British, 1868–1948
John Hassall (1868–1948) was an English illustrator known for his advertisements and poster designs. He was born in Walmer, Kent, on 21 May 1868 and died on 8 March 1948. After twice failing to gain entry to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, he went to farm in Manitoba, Canada, in 1888, returning to London two years later when The Graphic accepted his drawings. On Dudley Hardy's advice he studied art in Antwerp under Charles Van Havermaet and in Paris, where he was influenced by Alphonse Mucha.
In 1895 he began working as an advertising artist for the printers David Allen & Sons, a career that lasted fifty years; between 1896 and 1899 alone he produced more than 600 theatre poster designs. His most famous creation is the Jolly Fisherman of "Skegness Is So Bracing" (1908), one of the best-known holiday advertisements in Britain, and his 1910 Kodak Girl in a striped blue-and-white dress featured in Kodak's advertising until the 1970s. His style of flat colours enclosed by thick black outlines also suited children's books, and he illustrated many volumes of nursery rhymes and fairy tales.
In 1900 Hassall opened his own New Art School and School of Poster Design in Kensington, whose pupils included Bruce Bairnsfather, H. M. Bateman, Bert Thomas and Harry Rountree; after the First World War he ran the John Hassall Correspondence School. He was a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours and president of the London Sketch Club, and the father of the poet Christopher Hassall and the printmaker Joan Hassall.
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