Hannanother thing

So the mystery is (almost) solved. Gretel Parker has emailed in a copy of an article in the August 1955 Country Fair, celebrating John Hanna’s fiftieth cover illustration. It’s nice to know he produced at least fifty – we’ve only got five, so there are obviously plenty more to discover.

It also seems he is the same John Hanna cited in the link that Adam posted in the comments – an Australian who arrived in London in 1947 and made his living as a commercial artist and cartoonist. So we now have the full biog and background. Only remaining mystery is why his works aren’t more widely available, or indeed available at all. Reading the article, it seems he was extremely popular in his time. Strange the way people can drop off the radar like that, leaving barely a trace on Google. There seems to be a fan site for everything these days, so it's a surprise when you find a gap like this. Or maybe it’s just the modern mindset: if it’s not on Google, it doesn’t exist.

Anyway, thanks to those who have put us out of our ignorance. Look forward to hunting down more cover illustrations in years to come.

Comments

[Trevor May]

Wonderful illustrations. I've managed to stumble across a few more here:
http://www.fulltable.com/VTS/m/mcov/cfair/m.htm

[Nick Asbury]

Thanks Trevor - I see they give the magazine a pretty sniffy write-up. It's actually a lot better than that. Where else would you read a feature article on the construction of farm gates? (Might have to post that one up soon.)

[Richard Parry]

I've found some of Hanna's personal books on William Morris which were acquired by a bookshop in Skipton, Yorks. and now offered for sale. I've bought his copy of Morris' edition of Ruskin's "The Nature of Gothic" and a lecture Hanna gave to the Morris society on the Politics of Architecture.

I understand the bookseller still has some of Hanna's books

http://www.clhawley.com/

Really pleased to find examples of his work on this blog.

[Nick Asbury]

Thanks Richard, that's fascinating to hear.