MABLETHORPE & SUTTON - ON - SEA / THE CHILDREN'S PARADISE. Circa 1926.
40 1/2x50 1/2 inches, 103x128 1/4 cm. Dangerfield Printing Co., London. Condition B: partially-recreated bottom margin, including printing text; repaired tears, creases, abrasions and restoration in margins and image; colors slightly attenuated. Framed.
Purvis' posters for the LNER run the gamut from traditional landscapes to people engaged in various activities. In the style of the Beggarstaff Brothers, "he formed his figures solely from masses of color, without outline" (Weill p. 228). His use of "flat primary colors and the elimination of detail" was his graphic calling-card for which he was most emulated (Railway p. 135), "indeed, no other artist in Britain was able to depict such vivid, life-like scenes with such an economy of means" (Purvis p. 66). "This poster aroused some controversy when it was first issued. The company received an angry letter from the secretary of a society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, protesting that a picture of a child hanging on to a donkey's tail was an incentive to cruelty and consequently a harmful influence on the young. His demand that the poster be withdrawn was refused" (Railway p. 134). Posters & Publicity, 1926, p, 14, Railway p.134, Furness Vol. 4, p. 22.
