René Bull was a British illustrator and photographer. He was born in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

on 11 December 1872 to a French mother and an English father. He went to Paris to study engineering, but embarked on an artistic career after meeting and taking drawing lessons from the French satirist and political cartoonist Caran d'Ache (Emmanuel Poiré). Bull returned to Ireland to contribute sketches and political cartoons to various publications, including the ''Weekly Freeman''. Moving to London in 1892, Bull drew for "Illustrated Brits" and created cartoons in the style of Caran d'Ache for '' Pick-Me-Up'' from 1893. In 1896 Bull joined ''

Black and White Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

'' illustrated newspaper as a special artist and photographer. In 1898, he covered the Tirah Campaign in India and went on to

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

for the campaign culminating in the

Battle of Omdurman The Battle of Omdurman, also known as the Battle of Karary, was fought during the Anglo-Egyptian conquest of Sudan between a British–Egyptian expeditionary force commanded by British Commander-in-Chief (sirdar) major general Horatio Herbert ...

. He went to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

to record the

Boer War The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic an ...

until the relief of Ladysmith in March 1900. As he was wounded in 1900, Bull was invalided out. He settled in England and drew cartoons for such magazines as ''Bystander'', ''Chums'', ''London Opinion'', ''Lika Joko''. In ''The Sketch'' Bull created cartoons of humorous inventions, predating those of William Heath Robinson. From 1905 he illustrated books, starting with an edition of Jean de La Fontaine's ''Fables''. Other major titles he illustrated included ''The Arabian Nights'' (1912), ''Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám'' (1913), ''The Russian Ballet'' (1913), ''Carmen'' (1915), ''Andersen's Fairy Tales''. In 1914, Bull joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve as a lieutenant and was eventually transferred to the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

where he reached the rank of Major. In

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Bull joined the Air Ministry for technical duties. He died on 14 March 1942.

Illustrated books

* Jean De La Fontaine – ''Fables'' (Nelson, 1905) * Frank A. Saville - ''Fate's Intruder: A Novel'' (Heinemann, 1905) * Joel Chandler Harris - ''Uncle Remus'' (Nelson, 1906) * ''The Arabian Nights'' (Constable, 1912) * Alfred Edwin Johnson - ''The Russian Ballet'' (1913) * ''Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam'' (Hodder, 1913) * Prosper Mérimée (Trans. A. E. Johnson) – ''Carmen'' (Hutchinson, 1915) * Hubert Strang – ''The Old Man Of The Mountain'' (Hodder, 1916) * Jonathan Swift – ''Gulliver's Travels'' (1928) * Rose Fyleman - ''A Garland of Roses: Collected Poems'' (Methuen, 1928) * Hans Christian Andersen – ''Fairy Tales'' (Clowes, c. 1928) * Joel Chandler Harris – ''Brer Rabbit Plays'' (Retold by Elizabeth Fleming) (Nelson, 1930) * Jean De La Fontaine – ''Fables: A Selection'' (Trans. Shirley Edward) (1935) * ''Zoo Friends'' (Blackie, 1939) * Various – ''The Children's Golden Treasure Book of 1939''

Contributions

‘Black and White’ (1892), ‘Chums’ (1892), ‘Pall Mall Budget’ (1893), ‘ILN’ (1893), ‘St. Paul’s’ (1894), ‘Lika Joko’ (1894), ‘English Illustrated Magazine’ (1894–96), ‘Pick-Me-Up: The New Budget’ (1895), ‘The Sketch’ (1895-1918), ‘The Ludgate Monthly’ (c. 1896), ‘The Bystander’ (1904), Punch (1906–07).

References

External links

* * * * 1872 births 1942 deaths British illustrators 19th-century British photographers British war artists British comics artists British children's book illustrators British fantasy artists Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War I Artists from Dublin (city) Place of death missing Photographers from Dublin (city) Illustrators of fairy tales {{UK-illustrator-stub