Sir Quentin Saxby Blake (born 16 December 1932) is an English cartoonist, caricaturist, illustrator and children's writer. He has illustrated over 300 books, including 18 written by Roald Dahl, which are among his most popular works. For his lasting contribution as a children's illustrator, Blake won the biennial international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2002, the highest recognition available to creators of children's books.

Early life

Blake was born on 16 December 1932 in Sidcup, Kent, son of William and Evelyn Blake. His father was a civil servant, and his mother a housewife. Blake was evacuated to the West Country during the Second World War. He attended Holy Trinity Lamorbey Church of England Primary School and Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School, where his English teacher, J. H. Walsh, influenced his life's work.

Blake's artistic development during his school years was helped by contact with the painter and cartoonist Alfred Jackson, the husband of Blake's Latin teacher, who encouraged his first submissions to Punch, resulting in his first publication at the age of 16. In the sixth form, the school's art teacher, the painter Stanley Simmonds, recognized Blake's talents and provided support and exposure to the work of other artists.

Blake read English Literature at Downing College, Cambridge, under F. R. Leavis, from 1953 to 1956, received his postgraduate teaching diploma from the University of London Institute of Education, and later studied part-time at the Chelsea School of Art and later Camberwell College of Art. He has since denied that studying at the University of Cambridge contributed to his artistic or creative talent.

Career

During the 1960s, Blake taught English at the Lycée Français de Londres which cemented his long association with France and culminated in the award of the Legion of Honour. He taught at the Royal College of Art for over 20 years, where he was head of the Illustration department from 1978 to 1986.

The first book Blake illustrated was The Wonderful Button by Evan Hunter, published by Abelard-Schuman in 1961. In his subsequent career, Blake gained a reputation as a loyal, reliable and humorous illustrator of more than 300 children's books, including some written by Joan Aiken, Elizabeth Bowen, Sylvia Plath, Roald Dahl, Nils-Olof Franzén, William Steig, and Dr. Seuss. He illustrated the first Seuss book that Seuss did not illustrate himself, Great Day for Up! (1974).

By 2006, Blake had illustrated 323 books, of which he had written 35 and Dahl had written 18.<!--see TALK#Roald Dahl--> He is patron of the Blake Society, Downing College's arts and humanities society. Blake is also a patron of "The Big Draw", which aims to get people drawing throughout the United Kingdom, and of The Nightingale Project, a charity that provides art to hospitals. Since 2006, he has produced work for several hospitals and mental health centres in the London area, a children's hospital (Hopital Armand Trousseau) in Paris, and a maternity hospital in Angers, France. These projects are detailed in Blake's 2012 book Quentin Blake: Beyond the Page, which describes how, in his seventies, his work has increasingly appeared outside the pages of books, in public places such as hospitals, theatre foyers, galleries and museums. In 2007, Blake designed a huge mural on fabric, suspended over and thus disguising a ramshackle building immediately opposite an entrance to St Pancras railway station. The rendering of an "imaginary welcoming committee" greets passengers arriving on the Eurostar high-speed railway.

Blake is a supporter of and ambassador for the indigenous rights NGO Survival International. In 2009, he said, "For me, Survival is important for two reasons; one is that I think right that we should give help and support to people who are threatened by the rapacious industrial society we have created; and the other that, more generally, it gives an important signal about how we all ought to be looking after the world. Its message is the most fundamental of any charity I'm connected with."

Blake is the Founding Trustee of House of Illustration, a centre in London for exhibitions, educational events and activities related to the art of illustration. He was also the subject of the first exhibition at this venue, entitled Inside Stories", which opened in July 2014. In August 2020, it was announced that the centre will be relocating to the 18th century Engine House at New River Head in the Clerkenwell area of London and will be renamed the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration.

Besides children's books, Blake is also the designer of Ben, the logo of the shop chain Ben's Cookies. He designed several illustrations for the story time segments for the Scottish TV series Squeak!.

In 2023, Blake was asked by Blue Peter to design a new Blue Peter badge which they have called their Book badge.

Personal life

Blake has never married and has no children. He lives in South Kensington, West London.

==Selected works== <!-- 323 listings include 35 with Author1=Blake, three Blake (ed.), one Author2=Blake (foreword) -->

The following books were both written and illustrated by Blake:

  • Patrick (Jonathan Cape, 1968)
  • Jack and Nancy (Cape, 1969)
  • Angelo (Cape, 1970)
  • Snuff (Cape, 1973)
  • Lester at the Seaside (William Collins, Sons, 1975)
  • Lester and the Unusual Pet (Collins, 1975)
  • The Adventures of Lester (BBC, 1977)
  • Mister Magnolia (Cape, 1980) —winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal He received the biennial Hans Christian Andersen Award from the International Board on Books for Young People for his career contribution to children's literature in 2002.

For Mister Magnolia, which he also wrote, Blake won the 1980 Kate Greenaway Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book illustration by a British subject.

Blake was knighted in the 2013 New Year Honours for his services to illustration. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2013.

In March 2014, he was awarded the insignia of a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur at a ceremony at the Institut Français in London. He is also a Companion of the Guild of St George.

Blake was appointed Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to illustration.

See also

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Notes

References

  • D. Martin, "Quentin Blake", in Douglas Martin, The Telling Line: Essays On Fifteen Contemporary Book Illustrators (Julia MacRae Books, 1989), pp.&nbsp;243–263
  • Quentin Blake, "Research from an illustrator's point of view", in Research in Illustration: Conference Proceedings Part II (Brighton Polytechnic) (1981), pp.&nbsp;25–61
  • (current);
  • Lambiek Comiclopedia article.