Francis Marshall

Celebrating one of the 20th century's finest fashion artists

Some fashion illustrators slip their bonds, escaping the pejorative label of ‘commercial’ or ‘decorative’ to become part of the visual landscape. Erté (Romain de Tirtoff) René Gruau and Antonio Lopez remain prime examples of this. Others, like Eric (Carl Erickson) and René Bouché continue to attract admirers and collectors long after their deaths, ensuring that their names echo still, at least among the cognoscenti. And then there are artists such as Bernard Blossac and René Bouët Willaumez, two aristocratic Frenchmen, and the British Francis Marshall, who, though highly successful and productive during their lifetimes, have faded from view.

Portrait of Elsa Schiaparelli by Francis Marshall,1936

But let’s be in no doubt, Marshall was one of the twentieth century’s leading fashion artists. He had a lightning veracity, an unassailable sophistication and an unerring eye. Style was not something he sought, it was the way he thought, and who he was. And he could draw anything, because, you sensed, he saw everything. His How To Do It books still have much to teach us – though his tone could be schoolmasterly: ‘never fumble about on the paper without an idea in your head,’ he advised, ‘scribbling on desk blotters may be quite amusing, but it is no use when you are trying to think out a complicated drawing’ – and his travel diary, An Englishman in New York, remains unsurpassed. Marshall worked widely in publishing and advertising, he painted portraits and held regular exhibitions.

From An Englishman in New York, 1949

He was a mainstay at British Vogue from the late 1920s until the Second World War, and then at the Daily Mail after that. In the mid-1960s, as the demand for fashion illustration receded, he met the doyenne of romantic fiction, Barbara Cartland, who asked him to design the cover for one of her books. It was the start of a relationship that lasted until his death in 1980, by which time he had produced more than 200 covers for the wildly prolific author. Only a professional such as Marshall could eschew mawkishness and produce imagery – for titles such as A Virgin in Paris – with such lightness of touch and tongue-in-cheek glamour.It’s time for a reappraisal of Francis Marshall, an artist who, for more than 50 years, recorded the stylish world he inhabited with a unique eye and hand. He has earned his place in the pantheon.

'