David Downton

This book opens an exciting and extensive archive of fashion illustration by Francis Marshall (1901-1980), held at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Marshall's career coincided with the golden age of fashion illustration and commercial art. Active from the 1920s until the 1960s, his work was published widely, from Vogue magazine to the more accessible and widely read pages of the Daily Mail. Marshall also worked extensively in advertising, for companies such as Jaeger and Elizabeth Arden, and released several books - ranging from manuals on drawing fashion and ballet, to the nostalgic records of fashionable society London West and An Englishman in New York. Francis Marshall: Drawing Fashion shines a light on a sometimes-forgotten master, at a time when fashion illustration is very much in style.