Gerritt Vandersyde

The oddly named Gerritt Vandersyde was a British artist of remarkable talent whose work appeared in advertising and on prints that were widely distributed through Boots and Woolworths. One of his prints has gained a small measure of fame as it was briefly featured in the background of Stanley Kubrik's A Clockwork Orange. The picture, a portrait entitled 'Nina', was a commercial success, although Vandersyde is said to have had little business sense and sold the copyrights on many of his most commercially popular paintings for only a few pounds.

Alfred Gerritt Vandersyde was born in Camberwell, London, on 9 January 1898, the son of Gerrit Willem Vandersyde, who (along with his younger sister) had been bought to England in the 1860s. Gerrit Willem had married Caroline Bell in 1888 and had seven children (six of them boys), Alfred being the fifth child.

Alfred was raised in Enfield and volunteered for the army at the outbreak of the First World War. He lied about his age in order to join the Army Service Corps. He was drafted to the Medical Corps, driving carriages for medics and caring for the horses, and served in Mesopotamia.

In 1918 he married Grace Collings in Hackney and had two children, Basil (b.1921) and Derek (b.1923). He was married a second time in 1942 to Dorothy Ellen Wood in Wandsworth and had two daughters, Wendy (b.1943) and Gillian (b.1947). The family lived at 4 Hepworth Road, Streatham, S.W.16, which is where Alfred died following a sudden heart attack on 10 November 1970.

Gerritt Vandersyde, as he signed his work, was tall (over 6' 4"). His advertising work included popular images for Ovaltine whilst his illustrations appeared in the London Illustrated News. In the 1960s he illustrated stories for books and for the magazine Once Upon a Time, drawing covers and illustrations on a range of subjects from young children to flamingos.

Examples of his artwork for sale can be found here.

Illustrated Books
My Farmyard Picture Book by Arthur Groom. London, Dean & Son, 1963.
Tiny's First A.B.C. and Counting Book. London, Dean & Son, 1964.
Dean's On the Farm Picture Books by Eunice Close. London, Dean & Son, 1965.
Little Poppet's Animal A.B.C. by Eunice Close. London, Dean & Son, 1965.
My A.B.C. and Counting Book by Eunice Close. London, Dean & Son, 1965.
Little Poppet Book of Road Safety by Kathleen Holroyd. London, Dean & Son, 1966.
Zoo Animals Picture Book by Aileen E. Passmore. London, Dean & Son, 1966.
A Picturebook of Prayers. London, Dean & Son, 1968.
Wonderful Stories Jesus Told by Elizabeth Ashley. London, Dean & Son, 1968.