W. Heath Robinson

William Heath Robinson ( born May 31, 1872 in London, † September 13, 1944 ) was a British cartoonist, illustrator, writer and designer. He became famous for his comic drawings of machines whose complexity is in proportion to their mundane benefits. In addition, Robinson is considered one of the greatest book illustrators of the Art Nouveau.

  • 5.1 Classic illustration work (selection)
  • 5.2 Children's books (selection)
  • 5.3 " Heath Robinson " equipment (selection)
  • 6.1 Books
  • 6.2 Article
  • 6.3 Miscellaneous

Life and work

He was the son of the illustrator and woodcarver Thomas Robinson. He received his education from 1887 at the Islington School of Art, and in 1890 briefly at the Royal Academy of Arts. Initially, even the landscape painting faces, he turned, as well as his two brothers, Charles Robinson and Thomas Heath Robinson, the illustration of books on. His first jobs were Don Quixote and 1897 Arabian Nights 1899. 1900 saw the band with poems by Edgar Allan Poe, as his subsequent imaging of the collected works of François Rabelais by drawing brilliance and precision generated in eeriness. Among his many book illustrations were also pictures of John Bunyan's works and William Shakespeare (A Midsummer Night 's Dream 1914).

With two children's books, The Adventures of Uncle Lubin 1902, Bill the minder 1912, Robinson gave proof that he writes for children as much talent possessed as an illustrator. His pictures are here caricatured and grotesque - comic. His stories are as bizarre and as much in the style of English Nonsense literature that one may suspect there are probably not only children have been announced as his reading public. Now also appear in the first precursor of his strange machines. The title character sets out to find his kidnapped nephew of a bird, a baby that he should oversee. For the persecution, he improvises a plane, a balloon and a sailing and a submarine, also used numerous tricks such as the one that can defeat a sea serpent with scattered salt on its tail. In Bill the minder he tells 15 crazy stories and illustrated them as well. Finally, the inventions of a "mad scientist" and at the same time ingenious professor found in Norman Hunters The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm (1933 ) Robinson in the congenial illustrator. His autobiography My Line of Life appeared in 1938.

Many of his drawings appeared among others in The Sketch, The Bystander, The beach Magazine and The Illustrated London News.

Heath -Robinson machines

In W. Heath Robinson there are countless devices that represent absurd support for manageable in everyday tasks such as rationing machine for tea or a tortuous launch tube for tennis balls in an unpredictable trajectory deflects the ball to the players to train him. These devices have in common that the design effort is for the benefit of all proportion.

The apparatus devised by Robinson continue to fall on the fact that they are built from arbitrary and seemingly absurd objects and materials. They give the impression that they had been found on a rubbish heap. For example, pieces of wood, household items, knotted ropes, gears, balls, fish-hooks and much more find in colorful compilation.

Cultural Significance

Heath Robinson was with his special art machines and equipment with which he parodic amused himself more and more accompanying technology of the modern life, the supplier of a term in the English language: " Heath Robinson contraption " or simply " Heath Robinson " describes as a noun or adjective used an ingenious and ridiculously over complicated mechanism.

He already took place in 1912, a first documented use as a Abgeordner of the English House of an Austrian Air Show as one with " new-fangled Heath -Robinson apparatuses" ( lit. " Heath -Robinson contraptions " ) conducted event described. Since 1917, the term is also listed in the OED.

Trivia

Decryption engine

During the Second World War a Dechiffriermachine ( see also Turing machine ) was developed and subsequently used in the British Dechiffrierungsdienststelle Bletchley Park in the research department of the British Post Office Department in Dollis Hill for deciphering the code of the German Lorenz cipher machine. Due to their complicated structure of the machine, the name Heath Robinson was given based in the fantastic equipment. The Heath Robinson was regarded as slow and unreliable; However, it served to verify the Entschlüsselungstheoreme Developer Max Newman as a precursor of the Colossus Dechiffrierungsmaschine.

Own works

Classic illustration work (selection)

  • The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, New York London ( Chiswick Press ) 1900
  • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, The Life and Conduct of the Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote de la Mancha, London ( Sands & Co.) 1903
  • William Shakespeare's Comedy of a Midsummer Night 's Dream, London ( Constable ) 1914
  • Hans Christian Andersen, fairy tales treasure, Munich ( George W. Dietrich ) 1929

Children's books (selection)

  • The Adventures of Uncle Lubin, London ( Grant Richards ) 1902
  • Bill the Minder, London ( Constable & Co.) 1912
  • Vernaleken, William Heath Robinson's Book of Goblins, London ( Hutchinson & Co.) 1934

" Heath Robinson " equipment (selection)

  • Absurdities London ( Duckworth ) 1934
  • Let 's Laugh: A Book of Humorous Inventions, Contrived London ( Duckworth ) 1939
  • Heath Robinson Contraptions, London ( Duckworth ) New York ( Overlook ) 2007

Literature on W.H.R.

  • Percy V. Bradshaw: The Art of the Illustrator: W. Heath Robinson and his Work, The Press Art School, 1918
  • William Heath Robinson, My Line of Life ( autobiography ) London ( Blackie ) 1938
  • H. B. Grimsditch: William Heath Robinson in the Dictionary of National Biography 1941-1950, pp. 729-730
  • G.W. Langston Day: The Life and Art of W. Heath Robinson, Herbert Joseph, 1947
  • John Lewis: Heath Robinson Artist and Comic Genius, Barnes and Noble, 1973
  • Leo John De Freitas: The Fantastic Paintings of Charles and William Heath Robinson, Peacock / Bantam, 1976, ASIN: B002M0LR5S
  • David Larkin (eds.): Charles and William Heath Robinson, Constable, 1976 ISBN 978-0094614802
  • Geoffrey Beare: The Illustrations of W. Heath Robinson, Alacrity, 1983, ISBN 978-0907961024
  • Geoffrey Beare uA: W. Heath Robinson (1872-1944) - The Inventive Comic Genius of Our Age, Chris Beetles Ltd, 1987.
  • Ian Rogerson: The Robinson Brothers, Manchester Polytechnic Library, 1987
  • Geoffrey Beare. Brothers Robinson, Chris Beetles Ltd., 1992, ISBN 978-1871136302
  • Geoffrey Beare: Heath Robinson Advertising, Bellew Pub.Co., 1992, ISBN 978-1857250398
  • James Hamilton: William Heath Robinson, Pavilion Books Ltd., London 1992, ISBN 1-85793-604-3.
  • Ian Chilvers: Robinson, William Heath. In: A Dictionary of Twentieth - Century Art Oxford University Press, 1998.

Article

  • Anonymous: Mr. W. Heath Robinson and his work in The beach Magazine, July 1908, pp. 41 ff
  • Anonymous: A Maker of absurdities in London Magazine, August 1908, p 626
  • W. Heath Robinson: How I Spend Christmas in The Bookman, December 1909, p 138
  • Anonymous: Photographic Interviews No. V - A Famous " Sketch " Artist: Mr. Heath Robinson in The Sketch, January 4, 1911, pp. 399-400
  • Anonymous: Christmas Leaves from the Publishers in Illustrated London News, December 7, 1912, p 852
  • A. E. Johnson: W. Heath Robinson in The Atheneum, June 7, 1913, p 629
  • A. E. Johnson: The Line Drawings of W. Heath Robinson in The Studio, May 1916 on pp. 223 ff
  • W. Heath Robinson: In the Days of My Youth in TP 's and Cassell 's Weekly, April 18, 1925, pp. 956, 964, 966
  • A. L. Baldry: The Art of Mr. Heath Robinson in The Studio May 1925 p 242 ff
  • Christopher Mann: Heath Robinson as Advertisement Designer in Commercial Art, June 1927, pp. 256 ff
  • Fenn Sherie: Joking Apart in Pearson 's Magazine, December 1930, pp. 579 ff
  • Maurice Sly: How They Make You Laugh in The Sunday Statesman Magazine Section, August 11, 1938, p 18
  • Ian Coster: Interview with William Heath Robinson in London Opinion, August 1940
  • Anonymous: Mr. Heath Robinson - Humorous Artist [ Obituary ] in The Times, September 14, 1944
  • G.W. Langston Day: The Gadget King in Everybody 's Weekly, March 31, 1945, pp. 8-9
  • Anonymous: Heath Robinson's contraptions in Illustrated London News May 1972, p 35 ff
  • Lesley Garner: Magic in his Madness in The Sunday Times Magazine, June 4, 1972, title page and pp. 14-22
  • Melvyn Horder: The World of Heath Robinson in Times Saturday Review, July 21, 1973

Others

  • Cookham Festival: The Cookham Family Robinson, Cookham, Berkshire, 1971
  • Andrew Greg: William Heath Robinson, introduction to the exhibition catalog, Portsmouth City Museum, 1975
  • James Hamilton: William Heath Robinson, introduction to the exhibition catalog, Sheffield, Mappin Art Gallery, 1977
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