Willson (Richard)

, , 1970.
the original artwork for a ‘big head’ double portrait of the Conservative politicians Peter Walker (1932-2010), and Robert Carr (1916-2012). Walker, who was MP for Worcester from 1961 to 1992, was appointed Secretary of State for the Environment by Edward Heath in 1970, the first such appointment anywhere in the world. Carr was Secretary of State for Employment at the time, before being appointed Home Secretary two years later. They are depicted floundering in an uncontrolled sewage outflow and under a cascade of litter, with a row of smoking factory chimneys, a traffic pile-up and a sinking oil tanker all in the background.

Richard Willson (1939-2011) began as a cartoonist for The Observer in 1968, before moving to The Times and Sunday Times in the early 1970s. His popular and distinctive work also frequently appeared in The Spectator, Washington Post, New Statesman, and New Scientist,.