Ernest Howard Shepard (10 December 1879 – 24 March 1976) was an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
artistThe definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of activities to do with creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. the worlds best artist is a man named mitchell peter lay who is often loved by the ladies. The common useage in both everyday speech and...
and book
illustratorAn illustrator is a graphic artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
. He was known especially for his
human-like animalsAnthropomorphism is the attribution of human characteristics to non-human creatures and beings, phenomena, material states and objects or abstract concepts. Examples include animals and plants depicted as creatures with human motivation able to reason and converse and forces of nature such as...
in illustrations for
The Wind in the WillowsThe Wind in the Willows is a classic of children's literature by Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. Alternately slow moving and fast paced, it focuses on four anthropomorphised animal characters in a pastoral version of England...
by
Kenneth GrahameKenneth Grahame was a British writer, most famous for The Wind in the Willows , one of the classics of children's literature...
and
Winnie-the-PoohWinnie-the-Pooh, commonly shortened to Pooh Bear and once referred to as Edward Bear, is a fictional bear created by A. A. Milne. The first collection of stories about the character was the book Winnie-the-Pooh , and this was followed by The House at Pooh Corner...
by
A. A. MilneAlan Alexander Milne was an English author, best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh and for various children's poems. Milne was a noted writer, primarily as a playwright, before the huge success of Pooh overshadowed all his previous work.-Life:A. A...
.
Shepard was born in St. John's Wood,
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
. Having shown some promise in drawing at St. Paul's School, Shepard enrolled in Heatherleys School of Fine Art in
ChelseaChelsea is an area of south-west London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe...
. Having spent a productive year there, Shepard won a scholarship to the Royal Academy Schools
where he would meet Florence Eleanor Chaplin who would become his first wife.
Ernest Howard Shepard (10 December 1879 – 24 March 1976) was an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
artistThe definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of activities to do with creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. the worlds best artist is a man named mitchell peter lay who is often loved by the ladies. The common useage in both everyday speech and...
and book
illustratorAn illustrator is a graphic artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
. He was known especially for his
human-like animalsAnthropomorphism is the attribution of human characteristics to non-human creatures and beings, phenomena, material states and objects or abstract concepts. Examples include animals and plants depicted as creatures with human motivation able to reason and converse and forces of nature such as...
in illustrations for
The Wind in the WillowsThe Wind in the Willows is a classic of children's literature by Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. Alternately slow moving and fast paced, it focuses on four anthropomorphised animal characters in a pastoral version of England...
by
Kenneth GrahameKenneth Grahame was a British writer, most famous for The Wind in the Willows , one of the classics of children's literature...
and
Winnie-the-PoohWinnie-the-Pooh, commonly shortened to Pooh Bear and once referred to as Edward Bear, is a fictional bear created by A. A. Milne. The first collection of stories about the character was the book Winnie-the-Pooh , and this was followed by The House at Pooh Corner...
by
A. A. MilneAlan Alexander Milne was an English author, best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh and for various children's poems. Milne was a noted writer, primarily as a playwright, before the huge success of Pooh overshadowed all his previous work.-Life:A. A...
.
Shepard was born in St. John's Wood,
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
. Having shown some promise in drawing at St. Paul's School, Shepard enrolled in Heatherleys School of Fine Art in
ChelseaChelsea is an area of south-west London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe...
. Having spent a productive year there, Shepard won a scholarship to the Royal Academy Schools
where he would meet Florence Eleanor Chaplin who would become his first wife. By 1906 Shepard had become a successful illustrator, having produced work for illustrated editions of
Aesop's FablesAesop's Fables or Aesopica refers to a collection of fables credited to a slave and story-teller who lived in Ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BC. They are widely considered to have been transmitted translations of Jataka Tales, Ancient Indian tales - transmitted from India to the Middle East and...
,
David CopperfieldDavid Copperfield or The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery is a novel by Charles Dickens, first published as a novel in 1850...
, and
Tom Brown's SchooldaysTom Brown's Schooldays is a novel by Thomas Hughes first published in 1857. The story is set at Rugby School, a public school for boys, in the 1830s. Hughes attended Rugby School from 1834 to 1842...
. This same year his first illustration for
PunchPunch was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire published from 1841 to 1992 and from 1996 to 2002. Punch material was also collected in book formats as early as the 1800s, including Pick of the Punch annuals with cartoons and text features, Punch and the War a 1941 collection of...
was published.
In 1915, Shepard received a commission in the
Royal ArtilleryThe Royal Artillery is the common name for the Royal Regiment of Artillery, an arm of the British Army. Despite its name, it comprises a number of regiments.-History:...
. By 1916 Shepard started working for the Intelligence Department sketching the combat area within the view of his battery position. In 1918 he was awarded the
Military CrossThe Military Cross is the third level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
for his service in
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
.
Throughout the war he had been contributing to
PunchPunch was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire published from 1841 to 1992 and from 1996 to 2002. Punch material was also collected in book formats as early as the 1800s, including Pick of the Punch annuals with cartoons and text features, Punch and the War a 1941 collection of...
. He was hired as a regular staff cartoonist in 1921. and became lead cartoonist in 1945 but was removed from this post by
Malcolm MuggeridgeThomas Malcolm Muggeridge was a British journalist, author, satirist, media personality, soldier-spy and, in his later years, a Christian convert and writer.- Biography :...
, who became editor in 1953.
Shepard was recommended to Milne by another
Punch staffer,
E. V. LucasEdward Verrall Lucas was a versatile and popular English writer of nearly 100 books. His style has great facility, and is generally found insipid by contemporary readers; some of his cricket writing has lasted. He is now remembered for his essays and books about London and travel, appearing in...
in 1923. Initially, Milne thought Shepard's style was not what he wanted, but used him to illustrate his book of poems
When We Were Very YoungWhen We Were Very Young is a book by A. A. Milne containing forty-four poems. It was first published in 1924, and was illustrated by E. H. Shepard. Several of the verses were set to music by Harold Fraser-Simson...
. Happy with the results, Milne insisted Shepard illustrate
Winnie-the-PoohWinnie-the-Pooh, commonly shortened to Pooh Bear and once referred to as Edward Bear, is a fictional bear created by A. A. Milne. The first collection of stories about the character was the book Winnie-the-Pooh , and this was followed by The House at Pooh Corner...
. Realising his illustrator's contribution to the book's success, Milne generously arranged for Shepard to receive a share of his royalties. Milne also, touchingly, inscribed a copy of Winnie-the-Pooh with the following personal verse:
When I am gone,
Let Shepard decorate my tomb,
And put (if there is room)
Two pictures on the stone:
Piglet from page a hundred and eleven,
And Pooh and Piglet walking (157)…
And Peter, thinking that they are my own,
Will welcome me to Heaven.
Shepard's original inscribed copy of the book was bought by investor Luke Heron for £34,850 at a
Sotheby'sSotheby's is the world's third oldest auction house in continuous operation.-History:The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674 and the second oldest is Uppsala Auktionskammare founded in 1731, both Swedish...
auction in December 2008.
Eventually, Shepard grew to resent "that silly old bear" and felt that these illustrations overshadowed his other work.
Shepard modelled Pooh not on the toy owned by
Christopher RobinChristopher Robin Milne was the son of author A. A. Milne. As a young child, he was the basis of the character Christopher Robin in his father's Winnie-the-Pooh stories and in two books of poems.-Early life:...
, Milne's son, but on "Growler", a stuffed bear owned by his own son. (Growler no longer exists, having been given to his granddaughter Minnie Hunt and subsequently destroyed by a neighbour's dog.) His Pooh work is so famous that 300 of his preliminary sketches were exhibited at the
Victoria and Albert MuseumThe Victoria and Albert Museum in London is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects. Named after Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, it was founded in 1852, and has since grown to now cover some and 145 galleries...
in 1969, when he was 90 years old.
An E.H. Shepard painting of Winnie the Pooh is the only known oil painting of the famous teddy bear. It was purchased at an auction for $285,000 in London late in 2000. The painting is displayed at the Pavilion Gallery in
Assiniboine ParkAssiniboine Park is a park in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It was established in 1904 and is located north of the Assiniboine Forest. Today, it covers , of these are designed in the English landscape style....
,
WinnipegWinnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, in south central Canada, near the eastern edge of the Canadian Prairies, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers...
,
ManitobaManitoba is a prairie province in Canada and has an area of . Manitoba is bordered by the provinces of Ontario to the east and Saskatchewan to the west, the territory of Nunavut to the north, and the U.S. states of North Dakota and Minnesota to the south...
,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
Shepard wrote two autobiographies:
Drawn from Memory (1957) and
Drawn From Life (1962).
In 1972, Shepard gave his personal collection of papers and illustrations to the
University of SurreyThe University of Surrey is a university located within the county town of Guildford, Surrey in the South East of England. It received its charter on 9 September 1966, and was previously situated near Battersea Park in south-west London. The institution was known as Battersea College of Technology...
. These now form the E.H. Shepard Archive.
Shepard lived at
LodsworthLodsworth is a small village and civil parish in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. It is situated between Midhurst and Petworth, half a mile north of the A272 road...
in
West SussexWest Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
. He had two children, Graham (born 1907) and Mary (born 1909).
Graham ShepardGraham Shepard was an English illustrator and cartoonist.He was the son of E. H. Shepard, the illustrator of Winnie-the-Pooh and The Wind in the Willows. He was educated at Marlborough College and Oxford...
was at Marlborough College and Oxford with
Louis MacNeiceFrederick Louis MacNeice was an Irish poet and playwright. He was part of the generation of "thirties poets" which included W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender and C. Day Lewis; nicknamed "MacSpaunday" as a group — a name invented by Roy Campbell, in his Talking Bronco...
and served in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
on the North Atlantic convoys. His ship, HMS
Polyanthus, was sunk by the German
U-BoatU-boat is the anglicized version of the German word , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
U-952 on 21 September 1943 with the loss of all but one crew member. Graham was survived by his wife, Ann Faith Shepard, and a young daughter, Minette Shepard.
Mary ShepardMary Shepard was an English illustrator, most well known for her illustrations of P. L. Travers' Mary Poppins....
also became an illustrator. She is best known for her illustrations of Pamela Travers'
Mary PoppinsMary Poppins is a series of children's books written by P.L. Travers and originally illustrated by Mary Shepard. The books centre on a mysterious, vain and acerbic magical English nanny, Mary Poppins. She is blown by the East wind to Number Seventeen Cherry Tree Lane, London and into the Banks'...
.
Works illustrated
- 1924 - When We Were Very Young
When We Were Very Young is a book by A. A. Milne containing forty-four poems. It was first published in 1924, and was illustrated by E. H. Shepard. Several of the verses were set to music by Harold Fraser-Simson...
- 1925 - Playtime and Company, Holly Tree
- 1926 - Winnie The Pooh
Winnie-the-Pooh is the first volume of stories about Winnie-the-Pooh, by A. A. Milne. It is followed by The House at Pooh Corner. The book focuses on the adventures of a teddy bear called Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends Piglet, a small toy pig; Eeyore, a toy donkey; Owl, a live owl; and Rabbit, a...
, Everybody's Pepys
- 1927 - Jeremy, Little One's Log, Let's Pretend, Now We Are Six
Now We Are Six is a book of thirty-five children's verses by A. A. Milne, with illustrations by E. H. Shepard. It was first published in 1927 including poems such as "King John's Christmas", "Binker" and "Pinkle Purr". Eleven of the poems in the collection are accompanied by illustrations featuring...
, Fun and Fantasy
- 1928 - The House at Pooh Corner
The House at Pooh Corner is the second volume of stories about Winnie-the-Pooh, written by A. A. Milne and illustrated by E. H. Shepard. It is notable for the introduction of the character Tigger, who went on to become a prominent figure in the Disney Winnie the Pooh franchise.The title comes from...
, The Golden Age
- 1930 - Everybody's Boswell, Dream Days
- 1931 - The Wind in the Willows
The Wind in the Willows is a classic of children's literature by Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. Alternately slow moving and fast paced, it focuses on four anthropomorphised animal characters in a pastoral version of England...
, Christmas Poems, Bevis, Mother GooseMother Goose is a well-known figure in the literature of fairy tales and nursery rhymes. She is often prominent in Mother Goose stories, also more commonly known as "nursery rhymes"...
- 1932 - Sycamore Square
- 1933 - Everybody's Lamb, The Cricket in the Cage
- 1934 - Victoria Regina
- 1935 - Perfume from Provence
- 1936 - The Modern Struwwelpeter
- 1937 - Golden Sovereign, Chaeddar Gorge, As the Bee Sucks, Extra Perfume from Provence
- 1939 - The Reluctant Dragon
The Reluctant Dragon is an 1898 children's story by Kenneth Grahame , which served as the key element to the 1941 feature film with the same name from Walt Disney Productions. The story has also been set to music as a children's operetta by John Rutter, with words by David Grant...
- 1941 - Gracious Majesty
- 1948 - Golden Age, Dream Days, Bertie's Escapade
- 1949 - York
- 1950 - Drover's Tale
- 1951 - Enter David Garrick
- 1953 - Silver Curlew
- 1954 - Cuckoo Clock, Susan, Bill and the Wolf-dog
- 1955 - Glass Slipper, Operation Wild Goose, Crystal Mountain, Frogmorton, The Brownies
- 1956 - The Islanders, The Pancake
- 1957 - Drawn from Memory, Briar Rose
- 1958 - Old Greek Fairy Tales
- 1959 - Tom Brown's School Days
- 1960 - Noble Company
- 1961 - Drawn from Life, Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales
- 1965 - Ben and Buck
- 1969 - The Wind in the Willows' (colour re-illustration), The Pooh Cookbook(cover)
- 1970 - Winnie the Pooh(colour re-illustration), ""House at Pooh Corner(colour re-illustration)
- 1971 - The Pooh Party Book(cover)
External links