Skegness Magazine

Joan Hassall, Daughter of Jolly Fisherman creator opens exhibition

Daughter of Jolly Fisherman Creator John Hassall First Visit to Skegness

May 1968

MISS Joan Hassall had planned a quiet walk along the sands, nothing like the Jolly Fisherman’s sprightly gallop, just a quick look at the beach that has been a family word in the Hassall family for 60 years. She was paying her first visit to Skegness where she saw the 1968 version of the famous fisherman emblem that her ‘ father, artist John Hassall, designed in 1908. “My father told me about I Skegness when I was a child, but somehow I never got around to coming to have a look for myself,” said Miss Hassall, who opened the Skegness Arts and Crafts Club 21st exhibition on Thursday. Hassall surveys her father’s (John Hassall_ painting of the Jolly Fisherman on her first visit to Skegness”>”I meant to go for a walk along the sands and see if they really are as golden as my father said they were. I thought I might take a photograph or two as a souvenir of my visit. “The fisherman looks so pleased with life, I thought I would follow in his footsteps for half an hour, but I can’t fit it into my timetable. It is a great pity.” John Hassall was a graphic artist, famous at the beginning of the century for his humorous approach to his work. The Skegness Jolly Fisherman is a typical example of his style, using bold colours and simple lines to achieve maximum effect. Joan Hassall, who recently staged an exhibition of her father’s work, is an artist in her own right too. She designed the invitations for the Queen’s Coronation in 1953 after being short-listed with five other famous artists. At the opening of the Arts and Crafts Club exhibition, which was held at the Embassy, she congratulated the entrants in’ the painting section of the exhibition, and commented that the whole exhibition was generally of a very high standard. “I am interested to see that there is nothing modish,” said Miss Hassall. “There is nothing that dates more quickly than something that is up-to-date. I am glad that the work on display has not dated at all.” Miss Hassall said that she was also impressed by the embroidery on show, which she said was as good as any she had seen in museums. She pointed out that the Jolly Fisherman had been, slightly changed in the new version, with his scarf blowing out in the opposite direction from the original and the starfish missing from the sand. “Despite these small changes the Jolly Fisherman is still as effective as ever,” said Miss Hassall. “He will always have a special place in the Hassall’s family’s hearts. as will Skegness, which has been a household word since 1908.” She presented a cartoon, painted by her father and called “The Bird Fancier,” to council chairman Mrs. Elsa Barratt, who had admired the cartoon when she went to London to see the exhibition of John Hassall’s work. NEVER FORGOTTEN “The name of Hassall will never be forgotten in Skegness,” said Mrs. Barratt. “Skegness would not have prospered as it has without the Jolly Fisherman catching everybody’s eye.” Introducing Miss Hassall and Mrs. Barratt, the chairman of the Arts and Crafts Club, Mrs. Elsie Whitworth, said that there was work on show from all sections of the Club as well as from schools and other organisations in the town.