A man and a women are dancing together in an unseen ballroom, barely moving actually, while the man's attention is focused instead on the day's newspaper. His partner's face is hidden from us. Ronald Searle's droll drawing Interests, sold at auction on July 20 in Spain, could certainly be read as a comment on the emotional distance between men and women. It could also be read as an acknowledgment that the postwar world was changing faster than the British aristocracy could keep up with it. The cartoon is clearly related to a series of formal dance cartoons that appeared in Merry England, etc., Searle's 1956 collection published by his imprint Perpetua. Therefore it very likely dates to 1954 or 1955. Searle would occasionally return to the subject of men lost in mundane newspaper headlines while there are better things to be appreciated, notably in a 1974 cover for The New Yorker.
Note: This year is Ronald Searle's centenary. It's unclear whether 2020 will be remembered for anything else.
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| Ronald Searle Goya Subastas Listing Accessed July 19, 2020 |
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Ronald Searle
Merry England, etc. Perpetua, 1956
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Merry England, etc. Perpetua, 1956
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| from Merry England, etc. Perpetua, 1956 |
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| Ronald Searle The New Yorker, March 18, 1974 |
May 7, 2022 Update: Searle returned to the formal dance motif in a 1975 lithograph, Whatever Happened to the Romanoffs? Searle is widely know for his cat drawings, but here it is a dog that provides the perfect musical accompaniment to a romanticized fantasy that never was. This is #44 from the edition of 99:
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| Ronald Searle Whatever Happened to the Romanoffs? Edition of 99, 1975 |
Note: This year is Ronald Searle's centenary. It's unclear whether 2020 will be remembered for anything else.
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