Jersey: Southern Railway Poster Design

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, 100 Parliament Street

This poster, commissioned from Leonard Richmond by Southern Railway to attract people to the isle of Jersey, depicts a sunny, harmonious beach scene with several small groups of people enjoying a day by the sea. Behind the beach, there is a carefully composed landscape with trees in a variety of colourful hues. In this peaceful pre-Second World War world, the biplane flying overhead and the bathing costumes and hats are perhaps the most obvious clue that this is a view of 1930s Britain. 

Born in 1889, Leonard Richmond studied at the Taunton School of Art and Chelsea Polytechnic. He exhibited his work widely at the Fine Art Society, Royal Academy and other London galleries. Abroad, he won several awards including the Tuthill Prize at the Chicago International Watercolour Exhibition (1928) and a silver medal at the Paris Salon (1947). He received numerous commissions including First World War commission work for the Canadian Government, after which he stayed on to lecture in Canada and America. In 1933 he made poster designs for London Transport. He joined many British art societies and wrote books on painting techniques, as well as designing posters for British railway companies.

Places

Channel Islands: Jersey, English Channel

Subjects

railway, aeroplane, bathing, travel & tourism, swimming, ball, topography, genre, illustration/graphic, seascape/coastal scene, tree, hill, stone/rock, beach, boy, man, woman, girl, swimming costume, family, child, field, house, hut

Materials & Techniques

canvas, card, oil, oil painting

Artist

Leonard Richmond (1889 - 1965)

Title

Jersey: Southern Railway Poster Design

Date

1937

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

height: 76.60 cm, width: 62.00 cm

Acquisition

Origin uncertain

Inscription

bl: LEONARD RICHMOND

GAC number

14428