View article: Original illustration: Pevensey Bay 1905: Times of the Bay Hotel come back to life: Researchers hit upon first find, which they describe as ‘pure gold’
Deborah Sadki, who works with the Pevensey Bay Journal as a researcher, has identified the artist behind the 1905 sketch of Pevensey Bay as being Dudley Cleaver, an illustrator of national note whose work is in the V&A Collections.
A propos of Dudley Cleaver and his work…
The latest article on the Pevensey Bay Hotel, with the original beach illustration dated 1905 by Dudley Cleaver is a real gem. Wouldn’t it be great if this could be reproduced on postcards, or souvenirs for locals and visitors alike; maybe even put on display in the beach tourist Information Centre, or the Bay Hotel itself?
‘Seining’ is of course an ever popular activity at low tide on the Normandy beaches of the Alabaster Coast, just across the Channel to us, from Dieppe to Petites Dalles to Etretat, where locals still go out daily in summer shrimping and clam gathering etc, before cooking them as a dish ‘en famille’.
(‘Seining’ comes from the old English for ‘drag net’).
Btw. The V&A museum has some Dudley Cleaver theatrical-themed illustrations in their archives. These were donated to the museum by Sir William Ingram, managing Director of the London Illustrated News. More information and a few illustrations on their website, for instance
Maybe Pevensey Bay Life can persuade the V&A to look into including this illustration as an iconic seaside scene, typical of its time?
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Dudley Cleaver (1872 -1953) also had two illustrator brothers, Ralph and Thomas, who likewise produced some great illustrations, for instance in Punch.
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One of Rudyard Kipling’s books, illustrated by Dudley Cleaver is available online:
Deborah.
