Original cartoon of late Queen and Diana by Wally Fawkes aka Trog.
Original cartoon featuring caricatures of the late Queen and Princess Diana by Wally Fawkes aka Trog. The image also includes a yowling baby, probably William, current Prince of Wales and a toy train dramatically derailing with 'BR' on the front of the engine. This would date the picture in the early 1980s. The hairstyles of the Queen and the late Princess in 1984 would back this up.
This
example is original artwork, a very clean pen and ink image on paper,
mounted and framed. You can see evidence of barely discernable tippex type corrections, very common practice of press cartoonists on a deadline. Acquired via Chris Beetles gallery in St James's, see label. It
will look fabulous anywhere in your home or workplace. The size to the
edge of the mount is 175 mm wide x 245 mm high.
WW = 'wall-worthy' = hangs in the vendor's home. :-)
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Wally Fawkes (1924 – 2023), aka ‘Trog’
Canadian-born Walter Pearsall moved to Britain with his family aged 7, adopting the surname of his new step-father: Fawkes.
Invalided
out of active service during WW2, he spent the conflict painting
camouflage on buildings as well as working on maps of coal mines for the
Coal Commission.
Having already realised his talent as an illustrator, Fawkes started working for the Daily Mail
very soon after the war ended, adopting the pen-name ‘Trog’, short for
troglodyte. There he developed his signature character ‘Flook’ while
nurturing his talent as a highly skilled caricature artist. He became
the paper’s regular political cartoonist in 1969. In 1984 he left the Mail for Robert Maxwell’s Mirror group, taking Flook with him. In subsequent years, Fawkes provided cartoons for Today, the Observer, the London Daily News and the Sunday Telegraph. He was a regular in the pages of Punch as well as appearing in Private Eye, the New Statesman and elsewhere. Finally he retired from drawing in 2005 after his eyesight had seriously deteriorated.
Wally
Fawkes was an enthusiastic and accomplished jazz musician, playing the
clarinet in mainstream and Dixieland groups. He played alongside his
good friend Humphrey Lyttleton for many years.
Popular and
well-connected, Fawkes was very much part of the Soho bohemian scene,
often to be found hanging out at the Coach and Horses with the Jeffrey
Barnard set.
Wally Fawkes died in London in 2023 at the ripe old age of 98.