Lawson Wood

Clarence Lawson Wood was born in 1878 in Highgate, London. His humorous, sometimes grotesque, but always beautifully-coloured work is technically superb and is still enormously collectible today. Lawson Wood was the son of Lewis Pinhorn Wood and grandson of Lewis John Wood RI, both well-known Victorian artists. He trained at the Slade School and at Heatherley's. A fine illustrator, cartoonist and water-colour artist; his work was frequently illustrated in The Sketch, The Graphic and The Illustrated London News and so successful were some of his creations, particularly in America, that he was asked to prepare four animated cartoons for production in Hollywood. Perhaps his best-known works were his humorous illustrations of animals and, in particular, the ape ‘Gran'pop', who was drawn for The Sketch. Wood retained copyright on all these characters and was able to sell reproductions of his work all round the world. He even opened a factory to make toys to his own design. Lawson Wood married Charlotte Forge in 1903 and she gave birth to twins in 1906. For most of his life, he lived and worked in Groombridge in Kent but he retired eventually to Sidmouth in Devon, where he died on October 26th 1957.