Fishmonger. 1927
 

Southcliffe Beach. 1927
 

Biography

Watercolorist, illustrator, designer, printmaker and teacher, Bawden studied at Cambridge School of Art and then at Royal College of Art, in the design school taught by Paul Nash. Shortly afterwards he worked on commercial work for Poole Pottery and Curren Press, then in 1928-9 with Ravilious and Mahoney, did decorations for Morley College. He went on to study engraving and bookbinding at Central School of Arts and Crafts and taught here as well as the Royal Academy Schools and Goldsmiths' College School of Art. He was elected RA in 1956. Work poured from Bawden's studio in the 1930s, for companies such as Shell-Mex; book illustrations such as Good Food, 1932 and The Weekend Book, 1939; and a mass of often ephemeral work which evinced a wonderful wit, economy and aptness of subject. He was an official WW2 artist, much of his output being in the Imperial War Museum.