.
***UPDATE******UPDATE******UPDATE******UPDATE******UPDATE***
Checking Findmypast – a gift from my wife for my recent birthday -I see she might have been spelled “Dacea” – one would have to check the writing on her birth certificate to check. But thanks to Andy Mabbett, I went searching. She was born near Cambridge (Chesterton) on the 10 December 1906 – and that might explain why her birth registration appears in the first quarter of 1907. In 1911 she is living at home aged 4 ( Millfield, Cambridge Road, Impington). Her father is Charles Tibbit Lack, born 1873 in Cottenham and is listed as and “Engineer consulting in Jam manufacturing” – I could always smell the Chivers Jam factory when studying at Impington Village College – and that was in the 1970s!). His wife is Florence Daisy Welch, born 1882 in Barnston in Essex. At this point they had Eric Charles Lack, born in 1906 in Chesterton, Barbara Dacea (note again the spelling – and I checked the original record which was filled in by her father, so he should know!) and interestingly they had a 16 year old Nursery Governess, Yvonne Anna Layton and a servant, 19 years old, Florence Emily King.
The Eastern Counties Times of 1 September 1932 include Barbara under “National Union of Teachers Advanced First Class” listing of names. I’m not clear on who is awarding what here, as the NUT is unlikely to award any certificates.
In 1939 we learn that Barbara and her widowed mother (Charles died on 30 September 1932, aged 59) are living in 12 Richmond Road, Cambridge and Barbara is now an “Art Teacher & Designer” and still single. Her parents appear to have had another daughter (Joyce Marian, born 1911) and another son (David J D Lack born 30 July 1923).
Barbara appears to have died in the first quarter of 2004 in the Penrith district – and double checking subscriber’s family trees it looks like she died on 28 January 2004.
Raymond Sheppard
Two pieces by Sheppard here: Pages 251 and 254 – the former a full page labelled “Raiders in the Poultry Run” and the latter “Tarka The Otter”. I’ve shared them on my Sheppard blog
John L. Baker
John L. Baker has done 4 colour pages as a series (the first at the top of this article. The three others show the Forum at Rome; a Greek Theatre and the Agora or market place in Ancient Greece. I wrote about the artist in the previous Volume article.
HARRY RUTHERFORD
Harry Rutherford (1903-1985) drew many painting ans sketches and appeared on early TV in the UK before the Second World war! Born in Denton, Manchester and famously was taught by Adolphe Valette, and was a ‘disciple’ of Sickert. He moved to London in 1932 where he taught and freelanced for Fleet Street papers.
Have I identified his signature correctly? It’s certainly Rutherford but does that say Harry? I can’t another Rutherford to fit the bill – but that’s “arguing from silence” not proof.
GEORGE HORACE DAVIS – G. H. Davis
I talked about Davis when showing you contents for Volume Six. And again there are quite a few of his works in this volume, but I want to highlight two
Here’s another incidence of Davis’ work which I suspect appeared in earlier editions of Newnes Pictorial Knowledge as he’s signed this one 1945. If the forst Atomic Bomb was dropped and the world became aware of it in August 1945, this is an early atomic article showing “eventually the forecasts (of an atomic locomotive, house and liner) are likely to become realities”.
The management guru Peter Drucker said it best: Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window. And Davis’ next illustration shows this too. Obviously he is unlikely to have written the script for these images! Whoever did write it was right regarding the first satellite launch in 1957 but the only space station we got by 2000 was the International Space Station, which began its continuous human occupation on November 2, 2000. It doesn’t look quite as pretty, but it’s still there in 2025.
NEXT: We look at Volume EIGHT
Visual Rants 