Ernest H. Shepard
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Ernest Howard Shepard Fellow of the Royal Academy |
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|---|---|
| Born |
10 December 1879 St John's Wood, London |
| Died | 24 March 1976 (aged 96) London |
| Battles/wars | World War I |
| Awards | OBE, Military Cross |
| Other work | Artist and book illustrator |
Ernest Howard Shepard OBE, MC (10 December 1879 – 24 March 1976) was an English artist and book illustrator. He is known especially for illustrations of the anthropomorphic soft toy and animal characters in The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame and Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne.
Shepard was born in St John's Wood, London. Having shown some promise in drawing at St Paul's School, he enrolled in Heatherley's School of Fine Art in Chelsea. After a productive year there, he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy Schools: in 1899, a Landseer scholarship, and in 1900 one at the British Institute. where he would meet Florence Eleanor Chaplin who would become his first wife. By 1906 Shepard had become a successful illustrator, having produced work for illustrated editions of Aesop's Fables, David Copperfield, and Tom Brown's Schooldays, while at the same time working as an illustrator on the staff of Punch. They bought a house in London after marriage in 1901. But a few years later in 1905 had moved to Sharnley Green, near Guildford. Shepard was a prolific painter showing in a number of major exhibitions. One was at the Royal Society of Artists, Birmingham a traditional venue for generic painters. As well as in England he also exhibited in the more radical atmosphere of Glasgow's Institute of Fine Arts, where some of the most innovative artists were on show. He was twice an exhibitor at the prestigious Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, one of the largest and most important provincial galleries in the country, and another at the Manchester Art Gallery, a Victorian institution now part of the public libraries. But at heart Shepard was a Londoner showing sixteen times at the Royal Academy on Piccadilly. His wife Eleanor was also a painter, who found a home in London's West End venue for her own modest output during a 25-year career.
Although in his mid-thirties when World War I broke out in 1914, Shepard received a commission as a second lieutenant in the Royal Garrison Artillery, an arm of the Royal Artillery. By 1916, Shepard started working for the Intelligence Department sketching the combat area within the view of his battery position. On 16 February 1917, he was made an acting captain whilst second-in-command of a siege battery, and briefly served as an acting major in late April and early May of that year, when he reverted to the acting rank of captain. He was promoted to lieutenant on 1 July 1917. Whilst acting as Captain, he was awarded the Military Cross for his service at the Battle of Passchendaele. His citation read:
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