Cecil Walter Bacon, MSIA (24 August 1905 – 12 August 1992), who signed his work "CWB", was a British artist and illustrator. Much of his work was in the

art deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

style. Bacon was born in

Battle A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

, Sussex, England, where his father was a businessman who ran a

tannery Tanning may refer to: *Tanning (leather), treating animal skins to produce leather *Sun tanning, using the sun to darken pale skin **Indoor tanning, the use of artificial light in place of the sun **Sunless tanning, application of a stain or dye t ...

. He was educated at Sutton Valence School, St Lawrence College, Ramsgate, and Hastings School of Art, being at the latter from 1923 to 1925, when he was taught by Philip Cole. In 1926, he began working for an advertising agency on London, before turning freelance in 1929. Between 1932 and 1935 he designed a number of posters for London Transport. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he served in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

as a

Leading Aircraftsman Leading aircraftman (LAC) or leading aircraftwoman (LACW) is a junior rank in some air forces. It sits between aircraftman and senior aircraftman, and has a NATO rank code of OR-2. The rank badge is a horizontal two-bladed propeller. The ra ...

, before, in 1942, being assigned to work producing propaganda artwork for the Ministry of Information. He worked regularly for the ''

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' (currently styled as ''RadioTimes'') is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in May 1923 by J ...

'' and in 1943, during the war, he drew an illustration for the Christmas edition, depicting a soldier holding a sprig of

holly ''Ilex'' (), or holly, is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen o ...

. After the war, he produced designs for, among others,

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

and the Post Office Savings Bank. He was adept at

scraperboard Scratchboard (North America and Australia) or scraperboard (Great Britain), is a form of direct engraving where the artist scratches off dark ink to reveal a white or colored layer beneath. Scratchboard refers to both a fine-art medium, and ...

work, and in 1951 wrote a book on the topic. He also illustrated a number of books, and designed book jackets, including those for first editions of early works by

Raymond Chandler Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive durin ...

. Bacon married Irene Proctor in 1929; they had two sons. He died on 12 August 1992. A number of his posters are in the collection of the

London Transport Museum The London Transport Museum (often abbreviated as the LTM) is a transport museum based in Covent Garden, London. The museum predominantly hosts exhibits relating to the heritage of London's transport, as well as conserving and explaining the h ...

. A retrospective exhibition, ''Designer's Progress'', took place in 1984 at

Hastings Museum and Art Gallery Hastings Museum & Art Gallery is a museum and art gallery located in, Hastings, East Sussex, England. Established in 1892, it originally resided in the Brassey Institute (now the town's library), but moved to its current location in 1927. it ...

Bibliography

Illustrations/ book jackets

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * (maps) * *

References

External links

Maps by CWB
*

' – blog post recalling a meeting with Bacon, including original artworks
Auction record for works by Bacon

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bacon, Cecil W 1905 births 1992 deaths People from Battle, East Sussex Royal Air Force personnel of World War II People educated at Sutton Valence School People educated at St Lawrence College, Ramsgate British illustrators Royal Air Force airmen