Ronald Searle: Le Nouveau Ballet Anglais

Le Nouveau Ballet Anglais (1946) is a scarce book title by Ronald Searle published for the French market. It contains sixteen drawings, of which only one is reproduced in this recent eBay listing. In the immediate post-war years, Searle had hoped to establish himself as a serious artist chronicling the times. It was in humorous illustration that he was to achieve his greatest success.

Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. puts this period of Searle's life in context for us:

http://www.bpib.com/illustrat/searle.htm

Cover to Ronald Searle's Le Nouveau Ballet Anglais, Paris, Montbrun, 1946

Title page to Ronald Searle's Le Nouveau Ballet Anglais, Paris, Montbrun, 1946

Limitation page to Ronald Searle's Le Nouveau Ballet Anglais, Paris, Montbrun, 1946.
Exemplaire No. 490 of 650 numbered copies plus four lettered copies.

Ronald Searle, "Ballerina" from Le Nouveau Ballet Anglais, Paris, Montbrun, 1946

Hand-written copy of the book review from the Edinburgh Evening News, 

Note:  Stop me if you've heard this before. A world-class exhibition of Ronald Searle's reportage work for the American magazine market is planned for San Francisco's Cartoon Art Museum this November. The animation community has contributed brilliantly to an eBay fundraiser for the "Searle in America" show. There are still some fine items to be had here.

The Searle in America blog is dedicated to this forthcoming exhibition as well as the eBay fundraiser and can be seen here.

Of course, Perpetua, the Ronald Searle tribute blog, should be your first stop in exploring the work of this amazing cartoonist, and it's right here.

And once you're done with all that, my own Searle posts are right here. Yes indeed!

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