ARDIZZONE, Edward

1900 - 1979

Edward Jeffrey Irving Ardizzone was born in Haiphong in the province of Tonkin (now North Korea) on 10 October 1900, eldest of five children of Frenchman, Auguste Ardizzone (16 April 1866-22 March 1942) of the Eastern Extension Telegraph Co., and his wife Margaret née Irving (1876-1962), who married at Brentford, Middlesex in 1899. In 1905 the family returned to England, firstly to London and then coming to East Bergholt, Suffolk. In 1906 his mother returned to China to join her husband, leaving the children in the care of Edward's grandmother, who educated Edward privately with his formal education at Ipswich School 1909-1912. In 1911, his 35-year-old mother Margaret was living at 4 Gainsborough Road, Ipswich with 10-year-old Edward, 9-year-old Elizabeth Grace, 7-year-old Lauretta Mary, 3-year-old David Anthony Irving and 10-month-old Michael Irving, who was born at Ipswich. The family then moved to Wokingham leaving Edward, together with his cousin Arthur, boarded with Miss Caroline Willis at Pond House, Bucklesham, a village just outside Ipswich and the two boys cycled daily the eight miles to Ipswich School. In 1912 he moved to Clayesmore, a boarding school at Pangbourne and later to Winchester where the art teacher was Miss Annie Hazledene and his housemaster was Desmond Coke (1879-1931), the author. Leaving school at the age of eighteen, he enrolled in a course at Canning’s College, Bath studying commerce and found a position at the Warminster Motor Co. then with the China and Japan Trading Company, East India Court, London, and after a brief time with the Liverpool Marine Insurance Co., he joined the Eastern Telegraph Co. where he remained for six years. Drawing in his spare time and joining Bernard Meninsky’s (1891-1950), life drawing evening classes at the old Westminster School of Art when he started using watercolours. The first book he illustrated was Sheridan Lefanu’s 'In a Glass Darkly' but it was a further five years before his next commission. He made forty drawing for Johnny Walker whisky distillers, receiving the then fabulous amount of £400. He married in 1929, Catherine Josephine Berkeley Anderson (24 April 1904-10 February 1992) and in 1935, with a wife and two children to support, wrote and illustrated 'Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain' which after a struggle was recommended by an old East Bergholt friend Betty Withycombe, then working at the Clarendon Press, Oxford who showed it to the New York branch of Oxford University Press who finally published it, and after a slow start proved to be successful. He had a commission for the covers of the 'Radio Times' which lasted until the 1950s and for other journals such as 'London Magazine', 'Punch' &c. and during the Second World War was an official war artist. Elected at Associate of the Royal Academy on 27 April 1962 and a full member on 23 April 1970 and a Senior on 31 December 1975. Edward Jeffrey Irving Ardizzone had two sons and one daughter and lived at 5 Vine Cottages, Rodmersham Green, Sittingbourne and died on 8 November 1979. He illustrated over 170 books and his old school at Ipswich held an exhibition of his work in 1982. He signed his work 'E. J. I. Ardizzone'.

Royal Academy Exhibits
plus earlier - watercolours
from 130 Elgin Avenue, Maida Vale
1960-1962 nil
1963 724 Girls in Maida Vale
         725 Men looking for Bait
         729 Looking at the Leonardos
         730 Saloon Bar at the Local
         912 The Paloma Beach
         1006 Lovers among the Rocks - pen and wash
1964 593 Suntan Oil
         594 Girl in the Bar
         610 The Bodega
         716 Off Deal Pier
         721 Saloon Bar of the Shirland
         937 Gentlemen of the Borough - pen and wash
1965 863 Artist and Model
         864 Nudes on the Beach
         887 Public Bar at the Shirland
         888 Or hear old Triton blow his Wreathed Horn
         994 The Chiropodist
         1003 Barmaid at the Skiddaw
1966 278 Bathers by the River Lot
         279 The Bodega
         280 Artist and Model
         281 Coming in on a Wave
         285 Bathers on Cap Ferret
         286 The Landlady
1967 277 Art Nouveau at The Warrington
         278 Girls by the River Lot
         279 The Garden of the Fruiterers Arms
         280 Evening on the Beach
         281 Children on Sandwich Flats
         282 The Young Ladies of Ockfen
1968 146 The Barmaid at the Skiddaw
         147 Quarter Sessions: Counsel for the Prosecution
         148 View from the Window of my Studio in Kent
         149 Quarter Sessions: Counsel for the Defence
         152 Under the Pines, Cap Ferrat
         153 Low Tide at Whitstable
1969 243 The Shark Aquarium at Manly, Australia
         244 The Poet's Garden
         245 The Temple of Noses
         246 Nude in Landscape
         247 Visiting Day in the Women's Ward
         248 The Waitress
1970 388 Girls at the Lobster Pot
         389 He's got his Girl
         390 At the Royal Garden Party watching Flamingoes
         391 Hats at the Royal Garden Party
         392 A Frieze of Women Gymnasts
         393 The Royal Garden Party by the Lake
1971 424 Kentish Woman in a Bar, Whitstable - watercolour
         425 Quarter Sessions - watercolour
         426 Low Tide, Sheringham - watercolour
         427 The Voluptuous Model - watercolour
         428 Bathers by the River Lot - watercolour
         429 The Garden of the Fruiterer's Arms - watercolour
1972 602 A toe-hold on the Wild Man - watercolour
         603 Beach Scene, Deal - watercolour
         604 Negress on the Lido - watercolour
         605 Evening on the Zattere - watercolour
         606 A Window on the Zattere - watercolour
         608 Wild Man versus Dangerous Man - watercolour
1973 641 Guests at the Royal Garden Party, 1972 - watercolour
         642 Lady Counsel conferring with the Defendant - watercolour
         691 A Boatyard on Windermere - watercolour
         692 Under the Trees at a Royal Garden Party, 1972 - watercolour
         704 The Service Bar at Bertorelli's - watercolour
         705 Beach Scene, Deal, 1971 - watercolour
from Vine Cottages, Rodmersham Green, Sittingbourne, Kent
1974 630 The Return of Ulysses - watercolour
         631 Voyage to Australia: First Meal on Board - watercolour
         632 The Waterfall - watercolour
         633 Voyage to Australia: Emigrants on Deck - watercolour
         634 The Waitress at the Bar - watercolour - watercolour
         635 Voyage to Australia: Dangerous Young Man - watercolour
1975 625 The Privy - watercolour
         626 The Front at Deal - watercolour
         627 Bathing Huts at Deal - watercolour
         628 Winter Evening - watercolour
         629 Horrid Surprise - watercolour
         630 A Nude in my Garden - watercolour
1976 439 A memory of Sheringham - watercolour
         440 Hanging out the Washing - watercolour
         441 My Garden in Early Spring - watercolour
         445 Bathers - watercolour
         446 Behind the Stands at the Kent Agricultural Show - watercolour
1977 528 Cocktail Bar at the Royal - watercolour
         529 La Serena, Cap Ferat - watercolour
         532 The Reluctant Bather - watercolour
         533 Evening on Beach Street - watercolour
         534 A Maid Admonished - watercolour
         536 Girls on the Cycle Track, Paddington Rec. - watercolour
1978 544 An Oarsman and his Boy Friend - watercolour
         545 October on Beach Street - watercolour
         546 A Party of Ladies at Sharrow Bay - watercolour
         687 A Painful Hold - watercolour
1979 923 The Angry Child - watercolour
         942 Bathers - watercolour
         943 Guitarist at the Pool - watercolour
         1178 The Menacing Cloud - watercolour
         1179 Farm Road to Culham - watercolour
the late
1980 231 Bather's under the Pines, Holkham - watercolour
         232 The Return of Ulysses - watercolour
         233 Bathers, St John, Cap Ferat - watercolour
         234 Winter Eveningh - watercolour
         237 Hanging up the Washing - watercolour
         238 Boys on the Promenade at Deal - watercolour

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Works by This Artist