Walter Ernest Spradbery: ‘an artist in war and peace’*
Introduction
Walter Ernest Spradbery (1889-1969) was a prolific designer, painter and poet. As well as working for the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) and Southern Railways, he established a fruitful relationship with London Transport (LT) that spanned over three decades. The numerous posters he designed for LT show his particular interest in landscape and nature as well as his ability to capture scenes of sorrow and survival during the Second World War.
Born in East Dulwich, as a child Spradbery moved to Walthamstow and studied at the Walthamstow School of Art where he later taught. A fervent pacifist, he served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the First World War and recorded in watercolour some of the distressing war scenes he witnessed. After the Second World War, he became instrumental in the opening of the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow in 1950. In his later years, he was an early advocate for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
Flora and Seasons
Spradbery had a particular interest in capturing the hues and nuances of flowers and plants. Instead of using the traditional ‘double royal’ portrait poster, he often used the smaller and more intimate landscape panel poster to record the flora in high level of detail. In these two examples, both from 1929, he mastered a wide-ranging palette of colours.
The poster on the left is a soft blooming of Pink Rhododendrons, probably referring to the Spring, with the colour of the leaves repeated in the lettering and border. The design on the right plays on more autumnal and warm colours and features an interesting contrast between the orange sky and the foreground, animated by butterflies resting on berry stalks.
In 1936, Spradbery produced another six posters that showcased seasonal flora. The two shown here also feature the roundel, which had become one of the most recognisable design trademarks of LT. Instead of the traditional red, Spradbery chose a raspberry tone for the autumn design and a light green for the summer poster, both to match the main hues of the posters.
Landscapes in and around London
Spradbery is better known as a landscape artist and these three posters showcase the variety of approaches he mastered when promoting excursions in and around London using the transport network.
Exploiting the full width of the poster, in this early design of 1913 Spradbery depicts Windsor Castle looking towards the Curfew Tower with the famous Round Tower on the left. The poster in the middle uses the view of Boxmoor as a painting framed by a neutral colour, which provides space for an early iteration of the roundel and a quote. The last poster completely focuses on the picturesque and idyllic landscape of Richmond with no reference to the means of getting there.
London: The Proud City
In 1944 LT commissioned Spradbery to design a series of six posters depicting surviving landmarks of London surrounded by the destruction that wartime air raids had left behind. In these designs, the city stands proud against the ruins: the message is one of hope and survival after the traumatic events of the war. They convey “the sense that havoc itself is passing and with new days come new hopes”, as Spradbery wrote.
These two images show the original artwork and the finished printed design for the poster of St Paul’s Cathedral. Here you can see the imposing building standing tall against a foreground of rubble and ruins with the addition of a quote dating back from 1673, the year St Paul’s was completed. The artwork is currently on display in the London’s transport at War gallery at the Museum.
These posters were intended to boost morale during the difficult times of the war. As the examples above show, they were also produced in different languages to reach a greater number of people in the city and overseas.
Made in 1945, this is probably the last poster designed by Spradbery for LT. The prominent rosebay willowherb plant is more commonly known as bombweed, due to its rapid appearance on bomb sites during the Second World War. The poster reflects on the legacy of the war, conveying a sense of hope which is clearly announced by the inscription ‘Renascence’ as well as by the abundance of flowers towering over a classical column, a reference to arts and culture.
*John Spradbery, My Dear Jim: A Biography of Walter E. Spradbery- An Artist in War and Peace, 2010
