Art & Design in The British Film #20 C.P.Norman

Continuing a series about Art Directors in the British film industry up to 1948, when the book containing these articles was published.

This chapter deals with C.P.Norman, also known as Norman Delany.

CP. NORMAN approaches film decor as a scenic artist with the knowledge of the photographer – he is lucky in knowing how far ‘make-believe’ can go before it is detected by the camera and his sketches are painted in the heavy body colour of the scenic artist.

(Please click these thumbnail images to enlarge them.)

thumbnail of The First Gentleman
The First Gentleman 1948 Pen and gouache. Columbia Pictures

thumbnail of Blithe Spirit
Blithe Spirit 1945
Conté and gouache. Cineguild

thumbnail of Another Cynthia
Another Cynthia 1
Gouache. Columbia Pictures

Continue reading reading C.P.Norman’s career synopsis below the fold….

CP. NORMAN approaches film decor as a scenic artist with the knowledge of the photographer – he is lucky in knowing how far ‘make-believe’ can go before it is detected by the camera and his sketches are painted in the heavy body colour of the scenic artist.

He started his career as an art student in Vienna and then got a job with the Court photographer, Setzar. He carried on the same work when he came to England in 1919 and later joined his brother Edward Delany as a scenic artist.
Delany was at that time painting backings for the Stoll Studios, where there were seldom less than five productions on the floor at once, and so Norman had the opportunity of working on Anthony Asquith’s ‘Shooting Stars’ as his first film job.

When Alexander Korda went into production at Worton Hall Studios, Norman joined Vincent Korda as his assistant and in that capacity worked with him on many of his most successful productions, such as ‘Henry VIII’, ‘Catherine of Russia’, ‘Don Juan’, etc.

When London Films moved to Denham, Norman added the job of Floor Manager to his responsibilities, working on ‘Knight Without Armour’ and ‘The Drum’ among other films. Later he went in for set dressing at which he did very well, particularly on ‘In Which We Serve’ with its very authentic backgrounds.

He was David Lean’s Art Director on two of his very successful films ‘This Happy Breed’ and ‘Blithe Spirit’ and has just put up some very beautiful sets for Cavalcanti’s ‘The First Gentleman’.

He feels, like so many other artists do today, that too much money is spent on realism ‘when a little ingenuity would have given the same, if not better, results’ and would welcome a greater spirit of daring and adventure among film makers to avoid being drawn into a ’state of complacence and staleness so noticeable in all but the very best American films’.

Footnotes for this post:____________________________________
  1. I cannot find any web based reference for this film. Perhaps its name was changed on its eventual release. []
________________________________________________________

Other posts in this series

  1. Art & Design in The British Film # 1: W.C.Andrews
  2. Art & Design in The British Film # 2: Andre Andrejew
  3. Art & Design in The British Film # 3: Norman Arnold
  4. Art & Design in The British Film # 4: Wilfred Arnold
  5. Art & Design in The British Film # 5: Ferdinand Bellan
  6. Art & Design in The British Film # 6: Ralph Brinton
  7. Art & Design in The British Film # 7: John Bryan
  8. Art & Design in The British Film # 8 Edward Carrick
  9. Art & Design in The British Film # 9 Maurice Carter
  10. Art & Design in The British Film # 10: Douglas Daniels
  11. Art & Design in The British Film # 11: Cedric Dawe
  12. Art & Design in The British Film # 12: Roger Furse
  13. Art & Design in The British Film # 13: Hein Heckroth
  14. Art & Design in The British Film # 14: John Howell
  15. Art & Design in The British Film # 15: Laurence Irving
  16. Art & Design in The British Film # 16: Alfred Junge
  17. Art & Design in The British Film # 17 Vincent Korda
  18. Art & Design in The British Film # 18 Oliver Messel
  19. Art & Design in The British Film #19 Tom Morahan
  20. Art & Design in The British Film #20 C.P.Norman (This post)
  21. Art & Design in The British Film #21 Peter Proud
  22. Art & Design in The British Film #22 George Provis
  23. Art & Design in The British Film #23 Fred Pusey
  24. Art & Design in The British Film #24 David Rawnsley
  25. Art & Design in The British Film #25 - Michael Relph
  26. Art & Design in The British Film #26 - Paul Sherriff
  27. Art & Design in The British Film #27 - Wilfrid Shingleton
  28. Art & Design in The British Film #28 - Duncan Sutherland
  29. Art & Design in The British Film #29 – Alex Vetchinsky
Art & Design in The British Film #22 George Provis Art & Design in The British Film # 12: Roger Furse Art & Design in The British Film # 17 Vincent Korda

2 Comments

  1. Posted 8 October, 2008 at 9:38 am | Permalink

    Really interesting and a lot of Beautiful stuff !:o)It’s a shame I didn’t check the links before.Silly me.:o)

  2. michael
    Posted 9 October, 2008 at 11:23 am | Permalink

    I’m glad you like these pictures, Andrei. I still have eleven more episodes of the Art & Design of British Film to post here! There are some real gems still to come….

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