Number, Please!, 1942
Watercolour and pencil
32.0 x 36.0 cm (12½ x 14¼ inches)

Provenance:
The ICI collection

Notes:
In 1941 Wadsworth was accepted into the Home Guard. He wrote to his friend and artist Richard Eurich '...I have also been doing some commercial work for ICI and, thanks to them, I have been allowed access to new materials. Incidentially, the job is well paid which is something these days...'

He was commissioned by Sidney Rogerson, who was the head of advertising for ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries), to produce designs that would be above the ordinary, rather like Frank Pick had done with London Transport in the 1930s by commissioning artists such as Cyril Power and Sybil Andrews to produce innovative new design for posters. According to Barbara Wadsworth, about 17 designes were made over a three year period - subjects included perspex, nylon injections moundings among others.

This particular work titled 'Number please!' was first attributed to Francis Hodge (1883-1949) in a Sotheby's sale but has been confirmed as a painting by Edward Wadsworth by the Wadsworth estate. Another ICI design by Wadsworth was also misattributed to John Armstrong (1893-1973). The work, which was titled 'Straight from the Tap' was hung in the Armstrong retrospective at the Royal Academy in 1970s was identified as a Wadsworth. The same picture subsequently appeared in a Sotheby's sale in 2002 again attributed as a work by Armstrong, now in the collection of Scolar Fine Art and authenticated by the Wadsworth estate as a work by Edward.


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