Bodies Gallery

Surreal study, 1952. Creator: Shirley Markham

Surreal study, 1952. Illustration for a poem by TS Eliot. Shirley Markham (1931-1999) studied Graphic Design and Illustration at Central School of Art in London from 1950-1952. The writer, artist, poet, and illustrator Mervyn Peake (1911-1968) was one of her tutors, and her style of drawing was also influenced by other British illustrators such as Edward Ardizzone, Quentin Blake and Edward Bawden. Markham spent time in the Dolomite Mountains in Italy, and also visited Rome, sketching classical buildings. After graduating from Central, she worked as a graphic designer, producing book illustrations, cartoons for comics, menus and programmes. She gave up her promising career however when she got married in 1957. Middle-class women at that time were expected to devote their energies to bringing up children and running the home, and despite her obvious talent, she lacked the confidence to return to illustration. Her portfolio remained in the family attic for many years, but now her work is published here for the first time

© Shirley Markham Collection / Heritage-Images

Nude Danae by Jean Straker

A woman reclining on a bed is captured in a shaft of light. A nude study by photographer Jean Straker inspired by the painting Danae by Rembrandt which appeared in his art photography book, Nudes of Jean Straker published by Charles Skilton Ltd in 1958. Straker was best-known for his nude photographic studies and for the ensuing prosecutions he endured under the Obscene Publications Act during the 1950s and 60s. This photography example of Straker's belief that photography could paint with light'.
c.1958

© Mary Evans Picture Library 2015 - https://copyrighthub.org/s0/hub1/creation/maryevans/MaryEvansPictureID/10513356

Britannia and Cetewayo

Retribution : Britannia seizes the Zulu chief Cetewayo round the neck, in a landscape dominated by the dead bodies of both British soldiers and Zulus

© Mary Evans Picture Library 2015 - https://copyrighthub.org/s0/hub1/creation/maryevans/MaryEvansPictureID/10272827

1879, Africa, African, Bodies, Britain, Britannia, British, Caricature, Cartoon, Cartoons, Cetawayo, Cetewayo, Cetshwayo, Cetywajo, Chief, Dead, Historical, History, Ketchwayo, King, Knife, Retribution, Sword, War, Zulu, Zulus