Radnorshire Fine Arts Ltd has dated this Bruce Bairnsfather Ink Drawing to the 1940s.
Sheet: 14 7/8 x 10 3/4 in. (37.7 x 27.3 cm.)
Bruce Bairnsfather was one of the most prominent British cartoonists during World War I, thanks to his cartoon character ‘Old Bill’. The cartoons starred Old Bill, an elderly British “tommy” with a walrus mustache and pipe, as well as his pals Bert and Alf. The name also served as the origin of the slang name “The Bill” for the British police, since many officers had mustaches.
In the 1930’s he contributed to popular English magazines such as “ The Passing Show”, “ Illustrated”, “ John Bull” and the “ British Legion Journal”. With the outbreak of the Second World War, he introduced Old Bill’s son, Young Bill, and a film was made about the pair—”Old Bill & Son.”
From 1942 to 1944 he was officially attached to the American Forces in Europe, firstly with the American Army in Northern Ireland, and then the USAF at Chelveston in the UK, where he was based 1943 to 1944.
Captain Bruce Bairnsfather once described as “The Man who Won the War” and “the world’s greatest cartoonist” died on 29th September 1959 at the age of 72. In a career lasting forty-five years he had done an enormous number of different things, almost always accompanied by Old Bill, and almost sixty years after his death still has a large following among enthusiasts and collectors worldwide.
Radnorshire Fine Arts Ltd has dated this Bruce Bairnsfather Ink Drawing to the 1940s.
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Original Ink Drawing by Bruce Bairnsfather – Titled "The Sword and the Bayonet"
