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Edited by John Jensen (Methuen 1983)
ISBN: 0-41332-360-9
Henry Mayo Bateman was born in New South Wales in 1887 but was raised in England, attending Forest Hill House School and Goldsmith’s College (Institute, as was). He also studied with John Hassall and at the Charles Van Havenmaet Studio from 1904-07. He was a great fan of Comic Cuts and Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday, and his first cartoons were published in 1903 in Scraps. He was skilled at both illustrative and comedic drawing and agonised over his career path before choosing humour. Mercifully he was too frail for military service in 1914 and so his gifts were preserved for us all to share. He died in 1970.
Bateman’s most memorable series of cartoons was ‘The Man Who…’ These were lavish set pieces, published as full colour double-page spreads in The Tatler, that lampooned the English Manner by way of frenzied character reactions to a gaffe or inappropriate action by a blithely oblivious central participant. His unique strength came from extending his training as a caricaturist into all his humorous work, a working philosophy that the artist equated with drawing people as they felt rather than how they looked. He was also a British pioneer of cartoons without text, depending on beautifully rendered yet powerfully energetic and vivacious interpretations of people and environment to make his always funny point. He was a master of presenting a complete narrative in a single image.
In reviewing the 14 collections published during his lifetime and such collections as the volume at hand, or the excellent The Best Of H M Bateman 1922-1926: The Tatler Cartoons (1987), I was particularly struck by the topicality of the work as well as the sheer wonder of the draughtsmanship. Find if you can ‘The Man Who asked for a second helping at a City Company Dinner’ wherein 107 fully realised Diners and waiters, all in full view, have 107 different and recognizable reactions to that gauche request. It is an absolute masterpiece of comic art. In a world where the next fad is always the most important, it is vital that creators such as Bateman remain unforgettable and unforgotten.
Text ©.1983 John Jensen/Methuen.
Illustrations © 1982, 2007 Estate of H M Bateman.