Cecil Aldin Pickwick Club Print Smiled Through Tears

Born in Slough on 28th April 1870, Cecil Charles Windsor Aldin was educated at Eastbourne College and Solihull Grammar School. He studied art at the RCA under Frank F. Calderon.  His illustrations were published in many magazines during the 1890s.

In 1895 he married and moved to Chiswick where he made close friends with Phil May, John Hassall and Lance Thackeray and along with Dudley Hardy and Tom Browne they founded the London Sketch Club.

The birth of his son and daughter inspired his nursery pictures which together with his prints of the Fallowfield Hunt, Bluemarket Races, Harefield Harriers and Cottesbrook Hunt he gained much popularity. An exhibition in Paris in 1909 was received with much acclaim and extended his fame to a wider audience.

Aldin moved to the Henley area as his interest in hunting, horses and dogs increased and in 1910 he became Master of the South Berkshire Hunt as well as being associated with other local packs.

During WWI Cecil Aldin was in charge of the Army Remount Depot where he befriended Lionel Edwards, A.J. Munnings and G.D. Armour. Sadly he lost his son, Dudley at Vimy Ridge in 1917, which affected him deeply for many years and had a profound effect of his style of work.

As Master of the South Berkshire Hunt, Aldin was a keen huntsman and many of his prints depict horses and animals of all kinds as well as his well-known hunting and coaching scenes. Cecil Aldin painted mainly in water-colour, but he was also famous for being a master of caricature in the drawing of both humans and animals. The quality of his art can be seen in most of his work, particularly in his many famous drawings of his family of dogs. He also produced a beautiful series of prints depicting Old Inns, Old Manor Houses and Cathedrals.

In 1930 Cecil Aldin moved to a warmer climate due to arthritis but he continued to paint and etch, producing some of his best work. He died in London of a heart attack in January 1935 on a short trip back home.  He is now regarded as being one of the most original and very best sporting artists of the twentieth century.