§ Ronald Searle C.B.E. R.D.I. (British 1920-2011) The Belles of St. Trinians, circa 1954 design for movie poster, pen, ink and crayon on tracing paper (23cm x 31cm (9in x 12in), unframed) Footnote: Provenance: Estate of the artist and by descent. ‘Caught in the Act’: Hurrah for St. Trinian’s Originating as a comic created by the satirical cartoonist and artist Ronald Searle (1920- 2011), the first St Trinian’s cartoon featuring the eponymous fictional school was published in the Lilliput magazine in 1941. After a period in a prisoner of war camp in Japan during the Second World War, he started making more cartoons depicting the girls of St. Trinian’s until 1952. Publishing five separate books recounting the tales of St. Trinian’s, Searle found inspiration from various sources around his hometown of Cambridge, England. He was most notably inspired by two independent girls’ schools, whose students he would see around the city: Perse School for Girls, and St Mary’s School. Centring on a boarding school for girls, with sadist teachers and the girls who are juvenile delinquents, ‘The armed rising of 1881’, illustrated on page 17 of the book The Terror of St Trinian’s (Max Parrish & Co. Ltd: 1952, London), depicts a sword-wielding, flag-baring student surrounded by the carnage of battle and is the personification of Searle’s St. Trinian’s. Its energetic, dynamic depiction of the notorious schoolgirls is exactly what excites and entices readers to this day. The success of the books resulted in Searle’s schoolgirls being transported onto the big screen with the production of numerous films, the first of which, The Belles of St. Trinian’s ¸ being released in 1954. These films featured star-studded casts of British comedy icons, and they continued developing on the themes from the books. His pen, ink and crayon design for a movie poster from circa 1954 demonstrates this continuation and expansion of the original themes of anarchy and scandal that envelops the school, as four students attempt to sneak a racehorse past the eccentric headmistress Miss Fritton in order to stop it from running in the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Ronald Searle’s drawings of St. Trinian’s School have come to be synonymous with British culture and humour, and examples of his St. Trinian’s drawings can be found in numerous major private and public collections including the Deutsches Museum fur Karikatur und Zeichenkunst in Hanover, and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The following works come from direct descendants of the artist.