Richard Chopping - The Art of Bond

On April 17, 2008 Richard Chopping died at the age of 91. Chopping was an innovative artist who contributed stunning watercolour paintings to the covers of 10 James Bond novels.

Chopping became established in the 1940s as an author and illustrator of children's books, as well as books about natural history, in particular butterflies, birds and flowers. Chopping even worked on an aborted attempt at a 22 volume work on flora of the British Isles, in which Chopping was to have rendered every single flower.

The story goes that Ian Fleming's wife, Ann saw some of Chopping's distinctive trompe l'oeil watercolours at an exhibition, and recommended Chopping for the cover of her husband's next book, From Russia With Love. The famous jacket, my personal favourite for a Bond novel, features a the combination of a rose and a sawn-barrel Smith & Wesson which belonged to gun expert Geoffrey Boothroyd. Boothroyd appeared in Fleming next novel, Dr. No and was the genesis of the 'Q' character in the film series.

Chopping returned with the distinctive jacket design for Goldfinger, another personal favourite. From here onward, Chopping illustrated the covers of all the remaining Ian Fleming first editions. In total, 9 of Ian Fleming's first editions featured the artwork of Richard Chopping. Some of the most distinctive include For Your Eyes Only, which has the striking image of an eye peering through a hole, presumably in a door. Another unique cover is The Man With The Golden Gun, which features artwork which extends from the back all the way to the front cover of the novel, as does the title lettering. The cover for Octopussy and The Living Daylights, published posthumously was the final Fleming novel, and the last to feature a Chopping cover. This particular cover is crawling with Chopping's trademark visual - flies.

He also returned to the fold, as the literary 007 returned in 1981's Licence Renewed by John Gardner. The following four John Gardner novels also featured covers in the Chopping style, although painted by other artists.

Chopping's relationship with Ian Fleming was hardly a smooth one, and Chopping alledgedly disliked both Fleming and the books. He was also unhappy that he didn't receive royalties from the enormous success of the books, and claimed that he was "swindled all along the line".

Richard Chopping also wrote two novels of his own. These were The Fly (1965) and The Ring (1967). The Fly was described by the publishers as "a perfectly disgusting concoction . . . sufficiently sordid to appeal to voyeurs". This, combined with the appeal of Chopping's distinctive cover art resulted in a success. However, Chopping's second novel "sank with very little trace".

The legacy of Richard Chopping's art remains as some of the most distinctive and best loved Book jackets of 20th century British fiction.

---