PastImperfect:The art of Harold Connolly
I must admit to a certain fascination with motoring artists - not the artists whose works sell for large amounts of money, but rather the often little-known artists whose golden age was from the 1930s to the 1950s, when they produced colourful artwork for the brochures of the world's motor manufacturers.
Among their number is one name that crops up again and again - that of Harold Connolly. Connolly was the eldest son of Louis Connolly, himself the son of the village schoolmaster at Ballinalee, Co Longford. Louis emigrated to Liverpool aged 14 in 1876. There he made his fortune as a publican/brewer and wine merchant.
Connolly's son Harold was sent to work to learn book-keeping. Following this he was sent to a distillery to "learn the business". Harold, however, who did not drink, had other ideas and wished to be an artist, a source of disappointment to his father.
The outbreak of the first World War saved Harold from a career in his father's business, and at the age of 21 he enlisted, serving in the Medical Corps in the Dardanelles campaign.
Returning home after the war he found he was no longer welcome by his father, and set off for London with £200 his mother had given him to enable him to get started as an artist.
He believed he could draw cars and motorcycles, and spent most of 1919 doing the rounds of the motor manufacturers with a portfolio. He had no formal qualifications, and had not been to art school. It was not until 1921 that he sold his first drawing. This was to Motor Cycling and it was to be another year before he achieved the breakthrough of selling one of his drawings to The Light Car and Cyclecar.
There followed a stream of commissions for illustrations and it was through these and his work for The Motor from 1923 onwards that the name of Harold Connolly became well-known in automotive circles.
By 1923 he was also drawing for Morris, Austin and Crossley. By 1926 he was also drawing for Triumph, Cadillac, H&E Cars, Armstrong Siddeley and the following year began drawing covers for The Motor. In 1929 he did his first work for MG - a colour catalogue - and this led to a friendship with Cecil Kimber and an association with the marque for which he is best remembered.
He was also associated with AC Cars, and he designed several AC body styles over the years up to the early 1950s. A measure of his success at this time was that in the 1937 London Motor Show, he drew the catalogues for MG, AC Cars, Lagonda, Renault, Lancia, Eustace Watkins, Jaguar, Chrysler and Chevrolet - an amazing output for one man.
After the end of the second World War, he turned his attention to drawings of early cars and motorcycles which he remembered with affection, in time producing some 300 car and over 400 motorcycle drawings.
Harold Connolly, the doyen of car illustrators died in 1973.