The Grosvenor Museum in Chester recently launched an exhibition honouring one of Britain’s most beloved cartoonists, Sir Quentin Blake.
The artist is perhaps best known for his illustrations that accompanied the children’s stories of author Roald Dahl, and it is this work that the exhibition draws upon.
Entitled “The BFG in Pictures”, the event showcases the Kent illustrator’s distinctive artwork of the iconic character in Dahl’s classic tale of an eight-year-old orphan who encounters a giant. The exhibition at the Grosvenor Museum will feature well-known images from the book along with some early and seldom-seen illustrations of the BFG.
A patron of Britain’s Association of Illustrators (AOI) and the first person to be awarded the Children’s Laureate in 1999, Blake’s successful career has seen him provide pictures for more than 300 books, including 18 penned by Dahl.
The event is part of an ongoing series of exhibitions, films and activities for children focused on dreams and the power of imagination. While the works of Blake are a temporary exhibition, The Grosvenor Museum has an extensive collection that includes ancient artefacts like Roman tombstones to the watercolours of Louise Rayner. Established in 1886, the museum was called after the “family name” of wealthy Chester landowners the Dukes of Westminster. Today, it welcomes more than 100,000 visitors a year from the UK and abroad.
The BFG in Pictures exhibition will be open to the public at the museum on Grosvenor Street until Sunday, October 2, and offers free admission to all.
