Beschreibung:

Shepard (Ernest Howard, 1879-1976), 'Ratty and Mole', [1959], fine pencil, ink and watercolour with body colour on off-white wove paper, signed lower left, 26.5 x 18.5 cm, framed and glazed with photocopies of Shepard’s manuscript labels to picture verso pasted to back of frame (Quantity: 1) Provenance: Acquired by the vendors’ parents directly from the artist at an exhibition of his own work in Haslemere, Surrey, 29 May – 12 June 1965. Framed and mounted for the exhibition the picture was priced at 15 guineas. Shepard’s line drawings were first used to illustrate a new Methuen edition of Wind in the Willows in 1931. In 1959 Methuen published a new Shepard edition with an additional eight colour plates from watercolours by the artist. This watercolour of Ratty and Mole in a rowing boat by the reeds in the near foreground and Otter and his young son Portly on the far side of the river. The scene is described in Chapter 7, ‘The Piper at the Gates’, when Mole and Rat reunite the missing Portly with his father. ‘They watched the little animal as he waddled along the path contentedly and with importance; watched him till they saw his muzzle suddenly lift and his waddle break into a clumsy amble as he quickened his pace with shrill whines and wriggles of recognition. Looking up the river, they could see Otter start up, tense and rigid, from out of the shallows where he crouched in dumb patience, and could hear his amazed and joyous bark as he bounded up through the osiers on to the path. Then the Mole, with a strong pull on one oar, swung the boat round and let the full stream bear them down again whither it would, their quest now happily ended.’ The picture was also used as a full-bleed design for the upper panel of the dust jacket of the first edition in 1959, but later replaced with a design featuring all four of the book’s major characters and title lettering. The original watercolour of this latter design, which Shepard described as the cover design in his inventory for the Haslemere exhibition, was sold by Sotheby’s, London, 10 December 2019, lot 252. In the reed bed at the lower edge of the drawing Shepard has added a hand-painted roughly torn strip of paper that sits raised above the lower edge to give extra depth to the picture. This overlaid strip is original and intentional and is clearly visible in the reproductions. This 'trompe l'oeil' paper strip is an integral part of Shepard’s original drawing and is clearly visible in the reproductions.