John Vernon Lord
Encyclopedia
John Vernon Lord is an illustrator
, author and teacher. He has illustrated many classical texts, including Aesop's Fables
, The Nonsense Verse of Edward Lear
; the Folio Society
's Myths and Legends of the British Isles, and Epics of the Middle Ages. In addition, he has illustrated many classics of children's literature
including Lewis Carroll
's "The Hunting of the Snark
".
Lord has made extensive contributions to the world of contemporary poetry and narrative, and has written and illustrated several children's books, which have been published widely and translated into several languages. His book The Giant Jam Sandwich
has been in print for over thirty years.
As a university professor John Vernon Lord has lectured on the art of illustration for over 40 years and is pre-eminent in the field. He is currently working on Lewis Carroll
's Alice in Wonderland.
, Derbyshire
in 1939. He was the son of a baker
and a ship’s hairdresser
. He attended Salford School of Art, now the University of Salford
in Lancashire
(1956–60); and completed his formal education at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London, now Central St Martins College of Art and Design.
The Central School of Arts and Crafts, a constituent college of the University of the Arts, London, was established in 1896 to provide specialist art teaching for workers in the craft industries. The school was intended to be a centre at which art scholars and students from local schools could be brought under the influence of established artists, while simultaneously being in close relation with employers. It was a direct outcome of the Arts and Crafts Movement
sponsored by William Morris
and John Ruskin
. Courses included calligraphy
, letterform
and illustration
and Lord was taught by amongst others, the modernist writer and artist Mervyn Peake
and the surrealist Cecil Collins
. In his recent retrospective, Drawing Upon Drawing he states that,
were also influential, as was "an abiding interest" in Victorian steel engraving
. The latter having a profound effect on his later work.
As a commercial artist, in 1968 Lord designed the album cover for The Book of Taliesyn
by the band Deep Purple
. The brief from the artist's agent is detailed in Drawing upon Drawing as follows:
illustration. During the 1970s, as a teacher at Brighton, Lord's output was prodigious, a fruitful relationship with the publishers Jonathan Cape
lead to the creation of several notable picture books including his own The Giant Jam Sandwich, The Runaway Roller Skate and Mr Mead and his Garden. As well as illustrating Conrad Aiken
's Who's Zoo Lord produced several illustrations for Punch
and the Radio Times
. He wrote many articles and gave several public lectures on Illustration as an art form, some of which can be found online below. His illustrations began to take on that distinctive 'complexity of content', that is so characteristic of much of his later work, together with an apparent taste for 'black and white'. Strongly influenced by the Victorian art of steel engraving
, in an article on cross hatching Lord writes:
In 1986 he was appointed Professor
of Illustration at University of Brighton
and his inaugural lecture Illustrating Lear's Nonsense was published a few years later. Robert Mason reviewing Lord's lecture A Journey Of Drawing An Illustration Of A Fable writes:
In the early 1980s Lord began work on a major project that was to set the scene for much of his later art. As he entered the world of Edward Lear
and became familiar with the man and his 'nonsense', the poetic qualities of Lord's own work came to the fore. Immersing himself completely in Lear had a decisive effect, not least of which was his return to 'black and white'. Lord's tendency to fill the space between the lines, already apparent in The Book of Taliesyn
, was naturally akin to the art of the 'nonsense' poet who also directs the mind's eye to read 'the space between the lines'. The intent of the verse being grasped 'indirectly' from the words used. Lord's illustrations like Lear's verses took on that lightness of touch, or wistful quality, that allows a sheer 'complexity' of form to give way to the surreal.
On a little heap of Barley
Died my aged uncle Arly,
And they buried him one night;
Close beside the leafy thicket;
There, his hat and Railway-Ticket;
There, his ever-faithful Cricket;
(But his shoes were far too tight.)
1968 Adventures of Jabotí on the Amazon, by Lena F. Hurlong, Abelard-Schuman.
1969 Reynard the Fox, by Roy Brown, Abelard-Schuman.
1970 A Natural History of Man, by J.K. Brierley, Heinemann.
1970 The Truck on the Track, by Janet Burroway, Jonathan Cape.
1970 Dinosaurs Don’t Die, by Ann Coates, Longman.
1972 The Adventures of Brer Rabbit, after Joel Chandler Harris, BBC Jackanory.
1975 Sword at Sunset, by Rosemary Sutcliff, (Edito-Service), Geneva.
1977 Who’s Zoo, poems by Conrad Aiken, Jonathan Cape.
1984 The Nonsense Verse of Edward Lear, Jonathan Cape.
1989 The Song that Sings the Bird, poems chosen by Ruth Craft and illustrated by JVL, Collins.
1989 Aesop's Fables, verses by James Michie, Jonathan Cape.
1994 The Squirrel and the Crow, by Wendy Cope, ‘Prospero Poets’ series for the Clarion Press.
1995 King Arthur’s Knights, by Henry Gilbert, Macmillan.
1998 Myths and Legends of the British Isles, edited by Richard Barber, The Folio Society.
2002 Icelandic Sagas, Volume 2, translated by Magnus Magnusson, The Folio Society.
2005 Epics of the Middle Ages, edited by Richard Barber, The Folio Society.
2006 The Hunting of the Snark, by Lewis Carroll, Artists’ Choice Editions, The Foundry, Church Hanborough.
2009 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll, Artists' Choice Editions.
1973 The Runaway Roller Skate, Jonathan Cape.
1974 Mr Mead and his Garden, Jonathan Cape.
1979 Miserable Aunt Bertha, set to verse by Fay Maschler, Jonathan Cape.
1986 The Doodles and Diaries of John Vernon Lord, Camberwell Press.
2007 Drawing Upon Drawing: 50 Years of Illustrating, University of Brighton.
2009 John's Journal Jottings, Inky Parrott Press.
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
, author and teacher. He has illustrated many classical texts, including Aesop's Fables
Aesop's Fables
Aesop's Fables or the Aesopica are a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and story-teller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BCE. The fables remain a popular choice for moral education of children today...
, The Nonsense Verse of Edward Lear
Edward Lear
Edward Lear was an English artist, illustrator, author, and poet, renowned today primarily for his literary nonsense, in poetry and prose, and especially his limericks, a form that he popularised.-Biography:...
; the Folio Society
Folio Society
The Folio Society is a book club based in London that produces new editions of classic books. Their books are notable for their high quality bindings and original illustrations...
's Myths and Legends of the British Isles, and Epics of the Middle Ages. In addition, he has illustrated many classics of children's literature
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
including Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
's "The Hunting of the Snark
The Hunting of the Snark
The Hunting of the Snark is usually thought of as a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll in 1874, when he was 42 years old...
".
Lord has made extensive contributions to the world of contemporary poetry and narrative, and has written and illustrated several children's books, which have been published widely and translated into several languages. His book The Giant Jam Sandwich
The Giant Jam Sandwich
The Giant Jam Sandwich is a children's picture book, with story and pictures by John Vernon Lord and verses by Janet Burroway. The rhyming story tells how the fictional town of Itching Down was invaded by four million wasps. The villagers decide to build a gigantic jam sandwich to trap the pesky...
has been in print for over thirty years.
As a university professor John Vernon Lord has lectured on the art of illustration for over 40 years and is pre-eminent in the field. He is currently working on Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
's Alice in Wonderland.
Background and education
John Vernon Lord was born in GlossopGlossop
Glossop is a market town within the Borough of High Peak in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the Glossop Brook, a tributary of the River Etherow, about east of the city of Manchester, west of the city of Sheffield. Glossop is situated near Derbyshire's county borders with Cheshire, Greater...
, Derbyshire
Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...
in 1939. He was the son of a baker
Baker
A baker is someone who bakes and sells bread, Cakes and similar foods may also be produced, as the traditional boundaries between what is produced by a baker as opposed to a pastry chef have blurred in recent decades...
and a ship’s hairdresser
Hairdresser
Hairdresser is a term referring to anyone whose occupation is to cut or style hair in order to change or maintain a person's image. This is achieved using a combination of hair coloring, haircutting, and hair texturing techniques...
. He attended Salford School of Art, now the University of Salford
University of Salford
The University of Salford is a campus university based in Salford, Greater Manchester, England with approximately 20,000 registered students. The main campus is about west of Manchester city centre, on the A6, opposite the former home of the physicist, James Prescott Joule and the Working Class...
in Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
(1956–60); and completed his formal education at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London, now Central St Martins College of Art and Design.
The Central School of Arts and Crafts, a constituent college of the University of the Arts, London, was established in 1896 to provide specialist art teaching for workers in the craft industries. The school was intended to be a centre at which art scholars and students from local schools could be brought under the influence of established artists, while simultaneously being in close relation with employers. It was a direct outcome of the Arts and Crafts Movement
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
sponsored by William Morris
William Morris
William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
and John Ruskin
John Ruskin
John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...
. Courses included calligraphy
Calligraphy
Calligraphy is a type of visual art. It is often called the art of fancy lettering . A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner"...
, letterform
Letterform
A letterform, letter-form or letter form, is a term used especially in typography, paleography, calligraphy and epigraphy to mean a letter's shape.In one sense, letterform applies strictly to the design of individual letters...
and illustration
Illustration
An illustration is a displayed visualization form presented as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that is created to elucidate or dictate sensual information by providing a visual representation graphically.- Early history :The earliest forms of illustration were prehistoric...
and Lord was taught by amongst others, the modernist writer and artist Mervyn Peake
Mervyn Peake
Mervyn Laurence Peake was an English writer, artist, poet and illustrator. He is best known for what are usually referred to as the Gormenghast books. They are sometimes compared to the work of his older contemporary J. R. R...
and the surrealist Cecil Collins
Cecil Collins
Cecil Collins was an English artist originally associated with the Surrealist movement.He was born in Plymouth and worked first as a mechanic at a firm based in Devonport. From 1924 to 1927 he attended Plymouth School of Art...
. In his recent retrospective, Drawing Upon Drawing he states that,
"During (his) student days, in the late 1950's the work of Gerard HoffnungGerard HoffnungGerard Hoffnung was an artist and musician, best known for his humorous works.- Early years :Born in Berlin, and named Gerhard, he was the only child of a well-to-do Jewish couple, Hildegard and Ludwig Hoffnung...
, André FrançoisAndré FrançoisAndré François , born André Farkas, was a Hungarian-born French cartoonist.He was born to a Hungarian Jewish family in Temesvár, Austria-Hungary , He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest . He moved to Paris in 1934 and entered to the atelier of the famous poster artist Adolphe Cassandre...
, Ronald SearleRonald SearleRonald William Fordham Searle, CBE, RDI, is a British artist and cartoonist, best known as the creator of St Trinian's School. He is also the co-author of the Molesworth series....
and Saul SteinbergSaul SteinbergSaul Steinberg was a Romanian-born American cartoonist and illustrator, best known for his work for The New Yorker.-Biography:...
...and, to a certain extent..the work of Paul KleePaul KleePaul Klee was born in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland, and is considered both a German and a Swiss painter. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. He was, as well, a student of orientalism...
"
were also influential, as was "an abiding interest" in Victorian steel engraving
Steel engraving
Steel engraving, is a commercial engraving technique for printing illustrations, based on steel instead of copper. It has been rarely used in artistic printmaking, although was much used for reproductions in the 19th century. Steel engraving was introduced in 1792 by Jacob Perkins , an American...
. The latter having a profound effect on his later work.
Drawing for a living
In 1961 Lord began work as a freelance illustrator, joining the agents Saxon Artists, in New Oxford Street, London. This required him to draw on demand, day in and out, often for long hours. He describes the difference between life as an art student and life as a professional illustrator in the following terms:
As well as drawing the insides of stomachs, I tackled everything that came my way. I carried out portraits of company directors for their retirement dinner menu covers, buildings for brochures, strip cartoons, maps and humorous drawings for advertisements....gardens and their plants, vegetables, mazes, refrigerators, dishwashers, totem poles, kitchen utensils, resuscitation diagrams, all kinds of furniture, typewriters, agricultural crop spraying machines, door locks, folded towels, decorative letters, Zodiac signs, animals....When you are a student there is a tendency at first to limit yourself to draw only what you like drawing. This of course ultimately shackles you and limits your repertoire ...(it) narrows the margin of what you are able to depict in an image and consequently stifles imagination and ideas.
As a commercial artist, in 1968 Lord designed the album cover for The Book of Taliesyn
The Book of Taliesyn
- Side two :- Bonus tracks on the CD re-issue :- Personnel :* Rod Evans - lead vocals* Ritchie Blackmore - guitar* Nick Simper - bass, backing vocals* Jon Lord - Hammond organ, keyboards, backing vocals, string arrangements on "Anthem"* Ian Paice - drums...
by the band Deep Purple
Deep Purple
Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertford in 1968. Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, they are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock, although some band members believe that their music cannot be categorised as belonging to any one genre...
. The brief from the artist's agent is detailed in Drawing upon Drawing as follows:
"the agent gave me the title saying that the art director wanted a ‘fantasy Arthurian touch’ and to include hand lettering for the title and the musicians’ names. I mainly drew from The Book of Taliesin, which is a collection of poems, said to be written by the sixth century Welsh bard Taliesin."[3]
Brighton
In 1968 Lord became a teacher at Brighton College of Art (now the Faculty of Arts (University of Brighton)) and was for the first time required to reflect upon his art in writing. Gradually his illustrative work was concentrated exclusively on the illustration of books. At this time he was commissioned to illustrate among others, the Adventures of Jabotí on the Amazon and Reynard the Fox and so began a love affair with narrativeNarrative
A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...
illustration. During the 1970s, as a teacher at Brighton, Lord's output was prodigious, a fruitful relationship with the publishers Jonathan Cape
Jonathan Cape
Jonathan Cape was a London-based publisher founded in 1919 as "Page & Co" by Herbert Jonathan Cape , formerly a manager at Duckworth who had worked his way up from a position of bookshop errand boy. Cape brought with him the rights to cheap editions of the popular author Elinor Glyn and sales of...
lead to the creation of several notable picture books including his own The Giant Jam Sandwich, The Runaway Roller Skate and Mr Mead and his Garden. As well as illustrating Conrad Aiken
Conrad Aiken
Conrad Potter Aiken was an American novelist and poet, whose work includes poetry, short stories, novels, a play and an autobiography.-Early years:...
's Who's Zoo Lord produced several illustrations for Punch
Punch (magazine)
Punch, or the London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 50s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration...
and the Radio Times
Radio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
. He wrote many articles and gave several public lectures on Illustration as an art form, some of which can be found online below. His illustrations began to take on that distinctive 'complexity of content', that is so characteristic of much of his later work, together with an apparent taste for 'black and white'. Strongly influenced by the Victorian art of steel engraving
Steel engraving
Steel engraving, is a commercial engraving technique for printing illustrations, based on steel instead of copper. It has been rarely used in artistic printmaking, although was much used for reproductions in the 19th century. Steel engraving was introduced in 1792 by Jacob Perkins , an American...
, in an article on cross hatching Lord writes:
"The whiteness of the paper already exists before you proceed to draw. It has established itself as a fundamental entity; a ground to tread on. What marks you make on the paper are as important as the marks you don't make; or is the opposite the case? The editing and selection of gap-making is fundamental to drawing. Nothingness, therefore, allows something else to exist. Planets move in space. Planets need space to move about in. Space doesn't need planets. The pencil (or whatever other drawing instrument you are using) clothes the naked surface of the paper with a network of marks and the paper often peeps through the drawing. A picture is made up of a balancing between the making, the removing, and the not-making of marks. Somehow a drawing represents the trails of a journey like, as Klee put it - `taking a line for a walk', which is a far more conducive activity than taking a dog for a walk."
In 1986 he was appointed Professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of Illustration at University of Brighton
University of Brighton
The University of Brighton is an English university of the United Kingdom, with a community of over 23,000 students and 2,600 staff based on campuses in Brighton, Eastbourne and Hastings. It has one of the best teaching quality ratings in the UK and a strong research record, factors which...
and his inaugural lecture Illustrating Lear's Nonsense was published a few years later. Robert Mason reviewing Lord's lecture A Journey Of Drawing An Illustration Of A Fable writes:
Lord's fastidious verbal dissection of the process of making a single pen and ink illustration, The Crow And The Sheep, over a period of 11 hours and 11 minutes on the 10th and 11th of February 1985, was intimate and unique. Its very length, and its combination of intense focus interspersed with frequent digressions – about how to avoid actually working, the tendency of Rotring pens to clog, contemporary news topics (mortgage rate increases / African famines / American defence spending…) and the maximum and minimum temperatures of the days in question (minus 3 and minus 7 degrees Fahrenheit) made the audience feel at one with the process..."
Drawing Upon Nonsense
Edward Lear
Edward Lear was an English artist, illustrator, author, and poet, renowned today primarily for his literary nonsense, in poetry and prose, and especially his limericks, a form that he popularised.-Biography:...
and became familiar with the man and his 'nonsense', the poetic qualities of Lord's own work came to the fore. Immersing himself completely in Lear had a decisive effect, not least of which was his return to 'black and white'. Lord's tendency to fill the space between the lines, already apparent in The Book of Taliesyn
The Book of Taliesyn
- Side two :- Bonus tracks on the CD re-issue :- Personnel :* Rod Evans - lead vocals* Ritchie Blackmore - guitar* Nick Simper - bass, backing vocals* Jon Lord - Hammond organ, keyboards, backing vocals, string arrangements on "Anthem"* Ian Paice - drums...
, was naturally akin to the art of the 'nonsense' poet who also directs the mind's eye to read 'the space between the lines'. The intent of the verse being grasped 'indirectly' from the words used. Lord's illustrations like Lear's verses took on that lightness of touch, or wistful quality, that allows a sheer 'complexity' of form to give way to the surreal.
On a little heap of Barley
Died my aged uncle Arly,
And they buried him one night;
Close beside the leafy thicket;
There, his hat and Railway-Ticket;
There, his ever-faithful Cricket;
(But his shoes were far too tight.)
Selected publications as an illustrator
1965 A Visit to Bedsyde Manor, by Stanley Penn, Guinness Publications.1968 Adventures of Jabotí on the Amazon, by Lena F. Hurlong, Abelard-Schuman.
1969 Reynard the Fox, by Roy Brown, Abelard-Schuman.
1970 A Natural History of Man, by J.K. Brierley, Heinemann.
1970 The Truck on the Track, by Janet Burroway, Jonathan Cape.
1970 Dinosaurs Don’t Die, by Ann Coates, Longman.
1972 The Adventures of Brer Rabbit, after Joel Chandler Harris, BBC Jackanory.
1975 Sword at Sunset, by Rosemary Sutcliff, (Edito-Service), Geneva.
1977 Who’s Zoo, poems by Conrad Aiken, Jonathan Cape.
1984 The Nonsense Verse of Edward Lear, Jonathan Cape.
1989 The Song that Sings the Bird, poems chosen by Ruth Craft and illustrated by JVL, Collins.
1989 Aesop's Fables, verses by James Michie, Jonathan Cape.
1994 The Squirrel and the Crow, by Wendy Cope, ‘Prospero Poets’ series for the Clarion Press.
1995 King Arthur’s Knights, by Henry Gilbert, Macmillan.
1998 Myths and Legends of the British Isles, edited by Richard Barber, The Folio Society.
2002 Icelandic Sagas, Volume 2, translated by Magnus Magnusson, The Folio Society.
2005 Epics of the Middle Ages, edited by Richard Barber, The Folio Society.
2006 The Hunting of the Snark, by Lewis Carroll, Artists’ Choice Editions, The Foundry, Church Hanborough.
2009 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll, Artists' Choice Editions.
Books
1972 The Giant Jam Sandwich, set to verse by Janet Burroway, Jonathan Cape.1973 The Runaway Roller Skate, Jonathan Cape.
1974 Mr Mead and his Garden, Jonathan Cape.
1979 Miserable Aunt Bertha, set to verse by Fay Maschler, Jonathan Cape.
1986 The Doodles and Diaries of John Vernon Lord, Camberwell Press.
2007 Drawing Upon Drawing: 50 Years of Illustrating, University of Brighton.
2009 John's Journal Jottings, Inky Parrott Press.