Miskatonic University Press“Gentleman in a Large Hat Seated by a Window, Reading” by Rembrandt (pen and bistre with wash, on paper, 1655/66) (source: PubHist) reminds me very much of Edward Ardizzone.
Ardizzone shaded with hatching, not a wash, but there’s hatching there as well, and to me it’s very much in the Ardizzone style. For example, here’s “Self-Portrait” (pen and ink on paper, 1952) (source: Tate Gallery).
Once you know Ardizzone his work is instantly recognizable.
Browsing around I came across a really interesting YouTube video, The Art of Edward Ardizzone and the Esterbrook J Fountain Pen, which is part of Jonathan Weinberg’s “Drawing with Fountain Pens” channel. It’s a very nice introduction to the artist, and though he drew with a dip pen, not an Esterbrook, Weinberg talks about pens and nibs and finishes with an Ardizzone-style sketch of a Poussin painting. The channel is full of good fountain pen stuff. I just watched Pelikan M205 Fountain Pen: Small but Mighty, because my M205 is one of my favourite pens (I think the size is perfect).
But not only is he a fountain pen user (and restorer!), Weinberg is the curator at the Maurice Sendak Foundation, and as it happens just last week I listened to Afterwords: Maurice Sendak, on BBC Radio 3’s Sunday Feature. Weinberg is in that show! It’s fascinating, and if you’re at all interested in Sendak, I highly recommend it. All of this was a delightful coincidence.
Rembrandt, Ardizzone and Sendak: three great illustrators.