Henry Mayo Bateman (1887-1970)
H M Bateman was born in Australia and, after coming to England aged two, went on to study art, at the suggestion of Punch cartoonist Phil May, at Westminster School of Art and at Goldsmith’s. His cartoons first appeared in Punch in 1915. In addition to his published work, Bateman designed adverts for Lucky Strike, Moss Bros, Guinness and others.
Discussing his work for Punch, Price (1957) wrote, ‘Bateman… was a versatile comic artist in his early days and his pictures, with their determination to concentrate on being amusing, made for cheerfulness in the pages. At first they were firmly grounded in observation, the same kind of racy observation that the older music-hall comedians brought to their character-songs. Behind the drawing was an individual humour. One never felt with early Bateman that he was illustrating some joke sent in to him, but that the joke and the drawing were conceived together… Eventually the same kind of situation and character were used so often that it became detached from any particular picture and lived independently as a kind of national folk lore… the Bateman Colonel or the Man Who… committed some solecism or other. At his best, Bateman was individual, funny and invaluable.’
Collections
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
British Museum
Cartoon Art Trust
Victoria and Albert Museum
Sources and further reading
Bryant M and Heneage S (1994), Dictionary of British Cartoonists and Caricaturists 1730-1980, Scolar Press
Dolman B (1981), A Dictionary of British Artists, 1929, Antique Collectors’ Club
Johnson J and Greutzner A (1999), British Artists 1880-1940, Antique Collectors’ Club
Price R G G (1957), A History of Punch, Collins
Spalding F (1990), 20th Century Painter and Sculptors, Antique Collectors’ Club
Waters G M (1975), Dictionary of British Artists 1900-1950, Eastbourne Fine Art
H M Bateman was born in Australia and, after coming to England aged two, went on to study art, at the suggestion of Punch cartoonist Phil May, at Westminster School of Art and at Goldsmith’s. His cartoons first appeared in Punch in 1915. In addition to his published work, Bateman designed adverts for Lucky Strike, Moss Bros, Guinness and others.
Discussing his work for Punch, Price (1957) wrote, ‘Bateman… was a versatile comic artist in his early days and his pictures, with their determination to concentrate on being amusing, made for cheerfulness in the pages. At first they were firmly grounded in observation, the same kind of racy observation that the older music-hall comedians brought to their character-songs. Behind the drawing was an individual humour. One never felt with early Bateman that he was illustrating some joke sent in to him, but that the joke and the drawing were conceived together… Eventually the same kind of situation and character were used so often that it became detached from any particular picture and lived independently as a kind of national folk lore… the Bateman Colonel or the Man Who… committed some solecism or other. At his best, Bateman was individual, funny and invaluable.’
Collections
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
British Museum
Cartoon Art Trust
Victoria and Albert Museum
Sources and further reading
Bryant M and Heneage S (1994), Dictionary of British Cartoonists and Caricaturists 1730-1980, Scolar Press
Dolman B (1981), A Dictionary of British Artists, 1929, Antique Collectors’ Club
Johnson J and Greutzner A (1999), British Artists 1880-1940, Antique Collectors’ Club
Price R G G (1957), A History of Punch, Collins
Spalding F (1990), 20th Century Painter and Sculptors, Antique Collectors’ Club
Waters G M (1975), Dictionary of British Artists 1900-1950, Eastbourne Fine Art