Barrister and Clients

Edward Ardizzone (1900 - 1979)

Pen and ink and watercolour on paper

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  • About the work
    Location
    Country: UK
    City: London
    Place: Ministry of Justice, 102 Petty France
    Drawings by Edward Ardizzone often depict scenes of everyday life in which human interaction is the central feature. In this pen and ink sketch, Ardizzone conveys with striking economy what appears to be an intense discussion between a barrister in a black suit and wig, and two of his clients. The figure nearest us leans forward, his right arm leaning on his leg, with an air of anxious tension. He obscures a second man who is dressed rather flamboyantly in a mustard-yellow checked suit. We can only see the top of his head as he leans back, but his posture and outstretched palms seem to suggest an unwillingness or hesitation on his part. Looking directly at him and gesticulating confidently with his hands, the barrister appears to be persuading the middle figure to accept a judicial decision. A third man sitting behind the barrister cranes forward, listening earnestly to the discussion. Behind him, a woman sits turned away from the scene –yet even she has the appearance of eavesdropping on the conversation.
  • About the artist
    Edward Ardizzone is remembered as an illustrator and as an author whose work was rooted in the English tradition of satirical drawing. He was born in Haiphong, Vietnam, the eldest child of Auguste Ardizzone, a French-Italian telegraph engineer and Margaret Irving, who was of Scottish descent. Once an artist herself, she encouraged her son to take an interest in art. A quiet and withdrawn child, frequently bullied at his early schools, Ardizzone devoted himself to drawing. Later, in 1918 after having left boarding school, he began working as a city clerk in London, while taking evening classes at the Westminster School of Art under the artist, Bernard Meninsky. By 1927 he took the plunge and abandoned his city career to dedicate himself to life as an artist (much against his father’s will). His early commissions for book illustrations were slow to come, while his first exhibition held in London in 1930 resulted in no sales at all. However, a chance meeting with an old school friend who was art editor of the Radio Times, eventually led to a constant stream of commissions for the periodical. By the mid-1930s Ardizzone had established a successful career, holding regular exhibitions in London and designing book illustrations. During the Second World War Ardizzone worked as an Official War Artist in France, North Africa and Italy, recording his experiences and impressions in two published diaries and in a large corpus of watercolours now in the Imperial War Museum. After the War, he returned to London and continued illustrating for nearly 200 books, including several titles of his own.
  • Explore
    Places
    Subjects
    man, woman, wig, barrister, law court, window
    Materials & Techniques
    paper (as artists material), watercolour (as artists materials), ink, watercolour (as object name)
  • Details
    Artist
    Edward Ardizzone (1900 - 1979)
    Title
    Barrister and Clients
    Date
    Medium
    Pen and ink and watercolour on paper
    Dimensions
    height: 23.50 cm, width: 25.00 cm
    Acquisition
    Purchased from the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours, December 1952
    Inscription
    br: E.A.
    GAC number
    1998