Edward Ardizzone drew with a light, scratchy pen line and soft washes of watercolour that capture wind, rain and the sea. He illustrated more than 170 books; his Little Tim stories, beginning with Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain in 1936, became classics of British children's literature.
He was also an official war artist in the Second World War and won the first Kate Greenaway Medal for Tim All Alone.
He was also an official war artist in the Second World War and won the first Kate Greenaway Medal for Tim All Alone.
Summary
Edward Ardizzone drew with a light, scratchy pen line and soft washes of watercolour that capture wind, rain and the sea. He illustrated more than 170 books; his Little Tim stories, beginning with Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain in 1936, became classics of British children's literature.
He was also an official war artist in the Second World War and won the first Kate Greenaway Medal for Tim All Alone.
He was also an official war artist in the Second World War and won the first Kate Greenaway Medal for Tim All Alone.
Artworks by Edward Ardizzone
About Edward Ardizzone
Biography
About Edward Ardizzone
Edward Jeffrey Irving Ardizzone was born in 1900 in Haiphong, in what was then French Indochina (now Vietnam), where his father worked for a telegraph company. When he was five, his mother brought the children to England and the family settled near Ipswich. The docks and sailors later fed into the Little Tim books.
He worked as a clerk from 1919 to 1926 while drawing in his spare time, before deciding to become a full-time artist. His first solo exhibition followed in 1930, around the time he began drawing for the Radio Times.
Little Tim and a life in books
Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain grew out of stories Ardizzone told his own children and was published by Oxford University Press in 1936. It launched a series that followed Tim through shipwrecks and storms, which Maurice Sendak later praised as “the saltiest and most satisfying picture books” of their generation. Tim All Alone won the first Kate Greenaway Medal in 1956.
He also illustrated books by writers including Eleanor Farjeon, Graham Greene, James Reeves and Dylan Thomas. His pictures for Clive King's Stig of the Dump remain familiar to generations of readers.
War artist and printmaker
In the Second World War, after a short spell in an anti-aircraft unit, Ardizzone became a full-time official war artist, following Allied troops through Europe and North Africa. His drawings show soldiers off-duty as often as in-action. His war years also produced Baggage to the Enemy and, much later, Diary of a War Artist.
Alongside his illustration, he made lithographs, often of harbour scenes, sailors at work and the everyday life of pubs and streets. He was elected a Royal Academician, made a CBE in 1971 and died in 1979.
Biography
About Edward Ardizzone
Edward Jeffrey Irving Ardizzone was born in 1900 in Haiphong, in what was then French Indochina (now Vietnam), where his father worked for a telegraph company. When he was five, his mother brought the children to England and the family settled near Ipswich. The docks and sailors later fed into the Little Tim books.
He worked as a clerk from 1919 to 1926 while drawing in his spare time, before deciding to become a full-time artist. His first solo exhibition followed in 1930, around the time he began drawing for the Radio Times.
Little Tim and a life in books
Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain grew out of stories Ardizzone told his own children and was published by Oxford University Press in 1936. It launched a series that followed Tim through shipwrecks and storms, which Maurice Sendak later praised as “the saltiest and most satisfying picture books” of their generation. Tim All Alone won the first Kate Greenaway Medal in 1956.
He also illustrated books by writers including Eleanor Farjeon, Graham Greene, James Reeves and Dylan Thomas. His pictures for Clive King's Stig of the Dump remain familiar to generations of readers.
War artist and printmaker
In the Second World War, after a short spell in an anti-aircraft unit, Ardizzone became a full-time official war artist, following Allied troops through Europe and North Africa. His drawings show soldiers off-duty as often as in-action. His war years also produced Baggage to the Enemy and, much later, Diary of a War Artist.
Alongside his illustration, he made lithographs, often of harbour scenes, sailors at work and the everyday life of pubs and streets. He was elected a Royal Academician, made a CBE in 1971 and died in 1979.