Unearthed: Heath Robinson's cure for noise pollution
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.With antiquated headphones clamped to their ears, the partygoers dance round the wheel that powers their wireless set. On their prancing feet they wear sponges instead of shoes, while the floor of the room is padded to stop them disturbing the neighbours.
The comical scene of silent yet lively revelry can only have come from the mind of William Heath Robinson, the celebrated illustrator whose bizarre contraptions earned him a place in the English dictionary.
It is one of dozens of drawings by the "Gadget King" displayed for the first time ever in a touring retrospective of his work opening at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London.
Almost 60 years after his death, Heath Robinson's name remains synonymous with wacky cartoon images of bespectacled men using everything from steam kettles to unwieldy pulleys to run nonsensical machines.
Of these drawings, none is more typical than the newly discovered pastiche of a picture by the caricaturist George Cruickshank, where Robinson has a man struggling to sleep as his upstairs neighbours party. Entitled How to Take Advantage of the Savoy Orpheans Dance Music Broadcast by the BBC Without Disturbing Your Neighbour in the Flat Below, the picture shows revellers going to extraordinary lengths to allow sleep.
Yet Heath Robinson's talents were far more varied than this. For decades he was ranked alongside Arthur Rackham and Aubrey Beardsley among Britain's foremost literary illustrators.
Showing this side, the new exhibition has a selection of more than 20 recently unearthed illustrations from a Complete Works of Shakespeare commissioned by the publisher Jonathan Cape more than 70 years ago but never printed. Among the highlights are gruesome images illustrating the Bard's history plays, including one of a slain Richard III and another of devilish assassins fleeing after murdering the princes in the tower.
The collection also features exuberant comic images of more light-hearted characters, such as Falstaff.
The Shakespeare pictures are on loan only for the exhibition. The bulk of the work is owned by the William Heath Robinson Trust, which hopes to raise £3.5m to create an archive dedicated to the "Gadget King" in Pinner, Middlesex, where Heath Robinson lived during one of his most prolific periods, the years after the First World War.
Geoffrey Beare, spokesman for the trust, said he hoped the exhibition would help the fund-raising effort by increasing awareness of the range of the artist's talents. "Heath Robinson is known for his wackier illustrations and contraptions, but he was actually one of Britain's most accomplished illustrators of children's books and literary classics. This exhibition aims to show that he produced much more serious images - his scenes from Shakespeare's history plays are quite violent."
Heath Robinson is at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London SE21, from 5 November to 18 January, then travels to Liverpool, Newcastle and Bath
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments