THE WACKY WORLDS OF WILLIAM HEATH ROBINSON

One of my very favourite artists is William Heath Robinson...

Not only was he among the greatest of great 20th Century book illustrators he was also a cartoonist of inspired wit and rare inventiveness, most celebrated in popular culture and destined to be remembered with affection for years to come as the creator of hundreds of gloriously bizarre and beautiful contraptions and contrivances that have carried the artist's name into dictionaries and everyday conversation whenever the need arose for a term to describe any kind of implausible device or construction...

The secret of Writing of his much-loved inventions, Heath Robinson said: "Whatever success my drawings have had was not only down to the fantastic machinery and devices, and to the absurd situations, but to the style in which they were drawn. This was designed to imply that the artist had complete belief in what he was drawing.... He was seeing no joke in the subject matter. In fact, he was part of the joke!"

Less well-known to some are Heath Robin's entrancing illustrations, fpund in various vintage magazines...

 ...and in works by Shakespeare and Kipling, Hans Andersen, Charles Kingsley and Walter de la Mare...

...as well as his own stories, Bill the Minder and Uncle Lubin...

Many of his most extraordinary compositions using bold contrasts of silhouette, detailed cross-hatching and dramatic areas of white space in which create imagery of arresting theatricality...

 

The exciting news is that The William Heath Robinson Trust, a registered charity established to preserve and manage a collection of Heath Robinson’s work including over 500 pieces of original art work and to promote the artist's reputation, is working to found a William Heath Robinson Mueseum at West House in the London suburb of Pinner, an area in which Heath Robinson once lived.

Following a successful bid for Heritage Lottery Funding, the Trust has now embarked on fourteen months of development: working up detailed designs for the building, a permanent exhibition and the way the museum will operate. They will also need to have secured £500,000 of partnership funding by the end of the development period.

You can read about plans for the museum and see how you can help in bringing them to fruition, here.

I hope this great project gathers all the support in order to enable more and more people to celebrate and enjoy the unique worlds of William Heath Robinson.