posted on 24 Jul 2016

Mary Shepard : the woman who drew Mary Poppins

Ask almost anyone what they think P.L. Travers’ creation Mary Poppins looks like and they will almost certainly conjure-up an image of Julie Andrews from the Disney adaptation. However, it was in fact a newly graduated artist from the Slade School of Art, Mary Shepard, who actually created the first images of her in the series of seven books, the first of which was published in1933.

Shepard was the daughter of the more famous Ernest Shepard who was, of course, the illustrator who gave us Pooh Bear. Travers originally wanted him to take on the illustrating of Mary Poppins but he was otherwise engaged and unable to do it. By chance Travers had seen a Christmas card that his daughter Mary had done and saw immediately that the naivety and charm of her drawing could be the  alternative she was looking for.

Despite the fears of her editor who thought Mary Shepard was too inexperienced and was therefore too much of a gamble, Travers took her under her wing and worked with her collaboratively to realise the way Mary Poppins would look. The inspiration was a Dutch peg doll that came from Travers’ attic – patent black hair, turned-up nose and bright blue eyes – but it was Mary Shepard who insisted that Poppins should adopt a ballet pose based on the fifth position in which the feet are turned out until they are almost parallel.

Although Disney took Poppins out of the Thirties and took her back into a more lush Edwardian setting, the general presentation of Mary Poppins remained much as Shepard had draw it – so faithful was the Disney Poppins that they were obliged to pay Shepard royalties.

Shepard married E.V. Knox a Punch Magazine cartoonist in 1937  and he had a daughter, Penelope,  by a previous marriage. In later years this relationship with Penelope would become her most important emotional attachment. Penelope herself became a writer in her later years and used the name Fitzgerald, producing a series of highly regarded novels before her death.

Mary died in 2000 at the age of 90. By this point she had become an established and well regarded illustrator of children’s books but it will always be for the creation of Mary Poppins that she will be most remembered.

 

Terry Potter

July 2016