Partridge, Bernard, 1861-1945

Bernard Partridge, artist, cartoonist, and actor, was born in London, England, on October 11, 1861. He was educated at Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, and later studied at the West London School of Art. After graduating, Partridge began working as a stained glass designer. At the same time, he began acting under the name of Bernard Gould and played the part of Sergius Saranoff in the first performance of Bernard Shaw’s Arms and the Man in 1894. Partridge correspondended with Shaw frequently that year, discussing the play.

Shaw later wanted Partridge to play the part of Frank Gardner in Mrs. Warren’s Profession, but it did not happen, perhaps because the play’s production was delayed by censors. Shaw and Partridge remained friends. Partridge painted two portraits of Shaw, one in 1894 and one in 1925. Both of these watercolors are in the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Partridge had joined the staff of Punch in 1891, and in the mid-1890s he gave up the theater and turned exclusively to illustration. He was hired as a junior cartoonist and was promoted repeatedly over the next eighteen years until he became principal cartoonist in 1909. His career began by creating exclusively humorous and theatrical cartoons, but he added political cartoons to his reportoire in 1899. Though Partridge did not return to the stage, his cartoons expressed the influence of the theater through his specific mode of drawing, shading, and expression.

Partridge married Lydia Faith in 1897, and the couple had no children. In 1925, He was knighted. Partridge retired from Punch in 1945, and died later that year, on August 9.