Paul Hogarth - part 1

Paul Hogarth by William Smith in 1969

When I was a student at Cambridge Art School, Paul Hogarth RA (1917 – 2001), the famous reportage artist, was a visiting lecturer. He encouraged us to 'go out and draw' and 'use our eyes'. Good advice. It really hones your observational skills.

Paul Hogarth was born in 1917 in Kendal, Cumbria. In 1923 his family and he moved to Manchester. He attended the Manchester School Of Art from 1934 to 1936, where he became involved in the Artists' International Association and the Communist Party of Great Britain. After 1936 he attended St Martins College in London, and fought in the Spanish Civil War in the International Brigade.

Paul Hogarth was one of the most prolific and successful commercial artists of his day, a painter in watercolours, an illustrator and printmaker, he is probably best known for his images of the faraway and exotic, with a sensitivity to architecture.

Through his commitment to the radical Left in the 1950s which involved working trips to China, the USSR and the Soviet satellite states, to the time he spent living and working in the United States, Paul's drawings and paintings represent an important and unique record of six decades of world history. His love of travel and his unique ability to gain an insight into other cultures did not diminish through the years, as his 1995 trip to Croatia and subsequent exhibitions demonstrated.

Literature was another great force in Paul's life and it is through his collaborations with celebrated writers including Doris Lessing, Brendan Behan, Graham Greene, Robert Graves and Lawrence Durrell that Paul's work became familiar to millions across the globe.

These have appeared in his own books and lithographs and also in collaboration with such distinguished writers as Robert Graves, Graham Greene and Lawrence Durrell. He illustrated a large format edition of Peter Mayles 'A Year In Provence' and painted watercolours to illustrate an anthology of John Betjemans essays 'In Praise of Churches', bringing him wide recognition across the globe.

From 1959 to 1962 he was Senior Tutor at the Cambridge School of Art and from 1964 to 1971 at the Royal College of Art, London. In 1968-1969 he was associate professor of illustration at the Philadelphia College of Art, USA. Hogarth was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 1974 and to full membership in 1984. He became honorary president of the Association of Illustrators in 1982 and he received an O.B.E. in 1989. In 1999 he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Arts by Manchester Metropolitan University.

In 1967 at Cambridge we were set a reportage project drawing London markets over a period of a week. I did drawings of Leadenhall Market, Smithfield meat market, the original Covent Garden fruit & vegetable market, and the original Billingsgate fish market in Lower Thames Street. Here is one of my drawings of Billingsgate and Paul Hogarth's influence is clear. I remember he liked these drawings.

Billingsgate Market 1967 
pencil on paper © Poul Webb

My thanks go to the estate of Paul Hogarth - Diana Hogarth and Simon Robson for their cooperation and permission and to publish these blog posts. For more information on Paul Hogarth and for limited edition prints visit www.paulhogarth.co.uk (There is a direct link in the "Links" column in the sidebar)

This is part 1 of a 3-part post on the works of Paul Hogarth:

1952 Athens Cinema 
copyright © Estate of Paul Hogarth

1961 Penguin Books
Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves

1961 Penguin Books
The Trial of Lady Chatterley

1962 Penguin Books
Bliss and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield

1962 Penguin Books. 
The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen

1962 Penguin Books
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene

1962 Penguin Books
Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell

1962 Penguin Books
Hons and Rebels by Jessica Mitford

1962 Penguin Books
Pincher Martin by William Golding

1962 Penguin Books
The Goddam White Man by David Lytton

1962 Penguin Books
The Good Companions by J. B. Priestley

1962 Penguin Books
The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene

1962 Penguin Books
The Patriots by James Barlow

1962 Penguin Books
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene

1962 Penguin Books
The Quiet American by Graham Greene

1962 Penguin Books
The Vodi by John Braine

1963 Fortune magazine

1963 Fortune magazine

1963 Fortune magazine

1963 Fortune magazine

1963 Fortune magazine

1963 Fortune magazine

1963 Fortune magazine

1963 Fortune magazine

1963 Fortune magazine cover

1963 Penguin Books
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

1963 Penguin Books
The Outsider by Albert Camus

1963 Penguin Books
The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber and Other Stories by Ernest Hemingway

1963 Penguin Books
The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway

1965 Penguin Books
Men Without Women by Ernest Hemingway

1963 Penguin Books
Animal Farm by George Orwell

1963 Penguin Books
My Friend Judas by Andrew Sinclair

1963 Penguin Books
Stamboul Train by Graham Greene

1963 Penguin Books
The Fall by Albert Camus

1963 Penguin Books
The Ministry of Fear by Graham Greene

1963 Penguin Books
Memories of a Catholic Childhood by Mary McCarthy

1964 Brendan Behan's New York

1964 Brendan Behan's New York

1964 Brendan Behan's New York

1964 Brendan Behan's New York

1964 Brendan Behan's New York

1964 Penguin Books
Stamboul Train by Graham Greene

1964 Penguin Books
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene

1964 Penguin Books
The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene

1964 Penguin Books
The Sovereigns by Roger Vailland

1964 Penguin Books
The Tempter by Anthony Bloomfield

1964 Penguin Books
What Makes Sammy Run? by Bud Schulberg

1966 Penguin Books
King Solomon's Mines by Rider Haggard

1967 Penguin Books
The Comedians by Graham Greene

1967 Penguin Books
The Comedians by Graham Greene 

1969 Penguin Books
May We Borrow Your Husband? by Graham Greene

1970 Penguin Books
Collected Essays by Graham Greene