Blake William

rif. 185947 — 2016. The excited retelling of great stories An alternative version of the illustration published within Morpurgo's picture book on page 8 showing an excited group of children talking with animation in a classroom. The story concerns a class of children from an inner-city school who spend a week living as farmers at Nethercott Farm in Devon. Morpurgo's text reads "Every year after our week in Devon we come back to school and the whole place is buzzing with excitement. Everyone wants to hear about it. In the playground and in the staff room all the stories of our time down on the farm. are told again and again. Some are true some are not so true maybe a bit exaggerated but they all make great stories". For many decades Quentin Blake has created different versions of the same illustration prior to publication. The one finally reproduced in a book is retained in the artist's archive and the alternative versions have generally been sold. These alternatives offer an insight into Blake's process of changing small details in his work. The present illustration for example includes a bright sunlit window and more wall decoration than in the published version. Ink and watercolour drawing 84 x 160 mm on single sheet of wove paper 198 x 280 mm signed "Quentin Blake" lower left. Mounted framed and glazed framed size 250 x 330 mm. Light rippling to paper some finger marks: fine and unfaded. unknown