Charles Dumas, High Jumper (Signed) (Original)

Artist: Neville Colvin
Medium: Pen & Ink on Board
Size: 9" x 14" (220mm x 350mm)
Date: 1970
Signature: Signed by artist lower left
Code: ColvinDumas

This is the Signed unique original Pen & Ink drawing by Neville Colvin.

An original pen and ink drawing published in a British magazine for a series of articles "Sensations of Sport".

Charles Everett "Charlie" Dumas (February 12, 1937 – January 5, 2004) was an American high jumper, the 1956 Olympic champion, and the first person to clear 7 ft.(2.13 m). This jump not only ensured him of a place in the American Olympic team, but also made him the top favourite for the gold medal at the 1956 Summer Olympics. In Melbourne, he did not disappoint, and grabbed the title in a new Olympic Record.

Next, he enrolled at the University of Southern California, winning the NCAA track and field title with the university team in 1958. In 1960, Dumas competed in his second Olympics, but a knee injury during the competition prevented him from winning a second medal, finishing 6th.

After his career, in which he won five consecutive national high jump titles, Dumas became a teacher, working at several schools in the Los Angeles area (including Jordan High School in Watts). He died of cancer at age 66 in Inglewood, California. He left behind three children: Keasha Dumas, Kyle Dumas and Ianna Dumas.

He started his jumping career as a student first at Thomas Jefferson High School in South Central Los Angeles for 2 years. As a sophomore, he finished tied for 4th place at the 1953 CIF California State Meet for Jefferson. As a junior and senior he jumped for Centennial High School in Compton finishing second in 1954 and winning the state championship by four and a half inches in 1955. He was Track and Field News "High School Athlete of the Year" in 1955.

• Artist Biography
  Neville Maurice Colvin (17 December 1918 - 1991; New Zealand & UK)
  Neville Colvin was born in New Zealand and began his career as a cartoonist in 1936 working for the Wellington Evening Post doing political and sports cartoons for a decade.
  
  In 1946, facing political censorship, he left New Zealand and moved his family to London where he continued his cartooning career, primarily drawing sports and political cartoons for the News Chronicle, Daily Telegraph, Daily Express and Evening Standard until the mid-1950s.
  
  He then decided to expand his scope to serialized newspaper strips drawing Ginger & Co. for Swift Weekly from 1960-62.
  
  Colvin briefly drew the James Bond strip 1976-77, providing an ending to the story 'Ape of Diamonds' for syndication whilst author Jim Lawrence and artist Yaroslav Horak concentrated on a new series for the Sunday Express. Colvin drew episodes 3384-3437 for the Daily Express, the strip ending on 22 January 1977.
  
  Between 1977 and 1980, Colvin worked on a number of projects, including a Sunday strip featuring Modesty Blaise written by Peter O'Donnell, but the idea was dropped after Colvin had drawn seven episodes. Colvin subsequently replaced Romero on the daily strip on 27 May 1980 with the story 'Dossier on Pluto'.
  
  He went on to draw 1,902 episodes - only slightly fewer than Jim Holdaway, the first artist on the Modesty Blaise strip- and his last strip appearing on 15 September 1986. One story, 'The Scarlet Maiden' (published in 1982), was the completion of the Sunday strip tryout from some years earlier.
  
  Neville Colvin died in Camden, London, in 1991.