AS one of the great figures in 20th century Jersey art, Edmund Blampied is mainly known for his prints and oil paintings of rural Island life.
But an exhibition now running at the Jersey Arts Centre is a reminder of another side of his output in the years before the Occupation when illustrations for books and magazines were an important source of his income.
The earliest collections on show, dating from 1920, are a series of 13 studies for the book At the Farm by Evelyn Hardy; pencil, gouache and watercolours which present life on a farm.
Although the publishers kept – but subsequently lost – the final versions of the illustrations, the original sketches passed into private ownership, having been given by the artist as a gift to Dr James Evans junior as a child to cheer him up when recuperating from illness.
Better known is the collection of 12 illustrations for J M Barrie’s book Peter Pan and Wendy, part of the public collection administered by Jersey Heritage. The set, drawn in pen and ink with watercolour heightened with gouache, arose from a commission from publishers Hodder and Stoughton in 1938.
Although the artist produced the designs in little more than six months, publication was ultimately delayed for more than a year, by which time Blampied and his wife had returned to Jersey to settle.
The third section of the exhibition in the Berni Gallery offers an insight into Blampied’s extraordinary output – which included hundreds of political cartoons and decorative drawings – as well as displaying a selection of illustrated children’s books.
The Arts Centre has acknowledged the assistance of Andrew Hall, whose illustrated book on Edmund Blampied was published 14 years ago coinciding with a larger exhibition at the Jersey Museum.
This exhibition runs in the Berni Gallery until 29 June. Entry is free.
