Mather & Crowther

Mather & Crowther
Name	Mather & Crowther
Type	Partnership
Industry	Advertising and Illustration
Founded	1920s
Founders	Charles Ernest Mather; William Henry Crowther
Headquarters	London, United Kingdom
Notable works	"The Daily Sketch" covers; "Evening News" illustrations; wartime propaganda posters

Mather & Crowther

Mather & Crowther was a London-based firm active in the early to mid-20th century known for commercial illustration, press art, and poster design. The studio operated amid contemporaries in London such as Cassandre-era graphic studios and worked for publications and institutions across Britain, producing imagery for newspapers, magazines, and wartime agencies. Their output intersected with visual cultures represented by figures like Alfred Leete, Edward McKnight Kauffer, A. A. Turbayne, John Hassall, and organizations such as the Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, and Ministry of Information.

History

Formed in the 1920s by Charles Ernest Mather and William Henry Crowther, the firm emerged during the interwar expansion of illustrated periodicals and advertising agencies in London. Early commissions came from illustrated weeklies and provincial papers including the Daily Sketch and the Evening News, positioning the studio alongside studios supplying art to the West End press, Fleet Street clients, and theatrical posters for venues like the Savoy Theatre and Her Majesty's Theatre. During the 1930s and 1940s the partnership pivoted to public information work for institutions including the Ministry of Information and municipal authorities in Greater London, producing posters and pamphlet covers that paralleled the work of contemporaries such as Abram Games and Frank Newbould. Postwar shifts in Advertising Association practices and the rise of photographic reproduction led to changes in commissions; by the 1950s the studio's output declined as younger illustrators influenced by the Festival of Britain aesthetics and continental modernists gained prominence.

Notable Works and Contributions

Mather & Crowther produced illustrative covers, serialized illustrations, and poster campaigns notable for their circulation in mainstream periodicals and civic campaigns. Prominent assignments included cover art for the Daily Sketch, feature illustrations for the Illustrated London News, and advertising art for retailers rivaling campaigns by studios that serviced Selfridges and Harrods. Wartime contributions encompassed posters for rationing and recruitment, aligning with graphic programs from the Ministry of Information and the War Office, and visual identity work for transport authorities like London Transport. Their portraits and caricatures of public figures were distributed in newspapers alongside images of politicians such as Winston Churchill, Neville Chamberlain, and Clement Attlee, and cultural figures like Noël Coward and Ivor Novello. The studio also supplied illustrations for publishers operating in the tradition of Penguin Books and Heinemann in dust-jacket design and serialized fiction plates.

Design Style and Techniques

The studio's visual language combined economical line work, bold silhouette, and a restrained color palette, reflecting influences from European posterists including A. M. Cassandre and contemporaries like Edward McKnight Kauffer. Techniques favored lithographic reproduction, pen-and-ink drawing, and hand-coloring suited to letterpress and chromolithography printing processes used by printers servicing the Fleet Street press and commercial printers dealing with The Times. Their typographic integration referenced display types used by Monotype Corporation and header styles common in Daily Mirror mastheads. For publicity and transport posters the studio employed compositional clarity akin to Paul Nash's public posters and the photographic montage approaches emerging from László Moholy-Nagy's circles, while maintaining a distinct illustrative sensibility.

Key Personnel and Biographies

Co-founder Charles Ernest Mather trained at an art school in London and worked previously for provincial newspapers and theatrical posters, sharing professional networks with illustrators who supplied the West End theatre district. William Henry Crowther brought commercial printing contacts and a background in magazine art direction that connected the studio to publishers like Cassell and Company and HarperCollins predecessor houses. Associates and freelance illustrators who collaborated included artists who also worked for The Sphere and The Graphic, and apprentices later moved into roles at advertising agencies in Manchester and Birmingham. Staff often maintained links with professional bodies such as the Royal Society of Arts and exhibited work in shows organized by the Society of Graphic Artists.

Exhibitions and Public Reception

Works by the studio were reproduced widely in mainstream periodicals, gaining public visibility through campaigns displayed across London's streets, railway stations under the jurisdiction of Great Western Railway and Southern Railway, and in shopfronts for retailers comparable to Boots and Marks & Spencer. Exhibition venues included industry shows and commercial art displays at spaces allied with the Royal Academy's summer exhibition fringe and private showings in gallery spaces near Bond Street. Contemporary critics in periodicals such as The Times and The Observer commented on the clarity and accessibility of their public posters, while specialist journals like The Studio compared their work to international poster movements and the output of designers featured at the Festival of Britain exhibitions.

Legacy and Influence

Although overshadowed by better-documented posterists, the studio influenced municipal and press illustration practices in mid-century Britain, contributing to visual conventions used by later practitioners in advertising houses that serviced clients like Imperial Chemical Industries and British Railways. Elements of their approach—economical composition, typographic integration, and programmatic public messaging—echo in later works by designers associated with the Ministry of Information and postwar graphic designers influenced by modernist currents circulating in Paris and Bauhaus émigré circles. Archival material survives in press collections, private estates, and in periodical runs held by institutions such as the British Library and regional archives cataloging Fleet Street output.

Category:British illustrators Category:Graphic design studios