Collection: Edward Ardizzone   1900 - 1979 

Edward Ardizzone (1900-1979) was a book illustrator, printmaker, artist and writer for children. He was born in French Indo-China (now Vietnam). When Ardizzone was four or five years old his mother brought him and two siblings to Suffolk to be looked after by their grandmother so that she and her husband could remain in the Far East.

Ardizzone studied art at Westminster School of Art in 1920-1 under Bernard Meninsky. He was an official war artist during World War II, working widely in Europe and North Africa, and his illustrated diaries are notable records. After the war he established a strong reputation as a book illustrator and writer. He had a retrospective at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1974.