Gerry Wolstenholme's Blog - Posts Tagged "art"
RENÉ BULL AT BLACKPOOL
The celebrated war artist and special correspondent René Bull appeared at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens Indian Lounge on 21 November 1900 to give a lecture on the fighting that was then taking place in South Africa.
He had seen service with General Buller’s column during the Boer War and had joined the troop on the train on the journey to Colenso. At one point he had left his luggage at Ladysmith Rail Station expecting to pick it up in a few days time as the view was that the siege would only last a few days! He contracted enteric fever while in South Africa following having to sleep on the floor after some severe storms.
Accompanying his lecture was a series of limelight views. These featured such things as the destruction of the free bridge by the Boers, the battle of Colenso, the appalling loss of life in views of the dead and wounded, the Red Cross wagon on the battlefield, the abandonment of Spion Kop and the grave of Lord Roberts’ only son.
Later in his career he went on to cover other military campaigns and he maintained his military connections when, during World War One, he served in both the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and the Royal Flying Corps.
René Bull as a commercial artist was flourishing from around 1892 to 1928 and, as well his military drawings, and other more traditional art, he excelled at cartoon style art. It was no surprise, therefore, that when he turned his hand to illustrating postcards his designs were of the humorous type. He became involved in the world of postcards through his fellow artist Tom Browne, who was involved with the postcard firm of Davidson Bros, and one of the early series that Bull produced, around 1906, was six postcards depicting cricketing phrases with a comic design.
He became a prolific postcard designer and worked for firms such as Landaker & Brown, Charles Voisey and Faulkners. His subjects were many and varied and included series, usually each of six postcards, on Billiards, Banking Expressions and Illustrated Limericks.
He also worked as a book illustrator producing, for example, a fine set of coloured and black and white illustrations for an edition of The Arabian Nights.
He had seen service with General Buller’s column during the Boer War and had joined the troop on the train on the journey to Colenso. At one point he had left his luggage at Ladysmith Rail Station expecting to pick it up in a few days time as the view was that the siege would only last a few days! He contracted enteric fever while in South Africa following having to sleep on the floor after some severe storms.
Accompanying his lecture was a series of limelight views. These featured such things as the destruction of the free bridge by the Boers, the battle of Colenso, the appalling loss of life in views of the dead and wounded, the Red Cross wagon on the battlefield, the abandonment of Spion Kop and the grave of Lord Roberts’ only son.
Later in his career he went on to cover other military campaigns and he maintained his military connections when, during World War One, he served in both the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and the Royal Flying Corps.
René Bull as a commercial artist was flourishing from around 1892 to 1928 and, as well his military drawings, and other more traditional art, he excelled at cartoon style art. It was no surprise, therefore, that when he turned his hand to illustrating postcards his designs were of the humorous type. He became involved in the world of postcards through his fellow artist Tom Browne, who was involved with the postcard firm of Davidson Bros, and one of the early series that Bull produced, around 1906, was six postcards depicting cricketing phrases with a comic design.
He became a prolific postcard designer and worked for firms such as Landaker & Brown, Charles Voisey and Faulkners. His subjects were many and varied and included series, usually each of six postcards, on Billiards, Banking Expressions and Illustrated Limericks.
He also worked as a book illustrator producing, for example, a fine set of coloured and black and white illustrations for an edition of The Arabian Nights.
