Winnie-the-Pooh and Friends at TMAG
Source: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.
Tim Douglas, Winnie-the-Pooh and Friends: Ernest H. Shepard originals at TMAG, The Australian, 20 May 2017
In 1981, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery took a call about a possible donation. Would it be interested in 29 original drawings by British artist Ernest Howard Shepard, the illustrator who brought to life the characters in Winnie the Pooh and the The Wind in the Willows?
The gallery didn’t have to be asked twice. The works were donated by Frances Carroll, Shepard’s Tasmanian sister-in-law, who had over decades collected the drawings received as gifts.
The works are on display at TMAG for the first time in 22 years in Winnie-the-Pooh and Friends, an exhibition of Shepard’s drawings.
The English artist created the illustrations to complement AA Milne’s classic Poohseries, which was first published in 1926. The exhibition — much of it is hung at child’s height — includes notes from the artist explaining his handiwork.
“This clock was invented and drawn by Ernest H. Shepard,” reads one drawing’s accompanying scrawl, “for his friends Pooh and Piglet to encourage them in habits of punctuality.”
The exhibition runs until August 20.