- C. E. Brock
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Title page of Brock's edition of Emma, 1909
Charles Edmund Brock (5 February 1870 – 28 February 1938) was a widely published English line artist and book illustrator, who signed his work C. E. Brock. He was the eldest of four artist brothers, including Henry Matthew Brock, also an illustrator.
Contents
Biography
He was born on 5 February 1870 in Holloway, London. The family later settled in Cambridge. Charles studied art briefly under sculptor Henry Wiles.[1]
He got his first book commission at the age of 20 in 1890. He became a very successful illustrator of books authors such as Jonathan Swift, William Thackeray, Jane Austen, and George Eliot. He is best known for his line work, initially working in the tradition of Hugh Thomson, but he was also a skilled colourist. He and his brothers maintained a Cambridge studio filled with various curios, antiques, furniture, and a costume collection. Using these, family members would model for each other.
He died on 28 February 1938.
Style
The approach of C.E. Brock's work varied with the sort of story he was illustrating. Some was refined and described as "sensitive to the delicate, teacup-and-saucer primness and feminine outlook of the early Victorian novelists," while other work was "appreciative of the healthy, boisterous, thoroughly English characters" – soldiers, rustics, and "horsey types."[2] Other illustrations were grotesqueries drawn to amuse children looking at or reading storybooks.
References
External links
- Fine portrait of John Venn by Brock, and a link to a site about Venn
- UNCG American Publishers' Trade Binding: C.E. Brock
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