Mary Tourtel (born Mary Caldwell on 28 January 187415 March 1948) was a British artist and creator of the comic strip

Rupert Bear Rupert Bear is a British children's comic strip character and franchise created by artist Mary Tourtel and first appearing in the ''Daily Express'' newspaper on 8 November 1920. Rupert's initial purpose was to win sales from the rival ''Da ...

. Her works have sold 50 million copies internationally.

Early life

Mary Tourtel was born Mary Caldwell, 28 January 1874 at 52 Palace Street,

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

, Kent the youngest child of Sarah (née Scott) and Samuel Caldwell, a stained-glass artist and stonemason who restored stained glass for Canterbury Cathedral. The family were artistic and Mary studied art under Thomas Sidney Cooper at the Sidney Cooper School of Art in Canterbury (now the

University for the Creative Arts The University for the Creative Arts is a specialist art and design university in the south of England. It was formed in 2005 as University College for the Creative Arts at Canterbury, Epsom, Farnham, Maidstone and Rochester when the Kent Inst ...

), where she won won the Prince of Wales scholarship.

Career

Tourtel became a children's book illustrator, with her first published illustrations for children's books appearing in 1897. She married an assistant editor of ''

The Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet i ...

'', Herbert Bird Tourtel, at Stoke Poges on 26 September 1900.The Life and Works of Alfred Bestall: Illustrator of Rupert Bear, 2010, Caroline Bott The couple and travelled to Italy, Egypt, and India and took up flying, which influenced the viewpoints in some of Tourtel's illustrations.

Rupert Bear

Rupert Bear was created in 1920, at a time when the ''Express'' was in competition with ''

The Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...

'' and its then popular comic strip ''Teddy Tail'', as well as the strip ''

Pip, Squeak and Wilfred ''Pip, Squeak and Wilfred'' was a British strip cartoon published in the ''Daily Mirror'' from 1919 to 1956 (with a break c. 1940–1950), as well as the '' Sunday Pictorial'' in the early years. It was conceived by Bertram Lamb, who took the ro ...

'' in ''

The Daily Mirror ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

''. The then news editor of the ''Express'', Herbert Tourtel, was approached with the task of producing a new comic strip to rival those of the ''Mail'' and ''Mirror'' and immediately thought of his wife Mary, already an established author and artist. Rupert Bear was the result and was first published as a nameless character in a strip titled ''Little Lost Bear'' on 8 November 1920. mary tourtel1

The early strips were illustrated by Mary and captioned by her husband, often in poetry and were published as two cartoons a day with a short story underneath. Rupert was originally a brown bear until the ''Express'' cut inking expenses giving him his iconic and characteristic white colour. Mary's Rupert was more like a real bear, with a lumbering gait and more fur. The vibrant red and yellow clothing of contemporary Rupert was originally a soft blue jumper with grey trousers. Mary stopped drawing Rupert in 1935 when her eyesight started failing.

Later life

In 1931 Herbert Tourtel died in a German sanatorium, and Mary retired four years later in 1935 after her eyesight and general health deteriorated. The Rupert Bear strips were continued by a ''

Punch Punch commonly refers to: * Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist * Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice Punch may also refer to: Places * Pun ...

'' illustrator,

Alfred Bestall Alfred Edmeades "Fred" Bestall, MBE (14 December 1892 – 15 January 1986) wrote and illustrated ''Rupert Bear'' for the London ''Daily Express'', from 1935 to 1965. Biography Early life Bestall was born in Mandalay, Burma in 1892, where his p ...

. Mary lived most of her life in different hotels, never finding a fixed home as she preferred the freedom of travel. She died on 15 March 1948, aged 74, at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital, a week after she collapsed in Canterbury High Street from a brain tumour. She was buried with her husband at

St Martin's Church, Canterbury The Church of St Martin is an ancient Church of England parish church in Canterbury, England, situated slightly beyond the city centre. It is recognised as the oldest church building in Britain still in use as a church, and the oldest existing ...

; they had no children but travelled the world together.

Commemoration

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

was published on Tourel in 2004. In 2003, the

Canterbury Heritage Museum The Canterbury Heritage Museum (formerly the Museum of Canterbury) was a museum in Stour Street, Canterbury, South East England, telling the history of the city. It was housed in the 12th-century Poor Priests' Hospital next to the River Stour, K ...

, which closed in 2018, opened a special wing dedicated to Rupert Bear. There is now a Rupert display case in the Beaney House of Art and Knowledge, alongside the

Clangers ''Clangers'' (usually referred to as ''The Clangers'') is a British stop motion, stop-motion children's television series, consisting of short films about a family of mouse, mouse-like creatures who live on, and inside, a small moon-like planet ...

. An

Bibliography

Rupert series

The complete listing may be found at Rupert Little Bear Library.

Other books

* ''A Horse Book'', Grant Richards, London, 1901 and F.A. Stokes Co., New York, 1901 * ''The Humpty Dumpty Book: Nursery Rhymes told in Pictures'', Treherne, London, 1902 * ''The Three Little Foxes'', Grant Richards, London, 1903 * ''Matchless A B C'', Treherne, London, 1903 * ''The Strange Adventures of Billy Rabbit'', M.A. Donohue & Co., 1908

As illustrator

* ''The Rabbit Book'', by Bruce Rogers, M.A. Donohue & Co., Chicago, 1900

Sources

Mary Tourtel bio

References

External links

on Lambiek Comiclopedia * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tourtel, Mary 1874 births 1948 deaths English comics artists English comics writers People from Canterbury Alumni of the University for the Creative Arts Rupert Bear British comic strip cartoonists British female comics artists British women children's writers British children's book illustrators British illustrators British women illustrators