39 Facts About Edmund Blampied

Edmund Blampied was one of the most eminent artists to come from the Channel Islands, yet he received no formal training in art until he was 15 years old.

Edmund Blampied was noted mostly for his etchings and drypoints published at the height of the print boom in the 1920s during the etching revival, but was a lithographer, caricaturist, cartoonist, book illustrator and artist in oils, watercolours, silhouettes and bronze.

Edmund Blampied was born on a farm in the Parish of Saint Martin, Jersey in the Channel Islands on 30 March 1886, five days after the death of his father, John Blampied.

Edmund Blampied was the last of four boys and was brought up by his mother, Elizabeth, a dressmaker and shopkeeper mostly in the Parish of Trinity, Jersey.

Edmund Blampied finished parochial school at the age of 14 and went to work in the office of the town architect in Saint Helier, the capital of the island.

Edmund Blampied gave the young Blampied his first formal lessons in art and introduced him to watercolours.

Edmund Blampied's first published illustrations appeared in The Daily Chronicle on 13 January 1905.

In September 1905 Edmund Blampied transferred from the Lambeth School of Art to the London County Council School of Photo-engraving and Lithography at Bolt Court for the final year of his scholarship.

Edmund Blampied's prints were first shown at an exhibition of students' work in March 1914, where his etching of an ox cart was noted by the correspondent of The Times.

Edmund Blampied later recorded his method of working on zinc for etching and copper for drypoint in Ernest Stephen Lumsden's treatise The Art of Etching, published in 1925.

Edmund Blampied quickly gained commissions to provide drawings for Pearson's Magazine, The Sketch, The Sphere, The Ladies Field, The Queen and The Graphic, many of which were signed "Blam", a diminutive first recorded in The Tatler in January 1916.

Edmund Blampied used this diminutive for much of his commercial work for books and magazines, including three children's books for the Edinburgh publisher Thomas Nelson and Sons, Blam's Book of Fun, The Jolly ABC, and The Breezy Farm ABC, all published in 1921, and for much of his work for Pearson's Magazine, Hutchinson's Magazine, The Bystander, and The Sketch between 1916 and 1939.

On 5 August 1914, Edmund Blampied married Marianne van Abbe who was the sister of Dutch-born artists Joseph and Salomon van Abbe.

Edmund Blampied was a great support to Blampied in his work and prompted him to travel and see the world.

When conscription was introduced in Britain in 1916, Edmund Blampied returned to Jersey in the autumn of that year to be prepared to be called up for military service.

Edmund Blampied quickly re-established himself in London in September 1919 after his return from Jersey and his etchings were acknowledged by the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers who elected him an Associate in March 1920 at the same time as the wood engraver Gwen Raverat.

Edmund Blampied was elevated to the full fellowship a year later.

Edmund Blampied was elected at the end of what has been called the "etching revival", but there was still a strong market for prints, mainly as an inexpensive investment in art.

In October 1920 Edmund Blampied held his first solo exhibition of 28 etchings and drypoints at the Leicester Galleries, many of which were prints that had been held back because of the war.

Edmund Blampied had started to experiment with lithography in 1920, as two lithographs were shown at his first solo exhibition, but they had been transferred to a lithographers' stone from paper, and he wanted to learn how to draw directly onto the stone.

Edmund Blampied turned to Archibald Hartrick, a founder member of the Senefelder Club of lithographers, who was teaching at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, and started evening classes there.

The School won a Grand Prix for its works on paper and Edmund Blampied was one of 12 students who were awarded a Gold Medal as a collaborateur.

In 1924, having been inspired by an exhibition at the Leicester Galleries of models in wax by Degas, Edmund Blampied produced his only bronzes: Kicking horse, in an edition of 15, and Homewards evening.

Edmund Blampied held another major exhibition of his work, at the Leicester Galleries, in March 1925 where he showed eight etchings, 25 paintings and 18 drawings, but his bronzes do not seem to have been shown at an exhibition until 1929.

Edmund Blampied illustrated a film edition of Black Beauty by Anna Sewell and a new edition of The Roadmender by Michael Fairless.

Edmund Blampied held his first exhibition of paintings and drawings, rather than prints, at the Leicester Galleries in February 1923 while continuing regularly to exhibit his prints at the annual shows of the Royal Society of Painter Etchers and Engravers and the Senefelder Club of British lithographers, named after Alois Senefelder, the inventor of the method.

Edmund Blampied was a member of the Council of both societies for periods between 1924 and 1938.

Edmund Blampied's few published portraits are known from this time, although he did not particularly enjoy doing them.

In May 1938 Edmund Blampied was elected to the Royal Society of British Artists.

Jersey was occupied on 1 July 1940 and Edmund Blampied was trapped there for almost five years by the German Occupation of the island until its liberation on 9 May 1945.

The etching A Jersey vraic cart, which Edmund Blampied had just managed to have printed and signed before the island was invaded, was issued by the Print Club of Cleveland to coincide with the exhibition.

Edmund Blampied did not return to London after the war but remained in Jersey, mostly working in oils and watercolours, except for a series of 12 silhouettes he published in 1950 and a few etchings in 1957 and 1958, one for the Print Collector's Club of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers which was shown at the Royal Academy.

Edmund Blampied held three major exhibitions of his work in Jersey, in 1946,1951, and 1960 and continued to sell his watercolours and oil paintings in the UK and US, mostly at the annual exhibitions of the Royal Society of British Artists and through the dealers Annans in Glasgow and Guy Mayer in New York.

Edmund Blampied died in Jersey on 26 August 1966, aged 80 years.

Edmund Blampied's ashes were scattered in St Aubin's Bay, Jersey.

Edmund Blampied was a prolific illustrator and over 600 issues of magazines and newspapers have been recorded containing his work between 1905 and 1939.

Edmund Blampied's illustrations appear in around 50 books, and he designed the dust jacket for some 150 other books, mostly novels.

Edmund Blampied designed menu cards, loyal addresses, sheet music, Christmas cards, commercial advertising material and bookplates.

In 1933, La Chronique de Jersey, a French language newspaper, considered publishing a booklet of Edmund Blampied poems illustrated by the artist himself, but the plans came to nothing.