NICHOLAS NICKLEBY

Original British 20 inch x 60 inch Quad Poster for the 1947 Alberto Cavalcanti Ealing Studios Drama NICHOLAS NICKLEBY, based on the novel by Charles Dickens and Derek Bond as Nicholas Nickleby, Sally Ann Howes as Kate Nickleby, Cedric Hardwicke as Ralph Nickleby, Alfred Drayton as Wackford Squeers, Mary Merrall as Mrs. Nickleby, Stanley Holloway as Vincent Crummles, Sybil Thorndike as Mrs. Squeers, Bernard Miles as Newman Noggs, Athene Seyler as Miss La Creevy, Cecil Ramage as Sir Mulberry Hawk, Emrys Jones as Frank Cheeryble, Timothy Batson as Lord Verisopht and Roy Hermitage as Wackford Junior.

A young, compassionate man struggles to save his family and friends from the abusive exploitation of his cold-hearted, grasping uncle.

Poster art by Edward Ardizzone (1900 – 1979). Born Edward Jeffrey Irving Ardizzone on 16th October 1900 in French Indo-China his family moved to England in 1905 eventually settling in London in 1919. He was educated at Clayesmore School where he began developing his artistic talent. He took night classes under Bernard Meninsky at the Westminster School of Art whilst working as a statistical clerk for the Eastern Telegraph Company and at the age of 26 he went freelance producing a series of watercolours of London life. In 1932 he began producing drawings for the Radio Times, which he continued up till the 1950s. He had one-man shows at the Bloomsbury and Leger Galleries in the early thirties displaying a move from tightly knit drawings to a looser, much freer style. He achieved widespread recognition with his children’s book Little Tim and the Brave sea Captain in 1936 which he both wrote and illustrated in pen and wash, going on to illustrate well over 170 books. His reputation grew with the work he produced as an official war artist in the North Africa and Italian campaigns and the German invasion of France. Afterwards he worked increasingly as an illustrator of literary classics and was a perfect choice of S John Woods to produce a variety of film posters and brochures for Ealing’s Nicholas Nicklenby in 1947. the same year he was elected to the membership of the Society of Industrial artists. He produced posters for london Transport, taught illustration at Camberwell School of Art and the Royal college of Art from 1953 to 1967 and received associate membership to the Royal Academy in 1962, then full membership in 1970. He was awarded the CBE in 1971 and was made a Royal Designer for Industry in 1974. He died in 1979 in Rodmersham, Kent. He was considered one of the greatest illustrators of his generation.

Printed by Graphic Reproductions Ltd. (Ealing’s main printer through the 1940s and 1950s)

The poster is in very good unfolded (rolled) condition with a large stain on the reverse towards the top which is hardly noticeable from the front.