Bertram Prance
was best known during the nineteen twenties and thirties for his
humorous illustrations in Punch magazine also in the Humorist,
London Opinion and many more. His artistic gifts
manifested at an early age while a pupil at the school of Art
and Science in Bideford and he was very soon having his work
published in The Tatler' and other popular story magazines and
books. His mastery of the pen was shown at its best in the
delicacy of his black and white drawings and cartoons depicting
the social mores of the period and in the various characters he
drew whether it be a snobby hostess or a weather beaten
and threadbare tramp. All captured with a delightful sense of
humour. He was elected a member of the Savage Club, the
foremost arts club in London, where he was to meet other artists
at the top of the stage, music and literary professions. He was
also an active member of the London Sketch Club situated in the
Marylebone Road where many practicing commercial artists
gathered once or twice a week for work and entertainment.
Friday nights were always work nights where often the pictures
drawn and painted were swapped. He was elected President
of the Sketch Club in 1948. In the 1930's he illustrated the
books of Anthony Armstrong, one of the 'Punch' literary
contributers, and post war the Lone Pine series of books for
children by Malcolm Saville. These latter books have remained
extremely popular to this day and are now valued by collectors.
A life long friend of his was B.C.Hilliam, Flotsam of the
Flotsam and Jetsam singing duo popular in the 1930's and
he illustrated several of B.C.'s books. During the 1940/45 war,
like every one else, Bertram's work was seriously disrupted and
his cartoon work never recovered. After the war he was
still in demand for book illustration and advertisements but
following a serious illness he gradually turned his talents to
painting. He worked in guache and oils and was prolific in
his output; he loved the countryside, the skies, coasts and
seashore which were such a prominent influence in his younger
days.
One of five children Bertram Prance was born
on December 5th 1889 in Bideford, North Devonshire.
His father was well known locally as Captain Prance, skipper of
his own fishing trawler 'Deera', which was one of many fishing
vessels bringing their catches to the quayside in
Bideford. The sea and the skies, therefore were very much
part of the visual experience of the young Bertram. Apart from a
brief period during the war when he returned to Bideford
most of Bertram's adult life was spent on the Surrey/Sussex
border where he had bought some land. The house he
designed and had built for himself and his young
family was in the village of Rudgwick and he named it
‘Chudleigh’. A lovely garden with a tennis court was laid out by
him with the help of one gardener but 1n 1940, like many other
largish houses, Chudleigh was requisitioned by the army and
altered so much that when the war ended he never had the heart
to return and it was sold. W.Heath Robinson was a near
neighbour and they became good friends. After a short
spell in Hampstead post war in 1952 he bought the west part of
Campfield Place on Leith Hill, Surrey which was to be the family
home until it was sold in 1983. Many of his paintings are from
the Leith Hill era.
Bertram Prance came from a long line of North
Devon Prances whose great-grandfather was John Prance of
Peppercombe, the one who fell over the cliff there and died from
his injuries in 1871. He married Kate Macfarlane from Barnstaple
in 1915 and had two children. He was greatly interested in
the foundation of the Burton Art Gallery in Bideford just after
the war. This gallery has been much enlarged and modernised
since and his son arranged a comprehensive retrospective
exhibition of his work there in 1998. The 'Burton' has a
number of his drawings and paintings in its permanent
collection.
Market Square, Menton. S.France
Oil 1946
|
Hartland. N.Devon
Gouache
|
'
The Heiress Falls
Overboard'
The Burton Art Gallery and Museum, Bideford.
Some periodicals contributed to .........
Bystander
|
Everybody's wkly
|
London Opinion
|
Penny Pictorial
|
Tatler
|
Cheerio
|
Film Weekly
|
Lot O'Fun
|
Peoples Journal
|
The Scout
|
Chips
|
Gaity Magazine
|
Lilliput
|
Piccadilly
|
The Sketch
|
Chums
|
Good Housekeeping
|
Merry Moments
|
Printer's Pie
|
The White Jacket
|
Comic Cuts
|
Grand Magazine
|
Mills and Boon
|
Punch
|
The World
|
Crusoe Magazine
|
Happy Home
|
Nash's Magazine
|
Quiver
|
Tit Bits
|
Daily Express
|
Happy Mag
|
News Chronicle
|
Red Magazine
|
Today
|
DailyHerald
|
The Humorist
|
Novel Magazine
|
Royal Magazine
|
Weekly Dispatch
|
Daily Mail
|
Jester
|
Passing Show
|
Sea Pie
|
Weekly Telegraph
|
Daily Sketch
|
John Bull
|
Pearson's Mag.
|
Strand Magazine
|
Windsor Magazine
|
|
Wolf Cub
|
Radio Times
|
Winter's Pie
|
Ect.
|
Purturbed
patient: "Poisoned doctor? But how?"
Doctor: "Oh, the post mortem will explain that ."
Chudleigh, Rudgwick 1939
|
Bertram and Kitty in West Campfield Place
garden. 1953
|