Harry Riley (1895-1966) was a watercolourist, cartoonist and commercial artist. However, he was best known for designing travel posters to English & Welsh seaside destinations for British Railways.
London-born Riley attended Hammersmith and St. Martin’s Schools of Art. He cut his teeth in Fleet Street where, as a junior artist, he created cartoons for inclusion in the Daily Mail, Punch and other publications. Later, he was commissioned to create figurative works for the likes of luxury department stores, Fortnum & Mason and Selfridges.
He was elected member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour and, in the late 1920s, president of The London Sketch Club.
His advertising posters are all 50s Technicolour with smiling, happy, healthy couples and families. All blonde bobs and pigtails. Summer dresses, swimsuits and cravats. Bright blue skies, sweeping golden sands and azure seas.
Additional image credits:
Travel Posters Online