Illustrious British Caricaturists - 1872-

This register encompasses both British born artists and those who were born elsewhere but did the majority of their most important sketches in the U.K. The selection is listed in chronological order by date of birth.

Max Beerbohm ( 1872 - 1956 )

Sir Henry Maximilian "Max" Beerbohm was born in London, son of a well-to-do Lithuanian-born grain merchant. His family gave him he nickname of Max and this is what he signed himself in his art and was known as for the rest of his life.

Beerbohm was educated at Charterhouse School and Merton College, Oxford but left without taking a degree as he was already well established as a caricaturist and humourist.

He had an inability to draw hands and feet but was very good at heads and his dandified figures with exaggerated heads quickly became his trade-mark. The Times newspaper in 1913 described him as “the greatest of English comic artists" and he was variously feted as “the English Goya” and "the greatest portrayer of personalities in the history of art”

Henry Bateman (1887 - 1970)

Bateman was born in New South Wales, Australia of English parents who came back to England soon after he was born. He learned art at Westminster School of Art and the Goldsmith Institute.

His technique developed early in life and by the age of 17 it was already mature. He achieved a deal with Tatler magazine but is best remembered for his “The Man Who…….” series of cartoons. These showed unfortunate people who had committed mostly upper class social faux pas. “The Man Who lit his Cigar before the Loyal Toast” is a principal case.

Sir David Low (1891 - 1963)

Sir David Alexander Cecil Low was born in New Zealand and taught at Dunedin and Christchurch. He began his professional life in New Zealand and in fact his first work was published when he was just 11 years of age.

He later moved to Australia and then to England and by 1927 was working for The Evening Standard. He is best remembered for his work depicting Hitler and Mussolini both before and during World War II.

In fact, generations of New Zealand school children studied about the beginning of the Second World War using textbooks illustrated by Low.

He was especially despised by Hitler and after the war it was discovered that his name was in the “Black Book” which listed those whom the Nazis wished to arrest after they had conquered Britain.

Low was knighted in 1962, a year before his death. His obituary spoke of him as "the dominant cartoonist of the western world".

Ronald Searle (b. 1920)

Ronald William Fordham Searle was born in Cambridge and began drawing at the surprisingly early age of five and was working professionally by the age of 15. The War interrupted his art studies and he joined up with the Royal Engineers .

He was serving in Singapore when he was captured by the Japanese. He was a prisoner of war for the remainder of the war eventually working on the notorious Siam-Burma “Death Railway”.

He produced, in secret, many sketches depicting situations in the camps which survived discovery by being hidden under the mattresses of dying prisoners.

He returned to England at the end of the war and produced a prodigious volume of work in the 1950’s and 60’s. However he is best known as the originator of “St Trinians School”.

Gerald Scarfe (b. 1936)

Gerald Anthony Scarfe was born in London and as a child was badly asthmatic. During his early bed-ridden years he busied himself by sketching. He started his working life in publicity but by the early 60’s his caricatures were appearing in “Private Eye” and this led to a job with the “Daily Mail”.

But it was his work with the British rock group Pink Floyd for which he is best famous especially the illustration for the cover of their 1979 album “The Wall”.

Searle also supplied the caricatures for the opening and closing sequences of the well-liked BBC comedy “Yes Minister” and in 1998 he drew caricatures of Tommy Cooper, Eric Morecombe, Joyce Grenfell, Les Dawson and Peter Cook which featured on a set of five British postage stamps commemorating British comedians.

Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on many subjects but is currently concerned with Kitty Cannon 3. If you would like to read more, please go over to our web site entitled Kitten Cannon 3.