William Heath Robinson remains one of Britain's best-loved illustrators and has embedded himself into English vernacular, inspiring the phrase 'it's all a bit Heath Robinson' to describe any precarious or unnecessarily complex contraption. Born in London, he originally had ambitions to be a landscape painter, but would establish his artistic reputation as a book illustrator during the genre's so-called golden age. It was his association with weekly illustrated magazine The Sketch that was to launch and cement his legacy as a humorous artist. Combining a distinctive draughtsmanship with a curious and ingenious mind, the advent of the First World War inspired Heath Robinson to dream up a series of increasingly outlandish and bizarre military inventions with which the opposing armies would try to outwit each other. From the kaiser's campaigning car or a suggestion for an armoured bayonet curler, to post-war 'unbullying' of beef, his cartoons are a fantastically absurd take on wartime technology and home-front life. Sadly, his inventions were rejected by a (fictitious) 'Inventions Board', but the charm and eccentricity of his ideas was loved by the public and he remains to this day one of the finest exponents of humorous British art.
| ISBN: | 9780750955942 |
| Publication date: | 6th April 2015 |
| Author: | W Heath Robinson, Lucinda Gosling, Mary Evans Picture Library |
| Illustrator: | W Heath Robinson |
| Publisher: | The History Press |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 143 pages |
| Genres: |
First World War Illustration Biography: historical, political and military Military history Inventions and inventors |