Mark Huskinson
Illustrator specialising in saucy cartoons and ribald depictions of traditional country pursuits
MARK HUSKINSON, who has died aged 82, was a prolific cartoonist whose images are much sought after as decoration for the loos in British country houses. His themes, typically done in ink and watercolour, were the country pursuits of hunting, shooting and fishing, but he also addressed sports such as cricket, croquet, horse racing, polo, rugby, skiing and tennis. Political correctness was not his forte, and there was frequently a saucy element in his work. In this vein, Huskinson portrayed men in black tie leering at tiddly girls with their French knickers at half mast; an image about fishing or golf presented the chance of a joke about a man’s “rod” or “shaft”; an “early morning gallop” showed a couple performing something rather difficult to achieve on horseback.
His prints proved hugely popular, and are often available for view by guests visiting the lavatory at country house dinner parties. There are also eight of his line drawings in the Royal Collection, while the Duke of Bedford acquired about 60 of his originals, many of which hang in the lavatories of Woburn Abbey.
The eldest of four children, Geoffrey Mark Clement Huskinson was born on September 25 1935 at his family’s home, Langar Hall, near Nottingham. His father, Geoffrey, played rugby for England and cricket for Nottinghamshire in the 1920s. He also represented Notts at croquet. Mark’s mother, Carmen Imogen de las Casas, was the daughter of a Spanish nobleman from Cuba. His uncle Leonard Huskinson was a gifted book illustrator whose credits included Tom Brown’s School Days and Trollope’s Phineas Redux.
At about 10 Mark began to lose his hearing, and he recorded of his time at Ampleforth: “It always looked as if I was studying hard, but in fact I was drawing on my desk. Layer upon layer of ink built up until it was like drawing on silk. When the ink dried the drawing disappeared. In those days wearing a hearing aid was to carry round a ‘car battery’ which sounded as if one was under water. So my mind was free to enjoy hunting with the Belvoir, shooting, fishing in Ireland and cricket without much interference, and I illustrated it all on the desktop.”
Although offered places at both the Ruskin and the Slade, Mark briefly attended Edinburgh College of Art before decamping to New Zealand, working on a sheep station there until 1955, when he returned to England and bought a farm in Lincolnshire. In 1961 he married Judith Chadfield, with whom he would have three sons.
For some years he was a representative in Africa and the Middle East for the engineering company Aveling-barford, leaving after it was taken over by British Leyland in 1967. In the mid-seventies he took up painting again, at first specialising in portraiture and sculpting. A little later he exhibited half a dozen cartoons at a local exhibition, just as a sideline, and they sold out within 30 minutes. He realised that this was where his future lay.
Between 1980 and 2007 Huskinson had a number of one-man shows in both Britain and America. He also exhibited at equestrian events such as Badminton and the Royal Windsor Horse Show, and was soon selling 3,000 prints a year.
He illustrated several books, including Turn Me On Guv: ‘Tails’ from the Racecourse, by the Telegraph’s racing correspondent Marcus Armytage, and cook books to raise money for St John Ambulance and a breast cancer charity. Golf, shooting and sailing were among his hobbies, and in younger days he played cricket for the Free Foresters.
His wife Judith died in 2007, after which he was briefly married to Sue Ward, who ran his dealing network. In 2014 he went to live in Menorca, by the golf course in Son Parc. His sister, Imogen Skirving – who had turned the family home Langar Hall into a successful hotel and restaurant – was visiting him in Menorca when she was killed in a road traffic accident in 2016.
Mark Huskinson, born September 25 1935, died March 7 2018