rarely-seen artworks by Jim Turnbull, a cartoonist who worked for The Herald for more than 30 years, are to go under the hammer.
MR TURNBULL, who died in 2004 aged 74, was one of the country’s leading newspaper illustrators for many years, but he was also a keen and accomplished painter, and tomorrow 29 of his rare watercolours and cartoons go up for sale at McTear’s auction house in Glasgow.
Mr Turnbull’s carefully observed cartoons were a much-loved feature in the newspaper during his career; he was perhaps best known for his image of Scotland as a ‘feart’ lion, which came to symbolise the inconclusive referendum result of 1979.
However, he also painted watercolour landscapes, in Scotland, Italy and Sicily, as well as elsewhere, but his daughter, Pamela, has no space to display the pictures, so she has decided that “the time is right for others to enjoy the works”.
“Unfortunately, I had to place most of the pictures into storage so they have been hidden from view for quite some time,” she said.
“They deserve to be hanging on a wall rather than sitting in a cupboard.”
The collection, which includes 16 watercolours and 13 cartoons, will go under the hammer with an estimate of £4000 for the combined works.
The cartoons, all of which appeared in The Herald, were created in Mr Turnbull’s home studio in Newton Mearns, Glasgow.
“Dad would listen to the one o’clock news and if he didn’t have a request from The Herald at that point he would pick the most popular story for the day and start to work on a cartoon,” his daughter added.
“His drawings were all done freehand with a fine brush and Indian ink, and we would see him rush out the door at 6.30pm to make sure he could get to The Herald offices on time.
“The drawings were dad’s day- to-day work, but his watercolours were very personal to him.”
The son of a railway worker, Mr Turnbull was born in Maryhill, Glasgow.
The family later moved to Pollokshields, where he attended Albert Road school, before he trained as a lithographic artist.
His first experience in publishing came when he was employed as a freelance artist by DC Thomson, doing the Pinky and Perky and Freddy Frog cartoons for Playhour comic.
He started his career as a daily newspaper caricaturist with the Daily Record and, in the early 1970s, joined the-then Glasgow Herald
The Herald’s former editor, Alan Jenkins, said: “When you mention Jim Turnbull, that image of the lion is what springs to mind. As an artist he had a great line.”
Brian Clements, of McTear’s, said: “Many people grew up reading The Herald and laughing at Jim Turnbull’s brilliantly observed cartoons.
“Mr Turnbull had many artistic skills and the stunning selection of watercolours in the sale clearly illustrates the breadth of his talents.”
The Fine and Contemporary Picture Sale will take place at McTear’s Auctioneers, Meiklewood Gate, Glasgow, tomorrow at 10.30am.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article