Five coloured posters by Australian artist Ellis Silas, each in the style of a frieze or panorama, depicting eleven 'British' explorers, from the Cabot brothers to Captain Oates, before scenic backgrounds.

Author: 
Ellis Silas (1883-1972), Anglo-Australian artist, official war artist with ANZAC forces in the First World War [British poster art]
Ellis Silas (1883-1972), Anglo-Australian artist
Publication details: 
[1930s? Place and publisher not stated.]
£250.00
SKU: 10524

The five posters, presumably produced for the classroom, are scarce, with no reference to them on the internet or elsewhere. They are attractively painted in a bold and vivid panoramic frieze style. Each carries a single illustration showing two (counting the Cabot brothers as one) explorers in front of groups of men, with a merged background behind them. (The third poster, for example, shows Captain Cook and one of his officers, and to their left Lord Clive with two officers, flanked by two rajahs, with two Polynesian 'natives' behind a tree, a ship and an Indian temple in the background.) The explorers shown are: John and Sebastian Cabot (North America) and Martin Frobisher (Greenland and North America); Henry Hudson (Hudson River and Hudson Bay) and William Dampier (Australia and New Guinea); James Cook (Australia and New Zealand) and Lord Clive (India); George Vancouver (Vancouver Island) and David Livingstone (Central Africa); Sir Samuel Baker (Central Africa) and Captain Oates (Scott Antarctic Expedition of 1910). Each poster printed in colours on one side of a landscape sheet of 64 x 25 cm art paper. Dimensions of each image: 58 x 20.5 cm. In fair condition: aged and lightly-creased, with wear and closed tears to extremities. One of the five has small pin-holes in the corners, showing that it was exhibited as intended. Printed vertically in the left and right margins of each: 'TRIM THIS EDGE BEFORE PASTING UP'. Captioned beneath each image in large letters in blue ink (i.e. the first poster has the captions 'JOHN & SEBASTIAN CABOT | Born c. 1450, died 1498 and b. 1474, d. 1557 | NORTH AMERICA' and 'MARTIN FROBISHER | Born c. 1535, died 1594 | GREENLAND and NORTH AMERICA').