Rowland Emett | Early Morning on the Outskirts of Detroit, original drawing, [c. 1955]

Rowland Emett

"Early morning on the Outskirts of Detroit"

235 by 395mm., ink and watercolour drawing, signed lower right (“EMETT”), inscribed by the artist on the mount (“For Everett Martin, | with very best wishes | from Rowland Emett | Feb. 1955”) together with title, mounted, framed and glazed, some consistent browning, browning to mount

Subtitled 'Celebrated automobile designers, making secret trials of their next year’s styling, being observed by agents of an unnamed rival company. Two designers have embraced revolutionary new forms (one having an exciting new traffic-master jet over-pass), whilst the others play safe, and again are content to base their design on Continental ideas.'

 A variant version of a cartoon published in Life magazine on 5 July 1954. The feature in Life was entitled ‘A Witty British Artist’s Friendly Portrait of the U.S. shows that Bygones are Bygones – Anyway, Almost’.

The inscription is, presumably, to fellow cartoonist Edgar Everett Martin (1898-1960), the creator of the strip Boots and Her Buddies that ran from 1924 to 1968.