Percy Bradshaw

Percy Venner Bradshaw (27 November 1877 - 13 October 1965), who often signed PVB, was a British illustrator who also created the Press Art School, a correspondence course for drawing.

Biography

Percy Bradshaw was born in Hackney, part of London, in 1877. He dropped out of Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School when he was 14 years old and started working at an advertising agency. Meanwhile he followed evening courses in art at Goldsmiths College and Birkbeck College.[1]

Bradshaw had his first drawing published in The Boy's Own Paper when he was 15 years old, and moved to the art department of the advertising agency. Three years later he became a full time cartoonist, with his work also appearing in magazines like Bystander (magazine), Home Chat, Sunday Companion, Tatler, The Sketch and The Windsor Magazine. He also worked for a while for the Daily Mail.[1]

He also wrote articles on drawing, appearing in the Daily Graphic and in The Boy's Own Paper, where his series Black and White Drawing as a Profession was so successful that he decided to create his own art correspondence course, the Press Art School, in 1905. He remained principal of the school for more than 50 years, first from his home, later from Tudor Hall in Forest Hill, London. The school had more than 3,000 students by 1916, when he employed a staff of 20 people.[1]

During the First World War, Bradshaw was a special constable; during the second, he worked as a firewatcher. After the first war, he created hundreds of illustrated postcards for specialized companies like Raphael Tuck & Sons, worked again for an advertising agency, and for Sun Enravings from Watford. During the Second World War, he wrote articles about cartoonists for the London Opinion, and published humorous poetry.[1]

Bradshaw was a member of the London Sketch Club and in 1958 wrote the history of the Savage Club where he was a committee member. He died in 1965 in London.

Bibliography
  • 1914-1933: The Art of the Illustrator: 20 yearly portfolios from the Press Art School, with biographies and criticism of the artists
  • 1925: Art in Advertising
  • 1936: Fashion Drawing and Designing
  • 1941: I Wish I Could Draw
  • 1942: They Make Us Smile
  • 1943: Marching On
  • 1943: Drawn from Memory
  • 1944: Nice People to Know
  • 1945: I Wish I Could Paint
  • 1946: Lines of Laughter
  • 1946: Seen in Perspective
  • 1949: The Magic of Line
  • 1949: Water-Colour Painting
  • 1952: Water-Colour
  • 1956: Sketching and Painting Indoors
  • 1958: Brother Savages and Guests

Faculty

Faculty (consulting staff) of the Press Art School included[1]

Alumni

Students of the Press Art School included[1]

Notes
  1. Bryant, Mark (2018). "Bradshaw, Percy Venner". The Dictionary of 20th-century British Cartoonists and Caricaturists. Routledge. ISBN 9781351786096.
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