The Ridiculous Wishes: Wife Grows a Long Nose (Original)
Artist: Ron Embleton
Medium: Mixed Media on Paper
Size: 16" x 21" (400mm x 530mm)
Date: 1982
Code: RE0281
This is the unique original Mixed Media art by Ron Embleton.This is the original painting by Ron Embleton used to illustrate the book Best Known Fairy Stories, by Charles Perrault, retold by Lornie Leete-Hodge (London, Dean, 1983).
The Ridiculous Wishes or The Three Ridiculous Wishes is a French literary fairy tale by Charles Perrault published in 1697 in the volume titled Histoires ou contes du temps passé.
A woodcutter complained of his poor lot. Jupiter (or, alternatively, a tree spirit) granted him three wishes. The woodcutter went home, and his wife persuaded him to put off the wishing until the next day, after he had thought, but while sitting by the fire, he wished for sausages.
His wife taxed him for his folly, and angry, he wished the sausages on her nose. Finally, they agreed to use the last wish to take the sausages off her nose, leaving them no better off than before.
In some different types of versions of this tale, black pudding is used instead of sausages.
This original painting is from the Ron Embleton family collection.
- Artist Biography
Ronald Sydney Embleton (6 October 1930 - 13 February 1988; Limehouse, London, UK)
Born in Limehouse, London in 1930, Embleton began drawing as a young boy, submitting a cartoon to the News of the World at the age of 9 and, at 12, winning a national poster competition.
In 1946 Embleton went to the South-East Essex Technical College and School of Art. There he had the incredible good fortune to be taught by David Bomberg, one of the greatest – though at that time sadly under-appreciated – British artists of the twentieth century.
At age 17 he earned himself a place in a commercial studio but soon left to work freelance, drawing comic strips for many of the small publishers who sprang up shortly after the war.
He was soon drawing for the major publishers. His most fondly remembered strips include Strongbow the Mighty in Mickey Mouse Weekly, Wulf the Briton in Express Weekly, Wrath of the Gods in Boys' World, Tales of the Trigan Empire and Johnny Frog in Eagle and Stingray in TV Century 21.
Embleton also provided the illustrations that appeared in the title credits for the Captain Scarlet TV series, and dozens of paintings for prints and newspaper strips. A meticulous artist, his illustrations appeared in Look and Learn for many years, amongst them the historical series Roger’s Rangers.
Oh, Wicked Wanda! was a British full-colour satirical and saucy adult comic strip, written by Frederic Mullally and drawn by Ron Embleton. The strip regularly appeared in Penthouse magazine from 1973 to 1980 and was followed by Embleton's equally saucy dark humoured Merry Widow strip, written by Penthouse founder Bob Guccione.
Less well known, however, was his equally energetic career as an oil painter. In fact, being a painter had been his life's ambition – his 'driving force', according to his daughter Gillian. It was only his remarkable success as an illustrator that in the end largely diverted him from the painter's path.
Embleton died on 13 February 1988 at the relatively young age of 57 after a lifetime of truly prodigious artistic output of remarkable quality.