TSS Golfito-The Banana Boat (Original)

TSS Golfito-The Banana Boat art by John Worsley

TSS Golfito-The Banana Boat (Original)


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Artist: John Worsley
Medium: Watercolour on Board
Size: 30" x 21" (760mm x 530mm)
Date: 1971
Code: WorsleyJBananas

This is the unique original Watercolour painting by John Worsley.

Wee Willie Winkie and his friend and baby elephant Hannibal come aboard the Banana Boat TSS Golfito. The ship was built in 1949 and was finally scrapped in 1972, only one year after this painting was published, making this piece a part of maritime history.

The artist paints in his iconic friendly wide-eyed style, filling the page with beautiful detail and tight feature-full characters.

A gorgeous monotone page painted by Worsley for 1971 Treasure Annual.

Worsley, who spent time in a P.O.W. camp after being captured in Yugoslavia during World War II, achieves a fantastic liberation from the past by painting in such a fluid joyful manner.

Worsley's work can be found in The Imperial War Museum, The Maritime Museum, The collection of HM The Queen, The Savage club and many other private collections including those of Royal Families, banks and Colleges.
  • Artist Biography
    John Worsley (16 February 1919 - 3 October 2000; UK & Kenya)
    John Worsley spent the early years of his life in Kenya before returning to England to be educated at Brighton College and Goldsmiths. He joined the RNVR on the outbreak of WW2 and served in the Atlantic, Pacific and Mediterranean, including Sicily and the Salerno Landings, and was the youngest Official War Artist, and only serving Naval officer, appointed by Sir Kenneth Clark (later Lord Clark of "Civilisation"). Examples of Worsley's wartime work may be found in The Imperial War Museum and The Maritime Museum in London.

    Worsley was taken prisoner in Yugoslavia in 1943 and spent the rest of the War as a POW in Germany. Using materials from Red Cross parcels and papier-mache made from a German propaganda newspaper, Worsley created the successful escape dummy "Albert RN", whose exploits were subsequently developed into a stage play and film, starring Anthony Steel as Worsley. The dummy made for the film is on display at The Royal Naval Museum in Portsmouth.

    After the War, John Worsley illustrated PC49 for The Eagle comic and, by the early 1970s, he was an acclaimed illustrator of children's stories for television (Wind in the Willows, A Christmas Carol, Treasure Island, The Little Grey Men) when the camera panned over his pictures while the story was told in voice-over. This innovative approach to children's television was the link in the chain between an actor reading a story and computer derived presentations. He also illustrated several classic children's books (Heidi, Black Beauty, Robinson Crusoe).

    Worsley developed a "cabaret turn", devised when a POW, of drawing someone from a description, and turned it into a successful tool for police witnesses to translate a sighting of a criminal into an identifiable likeness, a technique which bridged the gap between the old "photofit" images and computer technology.

    The Scotland Yard Museum boasts probably the largest single collection of Worsley's work!

    The son of a serving Naval officer, John Worsley never lost his love of the sea, and his extensive post-War travels took him to North America, Asia, The Middle East, Africa and Europe. He was President of The Royal Society of Marine Artists for several years and the official artist for Sir Peter de Savary's two attempts to recapture the America's Cup.

    John Worsley was an outstanding drafstmen, arguably one of the finest of the 20th century, and examples of his work may be seen in The Imperial War Museum and The Maritime Museum in London as well as many provincial galleries, including the former Royal Yacht Britannia in Greenock and the WW2 Experience Museum in Leeds.

    Private collectors include HM The Queen, HM the late Queen Mother, The Royal Family of Dubai, the Saudi Royal Family, the Royal Zoological Society, HSBC Bank, The Savage Club and Brighton College as well as Sir Edward Heath, June Mendoza RA, Virginia McKenna and Sir Peter de Savary.

FREE DELIVERY FOR THIS ITEM.

£0.00
£440.00
In Stock