ART OF THE BOOK
ILLUSTRATION ART ~ SIGNED & RARE BOOKS
John Wilfred Lawrence (b.1933)
John Lawrence was born in Hastings and trained at Hastings Art School from 1951 to 1953. After two years National Service in West Africa he attended the Central School of Arts and Crafts where he was introduced to wood engraving by Gertrude Hermes, graduating in 1957. John went on to teach at Brighton College of Art until l968 and then at Camberwell School of Art for over thirty years until 1993.
He subsequently taught at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge APU, living nearby with his wife Myra. In l990 he served as Master of the Artworkers’ Guild, is a member of the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers, Society of Wood Engravers, and The Double Crown Club. As an illustrator John Lawrence has worked extensively, and has justifiably gained a world-wide reputation. Books as both author and illustrator include Good Babies, Bad Babies and the cockney rhyming slang, Rabbit and Pork.
Twice winner of the Francis Williams Award for illustration (sponsored by The Victoria and Albert Museum) and twice runner-up for the Kurt Emil Maschler Award, he has illustrated for both adults and children. As well as an engraver he is a gifted watercolourist and, notably, was commissioned to produce artwork for the first illustrated edition of Richard Adams' best-selling Watership Down [1976]. His work is represented in collections such as the V & A in London, The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford as well as academic institutional collections in the United States. A classic English illustrator, John is arguably the most eminent engraver of a generation.
John Lawrence is pictured here with Philip Pullman, signing copies of Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass at The Illustrationcupboard Gallery, London in 2012.
