On the eve of the release of the 25th Bond movie, the Salisbury Museum is celebrating the life and work of writer, illustrator and teacher Richard Chopping (1917 – 2008). Chopping was best-known for illustrating the original book covers for James Bond.
Chopping was a master of the trompe-l’oeil technique, producing highly realistic three-dimensional images. It was this distinctive style that led him to be commissioned by Ian Fleming to illustrate nine of the James Bond book covers from 1957 to 1966.
The exhibition features some of the original working drawings for the books, including the striking skull design for Goldfinger – one of Chopping’s personal favourites, and a commission that had been declined by his former friend and subsequent arch-rival, Lucien Freud.
The designs for the Bond covers were an instant success, leading Fleming to describe Chopping as ‘a totally brilliant artistic collaborator!’ However, the work overshadowed his other achievements as an author and skilled illustrator of natural history and children’s books.
The exhibition looks at his entire output. Highlights from his early years include his illustrations for Butterflies in Britain (1943). There are also delicate wild flower drawings, prepared for an ambitious 22 volume series on British wild flowers by Penguin, which was abandoned due to spiralling costs.
The exhibition runs until October 3, 2021