Stuart Tresilian (Uncle Cecil)

Enid used many illustrators in her books. Discuss them here.
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Stuart Tresilian (Uncle Cecil)

Post by pete9012S »

Hi All!
I think by a very long margin Stuart Tresilian is THE BEST ILLUSTRATOR of any adventure/ mystery /books etc written by Enid for older readers.

I hope that doesnt stir up a hornets nest with the lovers of the 1990's famous five illustrations!, but I think each and every one of Stuart Tresilians illustrations seem to have been individually crafted with such care to attention and detail that any one stands up as a work of art in its own right ,(even without being illegaly 'coloured in'!
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Re: Stuart Tresilian (Uncle Cecil)

Post by Viv of Ginger Pop »

Hello Pete,

I love the Tresilian pictures too! They give me a 1930s feel. Do you know anything about him?

Best wishes

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Re: Stuart Tresilian (Uncle Cecil)

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

I like Stuart Tresilian's illustrations best too. They're dark and detailed and suit the stories perfectly. The wraparound dustwrapper designs are wonderful as well, especially the cover for the Macmillan Island of Adventure . It was absolutely amazing to see the original cover artwork for the first six titles at the Enid Blyton Day a couple of years ago.

Why "Uncle Cecil"? :?
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Re: Stuart Tresilian (Uncle Cecil)

Post by Julie2owlsdene »

Yes, I have to agree, wonderfull illustrations very apt for the time these books were written.

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Re: Stuart Tresilian (Uncle Cecil)

Post by Eddie Muir »

I found the following information on the internet, Anita, by typing in Stuart Tresilian (Uncle Cecil) in Google:

Of all the artists who contributed to Swift Annual, Stuart Tresilian is probably one of the best known. Apart from illustrating editions of Rudyard Kipling's Animal Stories and All the Mowgli Stories in the 1930s, he was the illustrator of Enid Blyton's hugely popular Adventure series of novels which went through many editions with Tresilian's illustrations intact.

Stuart Tresilian's birth was registered as Cecil Stewart Hazell Tresilian in Barton Regis, Gloucestershire, on 12 July 1891 (although usually given as Bristol). He was the son of Cecil P. Tresilian and Alice P. Tresilian, and had at least four siblings. The family moved to 67 Oakley Road, Islington, London, where Stuart's father worked as a Colliery Clerk.

Stuart Tresilian studied at the Regent Street Polytechnic School of Art and the Royal College of Art.
Tresilian served with the Army during the Great War; wounded, he was captured by the Germans and held at Rastatt, Baden, where he continued to draw throughout his incarceration. Some of his drawings are now held by the Imperial War Museum, an example of which can be found here.

Following his release, he returned to the Regent Street Polytechnic as a teacher, his students including Charles Keeping. During the 1930s and 1940s he was also a very prolific illustrator for books and magazines, his work appearing in The Wide World Magazine, Nash’s Pall Mall Magazine, Zoo, The Passing Show, The Wide World Magazine and Britannia and Eve. He also co-wrote a text book for art students, Human Anatomy for Art Students (1961).

Tresilian was a member of the Art Workers' Guild (Master, 1960) and of the SGA (President, 1962-65). After retiring, he moved to Winslow, Buckinghamshire. Tresilian died in the summer of 1974 (not 1976 as I've seen on one art auction web site), his death registered in North Bucks (as Cecil Stuart P. Tresilian).

More information can be found by clicking on the following link:

http://bearalley.blogspot.com/2007/02/s ... ilian.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Stuart Tresilian (Uncle Cecil)

Post by Tony Summerfield »

I visited the illustrator Mary Gernat (Six Bad Boys and numerous Armada and Dragon paperbacks) at her home a few years ago, and one of the interesting things she told me was that Stuart Tresilian was her tutor at art college.
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Re: Stuart Tresilian (Uncle Cecil)

Post by Timmy-the-dog »

pete90125 wrote: think by a very long margin Stuart Tresilian is THE BEST ILLUSTRATOR of any adventure/ mystery /books etc written by Enid for older readers.
I'd go further than that - I reckon he's one of the best children's book illustrators of all time.
His original pen drawings now fetch huge sums. The original circular drawing from the front of "The Jungle Book" was auctioned about 2 years ago and my bids looked silly :oops:
The original artwork for the Adventure series were auctioned on behalf of Macmillan on 1991. Only the covers were the sold - all the wonderful pen drawings seemed to have disappeared - hmmm!!

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Re: Stuart Tresilian (Uncle Cecil)

Post by Tony Summerfield »

Timmy-the-dog wrote:The original artwork for the Adventure series were auctioned on behalf of Macmillan on 1991. Only the covers were the sold - all the wonderful pen drawings seemed to have disappeared - hmmm!!

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I think you must have missed Anita's post above, Timmy, as the Society now owns the six covers auctioned by Macmillan, I am looking at The Island of Adventure cover as I type! :P
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Re: Stuart Tresilian (Uncle Cecil)

Post by Timmy-the-dog »

Tony Summerfield wrote:I think you must have missed Anita's post above, Timmy, as the Society now owns the six covers auctioned by Macmillan, I am looking at The Island of Adventure cover as I type!
Hi Tony, yes I knew that and saw the pics of the Blyton day where they were on show. As far as I remember, the Society only purchased them a couple of years ago. What I meant was that the covers were first auctioned in 1991. Macmillan still owned them up to that point in time. According to the very nice lady I spoke to at Macmillan, none of the pen and ink sketches from the insides of the Adventure series were ever found when the original auction was being put together!!
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Re: Stuart Tresilian (Uncle Cecil)

Post by Lucky Star »

Timmy-the-dog wrote: According to the very nice lady I spoke to at Macmillan, none of the pen and ink sketches from the insides of the Adventure series were ever found when the original auction was being put together!!
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What a pity. I think many of the pen and ink internal drawings from the Adventure series are even better than the colour covers. There is one from The Island of Adventure depicting the moment when Jack thinks he has spied a Great Auk from Bill's boat as it tosses on a stormy sea. It is one of my all time favourite illustrations and sums up the time and feel of the book completely to me. It was wonderful to be able to see the original covers at the EBS day in Twyford.
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Re: Stuart Tresilian (Uncle Cecil)

Post by Timmy-the-dog »

Lucky Star wrote:What a pity. I think many of the pen and ink internal drawings from the Adventure series are even better than the colour covers. There is one from The Island of Adventure depicting the moment when Jack thinks he has spied a Great Auk from Bill's boat as it tosses on a stormy sea. It is one of my all time favourite illustrations and sums up the time and feel of the book completely to me.
I agree - great picture, I've lust looked at it. As far as the illustrations are concerned, either someone is sitting on the whole lot or they got thrown out like the famous Five illustrations :cry:

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Re: Stuart Tresilian (Uncle Cecil)

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Lucky Star wrote:I think many of the pen and ink internal drawings from the Adventure series are even better than the colour covers. There is one from The Island of Adventure depicting the moment when Jack thinks he has spied a Great Auk from Bill's boat as it tosses on a stormy sea. It is one of my all time favourite illustrations and sums up the time and feel of the book completely to me.
That's a striking illustration, though some of my personal favourites are from The Sea of Adventure. I love the drawings of the swooping seabirds and of Huffin and Puffin. I also recall a lovely picture of Jack in The Island of Adventure, lying on the cliff using his field-glasses to look out to sea. That picture always reminds me of E. H. Shepard's illustration for A. A. Milne's poem 'The Island.'

Thanks for the further information about Stuart Tresilian, Eddie!
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Re: Stuart Tresilian (Uncle Cecil)

Post by Ming »

Stuart Tresilian's illustrations were undoubtedly the best for any adventure/mystery story, but my personal favourite was Mary Gernat's work in The Six Bad Boys. Mary's illustrations seem very much in period - set in the correct time, place, etc.

Interesting information, Tony and Eddie.
Image

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Re: Stuart Tresilian (Uncle Cecil)

Post by Jose_Lisboa »

Yes, Cecil Stuart Tresilian was by far the best ilustrator.
And... the only one that managed to give a sexual feeling to the drawings (yes, yes) with only a few people beeing aware of it.
I'm not only noticing the shapes, that would be too obvious. But take a look at the expression on the girls faces; they are enticing, on a very subtle way, and yet so obvious (for those who can see).
Some of my first fantasies come from there.
If in doubt go and look for the ilustrations he did for Kipling's books where he could be more bold (and yet, still dubious).

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Re: Stuart Tresilian (Uncle Cecil)

Post by 70s-child »

Has anyone else noticed that Tresilian doesn't always draw the adventure characters the same way? There is a wide variation in the way he draws them, often in the same book. One of the most noticeable differences is in the way he drew Allie over the series. Take a look:

The first two are from Mountain:
Image Image
This one is from Sea:
Image
And this one from Ship:
Image
The bottom two are similar, but the first two are entirely different from the bottom two. It's almost as though he couldn't make up his mind as to how to draw her. There is another one in "Valley" where she is only shown in the back view, but the hair style doesn't match any of the four I have pasted above.

This is true also of the child characters. Bill and Kiki though are drawn more consistently throughout the series. Among the child characters, sometimes it is hard to make out who is who. You can tell Jack from Philip based on who has the parrot on their shoulder. It gets harder if the parrot is flying around! The girls though are often hard tell apart and you have to read the books more closely, and think about the context. Even then I wasn't always successful.

There are several other things I noticed while going over his illustrations. While, predictably, Jack is drawn most frequently, given that he also gets the most space in the novels (I counted 25 instances where I could identify him), a big surprise is Dinah. Even though she isn't given much space by the author, I could identify her 21 times - this is the same number of times as Philip, though he is more dominant in the stories. The way he draws her though varies a lot. Lucy-Ann in contrast, I could count only 16 times though she is given more space in the stories; and again, the way he draws her varies a lot!

Ok, I know this post is really weird! But it's just something that caught my attention, and I thought it was rather interesting. :D
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