Earlier in the year, the National Trust announced the purchase of a very special watercolour, thanks in part due to fundraising by the Trust’s Rye and District Association. Baloo in The Forest was originally commissioned in 1903 as one of 16 illustrations for Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book and is now on show at the author’s home, Bateman’s near Burwash.
On Thursday 18 June at Brede Village Hall, there will be a talk at 2.00pm by Hannah Miles, Collections and House Manager at Bateman’s, about the works and dramatic lives of the young artists responsible for the picture – Edward and Charles, the Detmold twins.
The twins were considered upcoming artists having showcased their art publicly since their early teens, so that in the early 1900s at just 18 years of age they were commissioned by Macmillan publishers to illustrate possibly Kipling’s best-loved work. To capture the true essence of jungle animals, they visited the London Zoo to observe and sketch animals from life, and these detailed studies later served as the foundation for the Jungle Book watercolour paintings that we still enjoy today.
Very sadly, only five of their sixteen illustrations are known to have survived, and so this acquisition by The National Trust is of even more interest and importance.
There will be an opportunity to ask questions at the end of the insightful talk, and The Rye and District Association look forward to you joining them. Coffee, tea and biscuits will be served afterwards. All are very welcome: £5 members and £7 non-members.
Image Credits: Peter Spencer .