The Gentle Art of Making Guinness

This vertiginous view of a Guinness dirigible floating over the chalk cliffs and dry-stone walls of Southern England was drawn and painted by John Ireland in the manner of W Heath Robinson (WHR) for the 1981 Guinness calendar. Supplies of Guinness in bottle and keg form gently descend on silk parachutes towards a quintessential English inn. It’s a wonderfully sustained and inventive exercise in pastiche in which every stylistic mannerism of WHR makes an appearance. There’s the epic accumulation of details, sprawling mechanical contrivances, elevated viewpoints and isometric perspective all conveyed in pitch-perfect mimicry of the much loved and non-threatening WHR style. The artist has provided a fascinating account of this commission for the Guinness Collectors’ Club and displays a selection of his caricature illustrations on his own website.