Usually the bicycling scenes that blow me away are the photos of a tiny speck of a touring bicyclist dwarfed against an awesome landscape.
But these simple pen and ink drawings created by Englishman Frank Patterson tell a truer story for most cyclists and maybe get more to the simple pleasures of bicycling.
They just show a person with a bicycle enjoying the time and place.
As you can probably tell from the outfits worn by the bicyclists, these drawings of bicycling and the English countryside date from the period before World War II. They've been assembled by Molly Sanders into a YouTube slideshow.
Unknown
Patterson is referred to in one place — The Frank Patterson Society — as “England's Best Known, Unknown Artist.” He was born in 1871 and died in 1952. Most of his life he lived an old house called Pear Tree Farm in the Sussex area of southern England.
After art school, he had little success as an artist in London until he started doing pen and ink commercial work. By 1893 he landed a gig with Cycling magazine, and that was the beginning of his bicycle-art career.
Patterson enjoyed bicycling in the countryside around his home and drew many scenes and landmarks that he visited by bike; he also drew from photographs and postcards. He drew bicyclists passing castles, crossing bridges and aquaducts, and racing. Often the bicyclist is just enjoying the view, or walking his bike. Some drawings even tell a story in a very short caption.
Prolific
Although he produced pen and ink drawings of other subjects, such as the Boer War, his main pursuit was bicycle art. His biography at The Society says he penned 26,000 drawings for bicycling publications during his life.
Looking through this sketches makes me want to go for a ride on one of these roads right now. Of course I can't; they're thousands of miles away. But there are roads just like them right around here, and I plan to explore them by bicycle real soon.
More bicycle drawings can be viewed in the galleries and online shop at The Frank Patterson Society.
Recent Comments