Ronald William Fordham Searle

Illustration for Le Figaro, 1955, ‘Le Major Thompson et Les Anglais: Catastrophe chez Mrs Cripplestone’ by Pierre Daninos.

Inscribed by the artist, lower left, “Danino article No. 1 Feb 10”

A preliminary drawing of the faces of the main characters in this work was with Chris Beetles Gallery and came from the from the sketchbook, ‘Major Thompson in Paris, Figaro’, 1955.  That drawing had the following typed inscription:

The boarding house of Mrs Cripplestone.

Mrs Cripplestone, widow of an Indian Army officer and of a first husband whose portraits she carries in two lockets, one round her neck and the other on a chain on her large bosom, resembles very much your school mistresses of the boarding house keeper you created for a book called ‘London So Help Me’. The drawing of the dining room with the old ladies and several retired officers (the boarding house is in South Kensington) would be exactly in the style of the one in this book on page 15 (“An atmosphere of peaceful gentility”).