Ernest Howard Shepard (10 December 1879 – 24 March 1976) was an English artist and book illustrator. He is known especially for illustrations of the anthropomorphic animal and soft toy characters in The Wind in the Willows and Winnie-the-Pooh.
Shepard's original 1926 illustrated map of the Hundred Acre Wood, which features in the opening pages of Winnie-the-Pooh (and also appears in the opening animation in the first Disney adaptation in 1966), sold for £430,000 ($600,000) at Sotheby's in London, setting a world record for book illustrations.
Early life and training
thumb|Shepard's house in [[Lodsworth, marked with a blue plaque]]
Shepard was born in St John's Wood, London, son of Henry Dunkin Shepard, an architect, and Jessie Harriet, daughter of watercolour painter William Lee. Having shown some promise in drawing at St Paul's School, in 1897 he enrolled in the Heatherley School of Fine Art in Chelsea. After a year there, he attended the Royal Academy Schools, winning a Landseer scholarship in 1899 and a British Institute prize in 1900. There he met Florence Eleanor Chaplin, whom he married in 1904. By 1906, Shepard had become an established illustrator, having produced work for illustrated editions of Aesop's Fables, David Copperfield, and Tom Brown's Schooldays. He began contributing to Punch in 1907, after submitting illustrations to the magazine two to three times per week.' The couple bought a house in London, but in 1905 moved to Shamley Green, near Guildford.
Shepard's paintings appeared in a number of exhibitions, including the Royal Society of Artists in Birmingham, the Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts, the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool (twice), the Manchester Art Gallery, and the Royal Academy in London (sixteen times). His wife, who was also a painter, found a home in London's West End venue for her own modest output during a 25-year career.
== WWI service ==<!-- Please do not delete these sources that are verifiable as reliable information. -->
When World War I broke out in 1914, Shepard was in his mid-thirties and received a commission as a second lieutenant in the Royal Garrison Artillery, an arm of the Royal Artillery. He served with the 105th Siege Battery, which crossed to France in May 1916 and went into action at the Battle of the Somme.
By the autumn of that year, Shepard started working for the Intelligence Department, where he sketched the combat area within the view of his battery position. Throughout the War, he continued to contribute regularly to Punch, including drawings and paintings of the European countryside he travelled to. They depicted the soldiers' everyday lives, focusing on their experiences in the trenches and often highlighting the contrast between official narratives and the soldiers' realities. He was promoted to substantive lieutenant on 1 July 1917. Whilst acting as captain, he was awarded the Military Cross. His citation read:
Later in 1917, his battery participated in the final stages of the Battle of Passchendaele where it came under heavy fire and suffered a number of casualties. At the end of the year, it was sent to support a disastrous situation on the Italian Front, coming into action on the Montello Hill. After the Armistice of Villa Giusti in November 1918, Shepard was promoted to acting major in command of the battery, and given the duty of administering captured enemy guns. Demobilisation began at Christmas 1918 and the 105th Siege Battery was disbanded in March 1919.
Career post-WWI
After the War, Shepard was hired as a full-time cartoonist at Punch. He would meet weekly with the other employees to discuss upcoming political cartoons. His work was also part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1928 Summer Olympics.
When World War II broke out, Shepard produced a short series of political cartoons commenting on heavily involved political leaders, such as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. However, he regarded himself as less suited for caricature and returned to illustration.
Collaboration with A.A. Milne
thumb|A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard memorial in [[Ashdown Forest]]
Content with Shepard's illustrations in When We Were Very Young, Milne insisted Shepard illustrate Winnie-the-Pooh. Milne and Shepard worked well together, meeting frequently for tea to share Milne's notes and Shepard's sketches, or occasionally to explore Ashdown Forest, the inspiration of the Hundred Acre Woods, which housed Milne's characters. Shepard's illustrations are captivating because they come from real-life observation, such as spending time in the forest or familiarizing himself with children's toys; he was always seen with a sketchbook as he would sketch from real life. Shepard's illustrations visually reinforce this duality, and readers often rely on these illustrations to understand the plot and humor.
Shepard's attention to detail is evident, again, through his methodical planning and execution process. He often annotated his sketches to ensure an in-depth spatial understanding and consistency.
In the 1960s, the Walt Disney Company acquired the licensing rights to Winnie-the-Pooh and vowed that animation would adhere closely to Shepard's original illustrations. For example, in The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977), Milne's map of the Hundred Acre Wood was shown at the start of the film and backgrounds of the book's pages were spread throughout. Furthermore, he has been described as the "last of the great Victorian Black and White men," placing his work at the end of a symbolic artistic era that included legends such as Charles Keene and Arthur Boyd Houghton.
Shepard's Pooh work is so renowned that 300 of his preliminary sketches were exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1969, when he was 90 years old.
A Shepard painting of Winnie the Pooh, believed to have been painted in the 1930s for a Bristol teashop, is his only known oil painting of the famous teddy bear. It was purchased at an auction for $243,000 in London late in 2000. The painting is displayed in the Pavilion Gallery at Assiniboine Park in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, the city after which Winnie is named.
Shepard wrote two autobiographies: Drawn from Memory (1957) and Drawn From Life (1961).
In 1972, Shepard gave his personal collection of papers and illustrations to the University of Surrey. These now form the E.H. Shepard Archive.
Shepard was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1972 Birthday Honours.
Personal life
thumb|Shepard's grave at St Peter's Church, [[Lodsworth]]
Shepard lived at Melina Place in St John's Wood and from 1955 in Lodsworth, West Sussex. He and Florence had two children, Graham (born 1907) and Mary (born 1909), who both became illustrators. Lt. Graham Shepard died when his ship HMS Polyanthus was sunk by German submarine U-952 in September 1943. Mary married E.V. Knox, the editor of Punch, and became known as the illustrator of the Mary Poppins series of children's books. Florence Shepard died in 1927. In November 1943 Shepard married Norah Carroll, a nurse at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington. They remained married until his death on 24 March 1976. In 1966, he called the Disney Animation short film Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree a travesty.
Works illustrated
- 1924 – When We Were Very Young
- 1925 – Playtime and Company; Holly Tree'
- 1933 – Everybody's Lamb; The Cricket in the Cage
- 1936 – The Modern Struwwelpeter As the Bee Sucks; Sunset House: More Perfume from Provence
- 1939 – The Reluctant Dragon
- 1948 – The Golden Age; Dream Days; Bertie's Escapade'
- 1956 – The Islanders; The Pancake
- 1956 – Royal Reflections: Stories for Children
- 1957 – Drawn from Memory; Briar Rose