Investigation on Illustration

The following adds a little more to a query made some time ago regarding a menu sporting the image of Wilfred Vincent Brooks. Don Grant of The London Sketch Club was kind enough to give some suggestions as to the identity of the artists and their artwork featured on this curious occasion which may, in time, provide the answer to Wilfred's connection.

Don points out that the pictures depicted behind Wilfred by artist John Hassall bear similarity to the work of other artists in the aforementioned London Sketch Club.

Top left has a resemblance with an illustration first printed in The Illustrated London News entitled "Deuced Funny" by Phil May. It apparently shows Melton Prior, a war correspondent, sharing a joke with the Punch cartoonist Alfred Chantrey Corbould.

Below this, two monkeys are depicted with their tails entwined. These are in the manner of Clarence Lawson Wood, also once an illustrator for the Illustrated London News. He is known for his ape and monkey drawings. I've not been able to locate an identical image but this is quite close.

Other proposed illustrators include William Heath Robinson. All pinned up follow this paired 'entre nous' theme.

Gerry was able to provide a photo of his illustration by John Hassall for which we are very grateful. His grandfather had connections with the 'Entre Nous Club Commitee', the role of which still remains a mystery. This picture is shown top middle, above Wilfred's head. Can anyone identify the other illustrators or illustrations?

John Hassall Draws W. Vincent Brooks

This piece, from the trunk of ephemera, is a menu for an occasion on January 12th 1937. It is illustrated with the unmistakable figure of Wilfred Vincent Brooks. The circumstances of the meal remain a mystery, although, like many of the conferences and celebrations documented before, the inclusion of cheese, biscuits and celery is comfortably replicated. The menu itself is in French and headed with the handshake logo of 'Entre Nous 1910'. The plot thickens. Who was or is 'Entre Nous'? A terribly difficult title to search for on the Internet and does the illustration give us any clues?

Entre Nous or 'between us' is captured in the illustrations of folk engaged intimately behind Wilfred. Wilfred clutches, with his partially drawn hand, what appears to be printed matter and written correspondence is in evidence but tantalisingly less than legible. Was he part of Entre Nous or working with this company?

The only positive connection I can make at this time is the signature on the bottom right.

'Hassall' refers to the illustrator John Hassall (and not the bassist with the Libertines). He designed a number of posters for the Underground Group 1908-1913 but might be most readily identified with the poster entitled 'Skegness is So Bracing'. He set up an Art school which later amalgamated with that founded by Frank Brangwyn, a name mentioned by Wilfred in one of his speeches. Vincent Brooks, Day & Son may have been associated with Hassall in the later years before the company's final demise when seemingly incorporated by the Baynard Press in 1960.

Some more investigation is needed to pin this one down.