George Loraine Stampa


George Loraine Stampa was a British artist, a contributor to Punch and other illustrated papers and magazines. He contributed to Punch for over 50 years and, according to his obituary in The Times, was well known for his 'drawings of London street urchins, and of dogs '.

Early life

George Loraine Stampa was born in Constantinople on 29 November 1875, the son of George Dominic Stampa. Stampa’s father was architect to Sultan Abdul Hamid but had to leave Turkey in 1878 following a political uprising.
Stampa was educated at Appleby Grammar School, Bedford Modern School, Heatherly’s Art School and, as a contemporary of Heath Robinson and Lewis Baumer, the Royal Academy Schools.

Stampa’s work

GL Stampa worked ‘in the same tradition as Charles Keene and Phil May, sharing their preference for the London streets, and making his name with cartoons and illustrations of urchins and their animal counterparts, mongrel dogs’.
Stampa was a major contributor to Punch from 1894, most of the illustrated weeklies and all of Rudyard Kipling’s dog stories. He was a designer of posters for London Transport and ‘illustrator to the Punch theatre column, ‘At the Play’, which he passed to Ronald Searle in 1949’. His work was also part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1928 Summer Olympics.
Stampa exhibited at the Royal Institute of Painters and the Royal Academy.

Personal life

Stampa was a member of the Savage Club and the Langham Sketch Club. In 1906 Stampa married Ethel Crowther. They had one son. Stampa died on 26 May 1951.