Artist Lucy Willis, granddaughter of famous cartoonist Henry Bateman, visited Malta and made some discoveries about her grandfather. She speaks to Dora Alden.

It was 1970, towards sunset, oneFebruary evening, when Henry Mayo Bateman, aged 82, was slowly walking along a country path in the area known as Mrejżbiet, in Għajnsielem, when he had a heart attack and passed away.

A 54-year-old fisherman named Joe, who was only a young boy of 14 at the time, recalls he came across Bateman, lying still on the ground in the dark: “There was also the local policeman’” he says, “they were already there when I saw him”.

Still unbeknown to many in Għajnsielem, Bateman was highly respected and revered as a humorous cartoonist in the UK. He had retired to Gozo in the 1960s to pursue his love of painting.

Bateman’s life was a long and active one but he did this unassumingly, with great passion. He was a refined gentleman with a love for the beauty and then simple way of life on the island of Gozo.

This is still evident in his work and, researching the paintings, it was so easy to trace the areas he had so carefully painted. Yet as a cartoonist, Bateman’s career was greatly successful and influential.

His cartooning career spanned several decades; in fact at the age of 15, Bateman had already sold his first cartoons to several busyLondon publications.

By the time he was 21, he was probably one of Britain’s foremost cartoonists at the time. What made this gentleman even more formidable was the fact that by the age of 26 he had it made.

Back then he worked for Tatler, Punch magazines and any prominent publication of the day, and to top that could command any price he requested. He was also a pioneer in creating a new style of cartooning quite unconventional for his time.

He did away with cross-hacking and unnecessary lines and created a style of his own which would soon be adopted by followers in the UK and in the US.

He was also known for comingup with a series of works entitledthe The man who… alwayscharacterised carrying out some form of faux pas.

In 1987 John Jensen and Ralph Steadman, both cartoonists and his avid followers, wrote an article for the Centenary Catalogue for an exhibition of his works. They both came to the same conclusion about their mentor.

They say of him that on meeting him, Bateman was as inspiring and relentless as ever and that he had a sparkle in his eye along with a sharp wit which was constant to the very end. As Steadman said: “I think he was born before his time.” Andtestimony to this is that to this day his works still go for thousands of pounds.

I never met this wonderful personality but I recently met his granddaughter, Lucy Willis, also a gifted and wonderful watercolourist.

Anyone who owns or has seen her work, or has been even lucky enough to purchase one or all of her books, would say the same.

Willis has her own colourful and interesting life and career, and it is sad not to go into more detail, but this article is meant to bring about a connection between the artist, her grandfather and Gozo and Malta.

So her quest to discover these links takes priority and the next few lines are dedicated to the paintings, photos and adventure of Willis’s trip here. Her aim has also been to paint these very same locations and it is interesting to see how two generations can interpret the same view, several decades apart from each other, and with such a wonderful individuality.

Her memories of her grandfather are fondly clear but very few. Quite surprising is the fact that she only met him around five times. Still the paintings and drawings of his life in Gozo, which he left behind, have formed a firm and affectionate bond.

Again, while Willis’ mother visited Bateman in Gozo, this was Willis’s first trip to Malta. Willis stayed in the same location where her grandfather had lived – the Grand Hotel at Għajnsielem.

The new Grand Hotel was built instead of the Royal Lady Hotel and the old Grand Hotel. At the same time Lucy mailed me the images of her grandfather’s paintings, and I tried to locate the views and marked them in on Googled sections of the map of the islands.

Few of the areas are still exactly the same but somehow they remain recognisable – one can clearly see the familiarity of the areas in Bateman’s works compared with the photos taken with Willis and also a couple of her paintings of the same locations.

Surely all familiar places to anyone who has been to or lived in Gozo in the past and/or are still around today.

During her stay, Willis got in touch with quite a few people who remember her grandfather. One man in particular is the doctor who looked after Bateman in Għajnsielem. The cartoon of this gentleman is particularly funny as Bateman had recorded him on one of his visits by drawing a sketch of him on his prescription.

Willis is holding an exhibition of her grandfather’s paintings at a well-known gallery in Lon-don next year. Also, while here she was contacted by several parties interested in hosting an exhibition.

Willis has found a new home away from home like her grandfather before her and can truly see why he chose to spend his last years in Gozo.

www.hmbateman.com
www.lucywillis.com