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Design for a birthday card

Illustration
ca.1950 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Eulalie Minfred Banks (1895-1999) was a popular and very prolific illustrator of over fifty children's books. By the age of twelve she was designing Christmas cards for friends and at fourteen she illustrated the children's page of a women's magazine. She published her first picture book, Bobby in Bubbleland, in 1913; her best-loved book is The Bumper Book (1946) which was reprinted frequently.

As 'Eulalie', she illustrated out-of-copyright nursery rhymes, fairy tales and folk tales as well as several children's classics, including Helen Bannerman's The Story of Little Black Sambo (1926) and Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses (1929). To make ends meet she also illustrated ABC books, counting books, magazines, calendars and greetings cards, of which this pencil and watercolour design is an example. Eulalie was also a muralist, designing interiors in the houses of the actors Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin in the 1930s.

In 1916, Eulalie married Arthur Wilson, a captain in the RAF Expeditionary Force. The couple moved to Canada in 1918 and then to the United States. Following her divorce, she returned to Britain in 1937 with her daughter but eventually returned to California where she died on 12 November 1999 at the age of 104.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleDesign for a birthday card (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Pencil and watercolour on card
Brief description
Pencil and watercolour design for a birthday card by Eulalie, ca.1950.
Physical description
Pencil and watercolour design for a birthday card depicting a fairy and an elf firing a gun. The number '7' appears in the gun smoke. With six coloured balls in the air, numbered 1-6. Text reads: 'BANG! / now you / are / seven!'.
Dimensions
  • Height: 111mm
  • Width: 121mm
Production typeUnique
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'From the Library of Anne Renier and F.G. Renier' (Bookplate on verso)
  • 'AR' (Initialled in pencil by Anne Renier on verso)
  • 'EULALIE' (Signed by the artist in ink in bottom right)
  • '(exactly)' (Annotation in ink on bottom right of drawing)
Credit line
Donated by Anne Renier and F.G. Renier.
Object history
Drawn by Eulalie, ca.1950. Bequeathed to the V&A in 1970 by Anne and Fernand G. Renier as part of the Renier Collection.
Subjects depicted
Summary
Eulalie Minfred Banks (1895-1999) was a popular and very prolific illustrator of over fifty children's books. By the age of twelve she was designing Christmas cards for friends and at fourteen she illustrated the children's page of a women's magazine. She published her first picture book, Bobby in Bubbleland, in 1913; her best-loved book is The Bumper Book (1946) which was reprinted frequently.

As 'Eulalie', she illustrated out-of-copyright nursery rhymes, fairy tales and folk tales as well as several children's classics, including Helen Bannerman's The Story of Little Black Sambo (1926) and Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses (1929). To make ends meet she also illustrated ABC books, counting books, magazines, calendars and greetings cards, of which this pencil and watercolour design is an example. Eulalie was also a muralist, designing interiors in the houses of the actors Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin in the 1930s.

In 1916, Eulalie married Arthur Wilson, a captain in the RAF Expeditionary Force. The couple moved to Canada in 1918 and then to the United States. Following her divorce, she returned to Britain in 1937 with her daughter but eventually returned to California where she died on 12 November 1999 at the age of 104.
Other numbers
  • Ren. Planchest A - Previous Renier Collection pressmark
  • Ren.42.V.1 (v) - Previous Renier Collection pressmark
  • R(Z)171 - Previous National Art Library accession number
Collection
Library number
RENIER.410

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Record createdMarch 20, 2008
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