John Farleigh

In 1914 Farleigh became an articled apprentice to the Artists Illustrators Agency in Balham and joined evening classes in life drawing at the LCC School of Photoengraving and Lithography at Bolt Court. After war service he studied from 1919 to 1922 at the Central School of Arts and Crafts under Noel Rooke (from whom he learnt wood engraving), Bernard Meninksy, and James Grant. In 1922 he was appointed assistant art teacher at Rugby School.

Farleigh taught at the Central School from 1925 (subjects included drawing and painting from life, woodcuts and wood engraving, and illustration and advertisement design). He succeeded Rooke as Head of the Book Production Department in 1947. Farleigh's pupils included Roderic Barrett and Monica Poole.
Wood engraver, lithographer, painter, broadcaster and writer, his design work included murals, postage stamps, glass panels, and a number of posters for London Transport. Best known as an illustrator, he won acclaim for his illustrations to Bernard Shaw's 'The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God' (Constable, 1932) which heralded the resurgance of interest in wood-engraved illustration among the commercial book trade. Elected to the SWE (1925), ARE (1937) and RE (1948), he was Chairman of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society (1940-6) and was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the Crafts Centre of Great Britain (the forerunner of the Crafts Council) and its Chairman (1950-64). He was a respected and influential writer and broadcaster on design, craft, book production and illustration.
The copyright for all images by John Farleigh on this database belongs to the Estate of John Farleigh as well as the Central Saint Martins Museum Collection.
Author: JS