Anne Harriet Fish

Annie Fish (27 March 1890 – 10 October 1964) was a British cartoonist and illustrator. Her illustration of "Eve" in The Tatler spawned films, theatre and books.

Annie Fish
Annie Fish
Born
Anne Harriet Fish

27 March 1890
Horfield
Died10 October 1964 (1964-10-11) (aged 74)
Hayle
NationalityUnited Kingdom
OccupationCartoonist and illustrator
Known forEve
Spouse(s)Walter William Sefton

Life

Fish was born in Horfield in Bristol in 1890 before her family moved to London. She became a cartoonist and illustrator after studying with C. M. Q. Orchardson, George Belcher and John Hassall. She went to work for the publisher John Lane. Her debut work was creating cartoons for Stephen Leacock's humorous book "Behind the Beyond".[1]

Phyllis Dare as "Eve" in 1915

In total, Fish contributed to American Vanity Fair, Vogue, The Sketch, Eve, Punch, and Tatler.[2] Her work was compared to Aubrey Bearsdley although Fish noted that she did not see his work until after the comparison had been made.[1] Her illustrations for the "Letters of Eve" in The Tatler spawned films, theatre and three books.[3] The costumes imagined for Phyllis Dare when she played Eve at the Adelphi Theatre were said to have influenced ladies fashions.[4] Gladys Emma Peto created drawings for "The letters of Phrynette" in The Sketch. This was so similar to "Letters of Eve" that there was a court case.[1]

An illustration from Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Eileen Molyneux appeared in a series of twelve short silent two reel films as "Eve" for Gaumont in 1918.[5]

Fish was the illustrator of "Eve" until 1920 and after that the character continued to appear in Pan magazine illustrated by Jo White and later Dolly Tree.[1] In 1922 she illustrated a luxury edition of Edward Fitzgerald's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

Fish retired to St Ives in the 1940s. Her husband, Walter William Sefton, died in 1952. She died in Hayle in Cornwall in 1964 after falling in the bath.[1]

References
  1. Mark Bryant, ‘Fish, (Harriet) Annie (1890–1964)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2006 accessed 7 April 2017
  2. Streeten, Nicola; Tate, Cath (2018). The inking woman: 250 years of women cartoon and comic artists in Britain. Oxford: Myriad Editions. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-9955900-8-3. OCLC 1007312174.
  3. pseud FOWL (1919). The Third Eve Book. Drawings by Fish. Written and Designed by Fowl. Reproduced from ... "The Tatler.". London, New York.
  4. Lucinda Gosling (2 June 2014). Great War Britain: The First World War at Home. History Press. p. 196. ISBN 978-0-7509-5731-1.
  5. Denis Gifford (1 April 2016). British Film Catalogue: Two Volume Set - The Fiction Film/The Non-Fiction Film. Routledge. p. 242. ISBN 978-1-317-74063-6.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.