Percy Venner Bradshaw (27 November 1877 – 13 October 1965), who often signed PVB, was a British illustrator who also created the Press Art School, a correspondence course for drawing.

Biography

Percy Bradshaw was born in Hackney, part of London, on 27 November 1877, the son of William Bradshaw, a warehouseman, and his wife Frances Ann. He was baptised in Dover on 27 January 1878. He attended Newport Road School in Leyton where he reached fourth class. He then attended Ivydale Road School from 12 March 1888 to 30 March 1889, moving to Haberdashers' Aske' Boys School at Hatcham. He dropped out of Aske's when he was 14 years old and started working at an advertising agency. Meanwhile, he followed evening courses in art at Goldsmiths College and

Birkbeck College Birkbeck, University of London (formally Birkbeck College, University of London), is a public university, public research university, located in Bloomsbury, London, England, and a constituent college, member institution of the federal Universit ...

. Bradshaw had his first drawing published in '' The Boy's Own Paper'' when he was 15 years old, and moved to the art department of the advertising agency. Three years later he became a full time cartoonist, with his work also appearing in magazines like ''

Bystander (magazine) ''The Bystander'' was a British weekly tabloid magazine that featured reviews, topical drawings, cartoons and short stories. Published from Fleet Street, it was established in 1903 by George Holt Thomas. Its first editor, William Comyns Beaumon ...

'', ''Home Chat'', ''Sunday Companion'', '' Tatler'', '' The Sketch'' and ''

The Windsor Magazine ''The Windsor Magazine'' was a monthly illustrated publication produced by Ward Lock & Co from January 1895 to September 1939 (537 issues). The title page described it as "An Illustrated Monthly for Men and Women". It was bound as six-monthly ...

''. He also worked for a while for 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 ...

''. Bradshaw so closely resembled the Prime Minister, Asquith, that people would doff their hats to him when he went for walks in the park. Bradshaw married Mabel Alice Bennett (6 January 188117 February 1966) , the daughter of the late Edmund Hellyer Bennett (18411883) and Mary Anne Gardner (18411904), at St Peter's Church in Brockley, Lewisham on 27 July 1910. The wedding was choral, and 160 guests attended the reception at St. Peter's Hall. Among the wedding gifts was a grand piano (from the bride's sister). The couple left for a honeymoon in Switzerland. By 1911 the census shows the newly-weds living at 37 Dacres Road, Forest Hill, London, where they were to remain their entire lives. The couple had one child, Denise M.

The Press Art School

He also wrote articles on drawing, appearing in the '' Daily Graphic'' and in ''The Boy's Own Paper'', where his series ''Black and White Drawing as a Profession'' was so successful that he decided to create his own art correspondence course, the Press Art School, in 1905. He remained principal of the school for more than 50 years, first from his home, later from Tudor Hall in Forest Hill, London. The school was quite well regarded. Not the least of the advantages that Bradshaw's school offered was that Bradshaw not only offered training, but also introduced the work of his pupils to those editors he considered most likely to use of the sketches. Thus Bradshaw helped Leo Cheyney to sell drawings to ''The Boys' Own Paper'', ''

Bystander Bystander may refer to: In media * ''Bystander'' (novel), a 1930 novel by Maxim Gorki * ''Bystander'' (magazine), was a British weekly tabloid magazine *''Guilty Bystander'', a 1950 independent film production * ''Innocent Bystanders'' (film), ...

'' and other publications. Bradshaw though that the outbreak of the First World War doomed his school, but clever advertising turned the War to his advantage, swelling the ranks of his students. He enrolled over 1,100 new pupils by the end of 1914, over 1,500 in 1915, and averaged over 3,000 enrollments a year for the 1916–1918. By 1918 he had 22 full-time assistants and the GPO needed a special van to deliver his mail. Bradshaw once remarked that ''The only difficulty I had was keeping going between wars.''

Later life

During the First World War, Bradshaw was a special constable; during the second, he worked as a firewatcher. After the first war, he created hundreds of illustrated postcards for specialized companies like Raphael Tuck & Sons, worked again for an advertising agency, and for Sun Enravings from Watford. During the Second World War, he wrote articles about cartoonists for the '' London Opinion'', and published humorous poetry. Bradshaw was a member of the London Sketch Club and in 1958 wrote the history of the Savage Club where he was a committee member. He died in on 13 October 1965 at Hither Green Hospital, Lewisham in London. His estate was valued at £25,000. Mabel Alice survived him by less than six months, dying at Levisham Hospital, London on 17 February 1966. Her estate was valued at £26,543.

The Art of the Illustrator

''The Art of the Illustrator'' was probably Bradshaw's most important work. It consisted of a series of portfolios based on twenty leading illustrators. Bradshaw commissioned each of them for a special illustration. Each artist was free to choose the subject, so long as the illustration was representative of the artist's normal technique and that five preliminary stages in its composition should be shown. It is not absolutely clear when the portfolios were published. The Jisc catalogue shows them being issued from 1900 to 1920. However, notices from the press show them as ''just issued'' in June 1917.. ''The Graphic'' noted that twelve of the portfolios had already been published by mid-June 1917. Therefore, the dates should probably be 1917–1918. Some of the illustrations are dated 1915 and one may even be dated 1914. This makes sense as some illustrators were bound to take longer to complete their commissions and it took Bradshaw, who was dealing with a huge surge in enrolments, time to write the descriptions. The portfolios were not cheap, for what they were: a set of six plates and less than thirty pages of text. A review in '' The Connoisseur: An Illustrated Magazine for Collectors'' in August 1918 gives the cost of the set of twenty portfolios as £7. 7s. (seven guineas) or £8. 8s. (eight guineas) if purchased in monthly instalments. A single portfolio on its own cost 10s 6d. (half a guinea). Each of the twenty portfolios dealt with the personality and working methods of a leading illustrator with: # a biography of the illustrator # an illustration or photograph of the illustrator at work in their studio # an explanation by the illustrator describing what they have done in each stage of the preparation of the illustration # a plate showing an illustration typical of their work # five other plates showing the work at five earlier stages of its production, from the first pencil rough to the just before the finished drawing or colour sketch. Six of the illustrators worked in watercolour, five in pen and ink, two in wash-painting, and one in body-colour. The subjects of the portfolios, and they were: *

Henry Mayo Bateman Henry Mayo Bateman (15 February 1887 – 11 February 1970, Mgarr, Malta) was a British humorous artist and cartoonist. H. M. Bateman was noted for his "The Man Who..." series of cartoons, featuring comically exaggerated reactions to minor and ...

(18871970) * Charles Edmund Brock (18701938) * Cyrus Cuneo (18791916) * William Russell Flint (18801969) * Dudley Hardy (18671922) *

William Hatherell William Hatherell (18 October 1855, in Bristol – 7 December 1928, in London) was a British painter and illustrator who worked in genres including history painting, Arthurian legend, and the sentimental. Biography William Hatherell was born i ...

(18551928) *

Fortunino Matania Chevalier Fortunino Matania (16 April 1881 – 8 February 1963) was an Italian artist noted for his realistic portrayal of World War I trench warfare and of a wide range of historical subjects. Life Born in Naples, the son of artist Eduardo Mat ...

(18811963) *J. Bernard Partridge (18611945) * Gerald Spencer Pryse (18821956) *

Warwick Reynolds Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined with Leamington Spa and Whit ...

{18801926) *

Frank Reynolds (artist) Frank Reynolds (1876 in London - April 1953) was a British artist. Son of an artist, he studied at Heatherley's School of Art. His work was part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1928 Summer Olympics. Biography Reynolds had ...

(18761953) *

W. Heath Robinson William Heath Robinson (31 May 1872 – 13 September 1944) was an English cartoonist, illustrator and artist, best known for drawings of whimsically elaborate machines to achieve simple objectives. In the UK, the term "Heath Robinson contr ...

(18721944) *

Harry Rountree Harry Rountree (26 January 1878''1939 England and Wales Register'' – 26 September 1950) was a prolific illustrator working in England around the turn of the 20th century. Born in Auckland, New Zealand, he moved to London in 1901, when he was 23 ...

(18781950)Harry Rountree: Harry Rountree and His Work: The Art of the Illustrator (Limited Edition Prints) *

Claude Allin Shepperson Claude Allin Shepperson (25 October 186730 December 1921) was a British artist, illustrator, and printmaker specializing mainly in social scenes and landscapes. Early life He was born in Beckenham, Kent, England on 25 October 1867, to Allin ...

(18671921) *

E. J. Sullivan Edmund Joseph Sullivan (1869–1933), usually known as E. J. Sullivan, was a British book illustrator who worked in a style which merged the British tradition of illustration from the 1860s with aspects of Art Nouveau. Life Sullivan was th ...

(18691933) *

Balliol Salmon Arthur John Balliol Salmon (1868 – 1953) was a British artist particularly noted for his illustrations and his work in pencil, chalk and pastels. He was one of the twenty leading illustrators selected by Percy V. Bradshaw for inclusion in his ...

(18681953) *

Bert Thomas Herbert Samuel Thomas (13 October 1883 – 6 September 1966) was a British political cartoonist contributing to ''Punch'' magazine and the creator of well-known British propaganda posters during the First and Second World Wars. Career T ...

(18831966) *

Frederick Henry Townsend Frederick Henry Townsend (25 February 1868 – 11 December 1920) was a British illustrator, cartoonist and art editor of ''Punch''. Career F.H. Townsend illustrated the second edition of Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel ''Jane Eyre'', '' A ...

(18681920) *

Louise Wright (illustrator) Louise Wright (born 5 September 1863) was a fashion illustrator. Four of her six siblings were also professional artists. They were all born in Leeds, and almost all of them later moved to London. Biography Wright was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, ...

(active: London 1910) * Lawson Wood (18781957)

Other books by Bradshaw

As with ''The Art of the Illustrator'' most of Bradshaw's other writing was either didactic, helping art students to learn new techniques and so on, or biographic, such as his ''Nice People to Know'' or the history of the Savage Club. {, class="wikitable sortable" , +Books and similar publications by Bradshaw ! No.!! Year !! Title !! Other authors/Illustrators !! Publisher !! Pages !! Notes , - , 1 , , 1913 , , Art training by nature's methods: preparatory course of instruction , , , , Press Art School, London , , 24 p., ill., 29 cm , , , - , 2 , , 1919 , , Advanced Course of Instruction , , , , Press Art School, London , , , , , - , 3 , , 1925 , , Art in advertising: a study of British and American pictorial publicity , , , , Press Art School, London , , xvi, 496 p., ill. (part col.), 32 x 25 cm. , , , - , 4 , , 1929 , , Water Colour Painting , , , , Press Art School, London , , 6 parts, (4º) , , , - , 5 , , 1936 , , Fashion Drawing & Designing.

y various authors. Y, or y, is the twenty-fifth and penultimate letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. According to some authorities, it is the sixth (or seventh ...

, , Julia Cairns, Grace Cox Ife, Florence E. Ricketts , , Press Art School, London , , 6 parts, (4º) , , , - , 6 , , 1941 , , I wish I could draw: a system of art teaching by natural methods , , , , The Studio, London , , 96 p : ill. (part mounted) diagrs, 26 cm. , , , - , 7 , , 1942 , , They make us smile , , , , Chapman & Hall ltd, London , , 112 p : ill, 19 cm. , , , - , 8 , , 1943 , , Marching On , ,

, , W. H. Allen & Co, London , , 127 p., (8º) , , , - , 9 , , 1943 , , Drawn from memory: adventures in the arts , , , , Chapman & Hall, London , , vii, 255, 1 p., 24 pl., ill., 22 cm. , , , - , 10 , , 1944 , , Nice People to know. , , , , Chapman & Hall, London , , xi, 201 p., (8º) , , , - , 11 , , 1945 , , I Wish I Could Paint , ,

Ernest W. Haslehust Ernest William Haslehust (12 November 1866 – 3 July 1949) was an English landscape painter and book illustrator who worked in watercolours.Sir Frank Brangwyn Sir Frank William Brangwyn (12 May 1867 – 11 June 1956) was a Welsh artist, painter, watercolourist, printmaker, illustrator, and designer. Brangwyn was an artistic jack-of-all-trades. As well as paintings and drawings, he produced des ...

, Sir

W. Russell Flint Sir William Russell Flint (4 April 1880 – 30 December 1969) was a Scottish artist and illustrator who was known especially for his watercolours of women. He also worked in oil painting, oils, tempera, and printmaking. Biography Flint wa ...

Sydney R. Jones Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountains ...

, Francis Marshall,

Bertram Nichols Bertram may refer to: Places * Bertram, Western Australia, a suburb of Perth, Australia *Bertram, Iowa, United States, a city * Bertram, Texas, United States, a city * Bertram Building, a historic building in Austin, Texas * Bertram Glacier, Palmer ...

, Fred Taylor, Charles Tunnicliffe, and Norman Wilkinson , , Studio Publications, London , , 96 p., (4º) , , , - , 16 , , 1952 , , Water-colour: a truly English art , , , , Studio Publications, London , , 127 p., ill., 30 cm. , , , - , 17 , , 1956 , , Sketching & Painting indoors.

ith illustrations. The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometres, is the longest line of crags in North Germany. Geography Location The Ith is immediat ...

, , Rowland Hilder , , Studio Publications, London , , 96 p., (8º) , , , - , 18 , , 1958 , , Brother savages and guests': a history of the Savage Club 1857-1957 , , , , W.H. Allen, London , , xiii, 162 p., 10 pl., 26 cm. , ,

Faculty

Faculty (consulting staff) of the Press Art School included *

Fred Pegram Frederick Pegram (19 December 1870 Somers Town, London - 23 August 1937), was a prolific English illustrator and cartoonist who produced work for ''The Pall Mall Gazette'', ''Punch Magazine'', '' The Idler'', '' Illustrated London News'', '' The ...

Alumni

Students of the Press Art School included *Barry Ernest Appleby (1909–96) *

Honor C. Appleton Honor Charlotte Appleton (1879–1951) was a British illustrator of children's books, including ''The Children's Alice''. She had a delicate watercolour style, influenced by Kate Greenaway and others.Mary Baker *

Albert Edgar Beard Albert may refer to: Companies * Albert (supermarket), a supermarket chain in the Czech Republic * Albert Heijn, a supermarket chain in the Netherlands * Albert Market, a street market in The Gambia * Albert Productions, a record label * Alber ...

Molly Brett Molly Brett (1902–1990) was an English illustrator and writer of children's literature, best known for her anthropomorphic artwork. Biography Molly (Mary Elizabeth) Brett grew up in Surrey, Great Britain, surrounded by animals and nature. Her ...

*Luis Chan (1904-1995) *

Leo Cheney Leo or Léo may refer to: Acronyms * Law enforcement officer * Law enforcement organisation * '' Louisville Eccentric Observer'', a free weekly newspaper in Louisville, Kentucky * Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity Arts a ...

Alan D'Egville Alan may refer to: People *Alan (surname), an English and Turkish surname *Alan (given name), an English given name **List of people with given name Alan ''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.'' *Al ...

* Phiny Dick * Fougasse Pseudonym for Cyril Kenneth Bird (18871965) *

D. L. Ghilchik David Louis Ghilchik (7 April 1892 – 24 November 1972), was a Romanian-British painter, and cartoonist for ''Punch Magazine'' and the ''Daily Sketch''. His surname is sometimes wrongly given as 'Ghilchip'. He was born in Botoșani, Romani ...

Charles Grave Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was "f ...

*Joseph Booth Lee (19011974) *

Kin Maung Khin Maung (Bank) ( ; 1910 – 20 December 1983) was a Burmese painter and sponsor of the arts who was influential in the art world of Mandalay, Myanmar. More importantly, however, he was the major force for the development of a modernistic mo ...

* Norman Pett *

Bertram Prance Bertram Stanley Prance (5 December 1889 – 9 August 1958) was a British artist, poster artist and illustrator who worked as a cartoonist for ''Punch'' magazine among others. Early life Prance was born in Bideford in Devon in 1889, one of f ...

William Ridgewell William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conques ...

* Ralph Steadman

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bradshaw, Percy 1877 births 1965 deaths British illustrators