Code: 11429
An Arts & Crafts period nursery chromolithograph; "Simple Simon" after the artist John Hassall; c1900.
In its original ebonised wooden frame. Some very minor surface damage to the litho as can be seen.
Approx 18.5" by 20.5" including the frame.
John Hassall RI RMS (1868-1948); painter and illustrator.
Studied art in Antwerp and Paris, influenced by the poster artist Alphonse Mucha.
Worked as an advertising artist for David Allen & Sons from 1895; a career that lasted some 50 years, in which he produced his iconic “Skegness is so Bracing” poster in 1908.
Used flat colours enclosed by bold black lines, a poster style that was equally suitable for picture books.
He produced many delightful volumes of nursery rhymes and fairy stories, such as Mother Gooses Nursery Rhymes (1909).
Also supplied Liberty & Co, amongst others, with nursery posters and friezes, including the famous “Morning, Noon & Night” posters.
In 1900, he opened his own New Art School and School of Poster Design in Kensington, which was amalgamated in 1908 with Frank Brangwyn's London School, but was closed at the outbreak of the First World War.
In the post war period, he ran his very successful John Hassall Correspondence School.
