The artist
Charles Frederick Tunnicliffe OBE RA
Artist, illustrator and printmaker, celebrated for the precision and vitality of his observations of wildlife and the countryside.
Life & work
Charles Tunnicliffe was born in 1901 in Cheshire. His early experience of farm life formed a deep visual knowledge of animals, birds and working landscapes. After training at the Royal College of Art, he developed a practice spanning painting, drawing, wood engraving, etching and book illustration.
His illustrations for the 1932 edition of Henry Williamson’s Tarka the Otter brought particular acclaim. Across a long career he combined exact observation with an assured sense of design, becoming a Royal Academician and one of the twentieth century’s best-known British wildlife artists.
In 1947 he moved to Malltraeth, Anglesey, overlooking the Cefni estuary. The island became his home and a sustained source of subjects until his death in 1979.
This concise biography is an initial, source-checked introduction. The family will review and expand it before public launch.
A sense of the countryside
Field, river and shore
Temporary AI-generated illustrations, not works by Charles Tunnicliffe. These imagined scenes are not Estate collection records and are not available for licensing.
