Cecil Aldin
Encyclopedia
Cecil Charles Windsor Aldin (28 April 1870 – 6 January 1935) was a British artist and illustrator best known for his paintings and sketches of animals, sports, and rural life.

Life and work

Born in Slough
Slough
Slough is a borough and unitary authority within the ceremonial county of Royal Berkshire, England. The town straddles the A4 Bath Road and the Great Western Main Line, west of central London...

, he was educated at Eastbourne College
Eastbourne College
Eastbourne College is a British co-educational independent school for day and boarding pupils aged 13–18, situated on the south coast of England, included in the Tatler list of top public schools. The College's current headmaster is Simon Davies. The College was founded by the Duke of Devonshire...

 and Solihull Grammar School. He studied anatomy at South Kensington, and animal painting under William Frank Calderon
William Frank Calderon
William Frank Calderon aka W. Frank Calderon , was an English Victorian painter of portraits, landscapes, figure subjects and sporting pictures...

. He lived at The Abbots, Sulhamstead Abbots from 1913 to 1914 and was church warden of St Mary's, the local church.

Early influences included Randolph Caldecott
Randolph Caldecott
Randolph Caldecott was a British artist and illustrator, born in Chester. The Caldecott Medal was named in his honor. He exercised his art chiefly in book illustrations. His abilities as an artist were promptly and generously recognized by the Royal Academy. Caldecott greatly influenced...

 and John Leech
John Leech
John Leech was an English caricaturist and illustrator.-Early life:John Leech was born in London...

. His drawings first made their way into print in "The Building News" of 12 September 1890, and began to appear throughout many popular journals and magazines; his work was published in "The Graphic
The Graphic
The Graphic was a British weekly illustrated newspaper, first published on 4 December 1869 by William Luson Thomas's company Illustrated Newspapers Limited....

" in 1891.

His illustrations include two of the original 1894 magazine publications of stories from Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...

's The Second Jungle Book
The Second Jungle Book
The Second Jungle Book is a sequel to The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. First published in 1895, it features five stories about Mowgli and three unrelated stories, all but one set in India, most of which Kipling wrote while living in Vermont...

, the 1910 edition of Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

' The Pickwick Papers
The Pickwick Papers
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club is the first novel by Charles Dickens. After the publication, the widow of the illustrator Robert Seymour claimed that the idea for the novel was originally her husband's; however, in his preface to the 1867 edition, Dickens strenuously denied any...

and The Bunch Book (1932, about Bunch, a Sealyham Terrier
Sealyham Terrier
The Sealyham Terrier is a dog breed of the terrier type. The Sealyham Terrier was originally developed in Wales.- History :thumb|right|A Sealyham Terrier photographed in 1915....

) by James Douglas. He also published a short series of fully illustrated books in 1923, Old Manor Houses and Old Inns.

His village scenes and rural buildings were executed in chalk, pencil and wash sketching was used for country scenes. Aldin was an enthusiastic sportsman and a fox hunting
Fox hunting
Fox hunting is an activity involving the tracking, chase, and sometimes killing of a fox, traditionally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds, and a group of followers led by a master of foxhounds, who follow the hounds on foot or on horseback.Fox hunting originated in its current...

 "Master of Hounds" and many of his pictures illustrated 'the chase'.

An early work on a tiger resident at a Zoo was studied from life, but found to be a copyright of the ideas in a photograph by Gambier Bolton
Gambier Bolton
Gambier Bolton was an English author and photographer of subjects on natural history and 'psychical phenomena'.Bolton made numerous photographs of animals during his travels to many countries, including one with the party accompanying the duke of Newcastle on his tour...

.

A popular book by Aldin was Sleeping Partners, a sequence of pastel drawings of his dogs on a couch. It included his Irish Wolfhound
Irish Wolfhound
The Irish wolfhound is a breed of domestic dog , specifically a sighthound. The name originates from its purpose rather than from its appearance...

 Micky and his favourite model, Cracker, a Bull Terrier
Bull Terrier
The Bull Terrier or English Bull Terrier is a breed of dog in the terrier family. They are known for their large, egg-shaped head, small triangular eyes, and "jaunty gait." Their temperament has been described as generally fun-loving, active and clownish...

with a dark patch over one eye.

He also did some work for Cadburys advertising.

External links

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