Collections online - Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration

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Our work with collections

Explore illustration from museums, archives and personal collections. Browse curated stories and search our database to find process drawings, posters, books and more.

This resource is generously funded by the John Ellerman Foundation.

Drawing of four people performing classical Thai dance wearing yellow, pink and orange costume

Curated stories

Painting of a small brown bear signing autographs

Janina Ede

Illustration for British books and television, made from the 1950s to the 1980s.

Painting of a woman in blue dress and headdress having dinner in front of a window with a black furry beast with long tusks like a walrus

Eleanor Vere Boyle

Sketches and illustrations for Victorian children's literature.

Drawing of four Thai dancers wearing pink, orange and yellow traditional costumes

Jacqueline Ayer

Picture books, textiles and drawings made in Thailand in the 1950s and 60s.

Jo Brocklehurst

Documentary drawing of the punks, fetishists, actors, dancers and club-goers of Berlin, London and New York.

Search illustration collections

Can’t find what you’re looking for, or have a query about something you’ve found? Email us collections@qbcentre.org.uk.

Audio described illustration

Poster by Daysi García López, 1969

Designed for the Organisation of Solidarity with the People of Africa, Asia and Latin America to express support for Black Americans.

Book illustration by Eleanor Vere Boyle, c.1875

Watercolour and gouache illustration for Boyle’s retelling of French fairy tale, Beauty and the Beast.

Drawing by Jo Brocklehurst, 1981

A portrait of Val Drayton and Lou Challice, members of the London-based Kill Your Pet Puppy collective.

Illustration of a river with greenery on its banks and a person lying on a floating raft and the words 'And then Barnaby drifted all the way back home, pleased with his good day's work'

Quentin Blake collection

Quentin’s archive of original illustrations, designs, dummy books and paintings is pledged to us.

A yellowed sheet with a column of printed illustrations of animals and people alongside a column of descriptions showing the key letters and sounds, including an image of a crow with the words 'The Crow crieth'

Illustration glossary

Browse our guide to illustration-related terms, from ‘abstract’ to ‘zine’.

About collections

We work with museums, archives and personal collections to research and share the history of illustration.

Picturebooks

Browse our collection of lithographic children’s books published in the 1920s and 30s

Dve sobaki [Two Dogs]Vera Ermolaeva
Ivan Krylov1930

Raznye Zveri [Different Beasts]Evgenii Charushin1931

Zagadki [Riddles]Lev Mordvinov1929

Teremok [The cabin]Evgenii Charushin
Vitalii Bianki1931

Snezhnaia kniga [The Snow Book]Nikolai Tyrsa
Vitalii Bianki1926

With thanks to the collections and copyright holders who have allowed us to share their material.

This resource has been made possible with generous support from the John Ellerman Foundation.