Leonard Squirrell RWS RE

1893 - 1979

A native of Suffolk, born and living most of his life in Ipswich, Leonard Squirrell, over his long career, documented the architecture and countryside of East Anglia, and his oeuvre presents a nostalgic snapshot of the nation between and after the World Wars. In 1920, Squirrell went to the Slade School of Fine Art, studying under Henry Tonks and Philip Wilson Steer. After the Slade, he travelled to Italy and France, and produced landscape etchings, winning gold medals for them at the International Print Makers Exhibitions in Los Angeles. Squirrell made few oil paintings, preferring watercolour and pastels, and produced aquatints, mezzotints and drypoints and many railway posters, notably the important large poster of Monk’s Eleigh and the long horizontal prints sited above seats in railway carriages. He also worked for a number of commercial organisations and wrote instructional books. Squirrell was indeed an excellent illustrator and commercial artist, but his most successful work as a fine artist was probably that produced in the early decades of his career, “untainted” by the illustrator’s polished technique. Squirrell’s preparatory pencil sketches for etchings and watercolours, made on the spot in front of his subjects, often with colour notes, are some of his freshest, most direct works. Squirrell’s preparatory pencil sketches for etchings and watercolours, made on the spot in front of his subjects, often with colour notes, are some of his freshest, most direct works.