Arnold Victor Beauvais was born in Lewisham on 13 April 1886, son of a French father, the artist Charles Henri Beauvais, and an English mother, Anne, née Corfield. He trained in his father's commercial art studio during the day, working on lithographic printing and poster design, and took night classes at the Bolt Court Art School in Fleet Street.
In 1903 his father returned to his home town of Marseille and set up a commercial art studio. Arnold studied in Paris for sixteen months before joining his father in Marseille. Charles died in 1911 and Arnold took over the studio for two years, then returned to London in 1913, where he opened a studio and produced film posters, magazine illustrations, advertisements, cartoons and jigsaw puzzles.
During the 20s he also sang opera, until he had to make a choice which career to pursue full time, and chose art. In 1929 he became a member of the London Sketch Club, and was elected preseident in 1936, later becoming life president. During the 30s he taught at Bolt Court Art School. From 1953 to 1957 he painted covers for Super Detective Library, and from 1959 to the early 60s he worked on "The Children Who Lived in a Shoe" for Jack and Jill, initially colouring Walter Booth's drawings, later producing the complete art himself.
From 1956 he scaled down his commercial art work to concentrate on oil painting. He died in Surrey in on 2 April 1984.
References[]
- Alan Clark, Dictionary of British Comic Artists, Writers and Editors, The British Library, 1998, p. 14
- Arnold Beauvais at Disney's Robin Hood
- Steve Holland, Arnold Beauvais, Book Palace Books, 28 February 2011