A Lawson Wood Ad for Prestone Anti-Freeze. Lawson Wood (Highgate, London, August 23, 1878 - Devon, October 26, 1957) was an English painter, artist and designer known for his humorous images of cavalry and dinosaurs, police officers and animals, especially a chimpanzee named Gran'pop. Lawson Wood was the son of the landscape painter Pinhorn Wood, and the grandson of the architectural artist L.J. Wood. He studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, Heatherley's School of Fine Art and Frank Calderon's School of Animal Painting.
In 1896 he worked with magazine publisher C. Arthur Pearson Ltd. In 1902 he married Charlotte Forge. From the age of 24, he strived for a successful freelance career and received publications in The Graphic, The Strand Magazine, Punch, The Illustrated London News and Boys Own Paper. He illustrated some books including Louis Tracy's The Invaders in 1901 for Pearson. In the Netherlands, his work is mostly known by the front pages of the Panorama Weekly.
In 1906, he received recognition for his humorous style, especially for his images of stone-age perennials and dinosaurs. His position among artists was made clear when he was chosen by the art instructor Percy V. Bradshaw to work with The Art of the Illustrator, a collection of twenty portfolios showing six phases of a single painting or drawing of twenty different artists . Wood was a member of the London Sketch Club and a good friend of the member Tom Browne, whose influence is clearly visible in his work. He was elected as a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolors and exhibited work at Walker's Galleries, Brook Street Art Gallery and the Royal Academy. During the First World War, Wood served as an officer in the Kite Balloon Wing of the Royal Flying Corps and was responsible for spotting aircraft using a hot air balloon. The work was dangerous, and Wood was decorated by the French for his action at Vimy Ridge.
After the war, his images of animals were published by Inter-Art and Valentine, and his bird, animal and human designs were reproduced in a series of wooden toys known as "The Lawson Woodies." In 1934, he received a fellowship of the Royal Zoological Society for his work with animals and his concern about their well-being. The ape Gran'pop brought Wood fame abroad. An animation film was planned around Woods characters and designs at Ub Iwerks Studios in Hollywood, but by the outbreak of World War II did not go through this plan.
Zijn boeken zijn onder andere The Bow-Wow Book (1912), Rummy Tales (1920), De Noo-Zoo Tales (1922), Jolly Rhymes (1926), Fun Fair (1931), The Old Nursery Rhymes (1933), The Bedtime Picture boek (1943), Meddlesome Monkeys (1946), Mischief Makers (1946).
Wood was a hermit in his later years and lived in a 15th century medieval mansion that he had moved stone to stone from Sussex to Kent. He died in Devon on October 26, 1957 at the age of 79.
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