"L.N.E.R. - Skegness Is So Bracing, 1908" A4 Glossy Vintage Railway Poster Art Print

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In this hilarious parody of the iconic Jolly Fisherman poster, created by artist John Hassall in 1908 for the Great Northern Railway, we are transported to a seaside scene that is both whimsical and bracing. Turning off the personalised advertising setting won’t stop you from seeing Etsy ads, but it may make the ads you see less relevant or more repetitive. The originals of many of the posters we offer can cost many thousands of pounds, so whilst these posters look great, especially framed and mounted on a wall, they are intended as a fun, affordable reproductions and not intended fine art prints. Preserved by the NRM/Pictorial Collection at the National Railway Museum, this print allows us to appreciate both the artistic brilliance of John Hassall's work and its historical significance within Lincolnshire's trade, industry, agriculture, fishing industries through postcards like these.

It has been repeatedly reproduced, reworked and parodied, and the Jolly Fisherman, featured in the poster, has become an icon of his hometown, Skegness. Personalised advertising may be considered a “sale” or “sharing” of information under California and other state privacy laws, and you may have a right to opt out. Some of the technologies we use are necessary for critical functions like security and site integrity, account authentication, security and privacy preferences, internal site usage and maintenance data, and to make the site work correctly for browsing and transactions.To enable personalized advertising (like interest-based ads), we may share your data with our marketing and advertising partners using cookies and other technologies. The picture itself was drawn by John Hassall the son of a naval officer who was born in Walmer, Kent. Keep in mind that anyone can view public collections—they may also appear in recommendations and other places.

This ‘landscape’ version was created in 1928 for the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) company.

A little earlier, in 1907, the illustrator’s poster for Blackpool depicted one small girl on a deserted beach — no slogan, no visible amusements. When he died in 1948, Skegness Council sent a wreath with the Jolly Fisherman picked out in flowers. Sozzled or not, our spirited bather brings joy and amusement through her lighthearted antics on the sandy shores of Skegness.

In some cases certain artefacts and age-related marks may have been left to preserve the vintage feel of the original print. In the 1840s, David Cox began to regularly visit Wales and, at the seaside town of Rhyl, painted numerous scenes in watercolour and oils (such as Rhyl Sands, above). Nonetheless, Ruth was able to clean and repair Skegness, replacing the old repairs much more sensitively and consolidating the surface (to stop any more flaking). In 1989 a Jolly Fisherman statue based on the figure featured on the famous poster was erected in Compass Gardens.

The old repairs needed removing and new ones adding in with correctly toned paper to disguise the repairs. Hassall’s immense workload meant he often recycled ideas and many illustrations seem to mirror his own family life. Considering his prolific output, his works for British seaside resorts are comparatively few, although it is worth remembering that his heyday preceded the inter-war golden age of the railway poster by more than 20 years. During the 1890s, a new type of artistic poster was taking Europe and the US by storm, turning the advertising hoardings of towns and cities into what was dubbed ‘the poor man’s picture gallery’ and whipping up a ‘poster-mania’ that saw a craze for collecting among connoisseurs.