G.S. Fernando:

Political wit and wisdom through cartoons

By Wasantha Siriwardena

"I wish I was born as a bull!", the late Prime Minister Sir John Kotalawela whispered during a tour at a livestock farm in Polgolla. He passed these remarks after seeing how the pretty women at the farm were treating the cows. Next day, a cartoon appeared in the 'Lankadeepa' newspaper, depicting Sir John as a bull being bathed by a group of pretty women.

After seeing the cartoon, the Prime Minister called the Lankadeepa Editor, D.B. Dhanapala and demanded that the cartoonist see him next morning at his residence in Kandawela. When the slim and frail looking cartoonist appeared at the PM's residence, Sir John came down the staircase with a newspaper in his left hand. He asked, raising his right hand, "You drew this cartoon?"

Expecting a nasty blow from this tough man who was a reputed fighter, he replied "Yes sir" with a shaking voice. Surprisingly, Sir John put his hand around him and said "Umba thamai miniha!" (You are the man!). Both of them had a good laugh and he pulled the cartoonist by hand and invited him to the breakfast table to have some egg-hoppers. It was G.S. Fernando, one of the pioneer cartoonists in Sri Lanka who had this rare "confrontation" with a Prime Minister.

Admire

During the refreshments GSF sketched a quick portrait of the PM and was rewarded for that. The PM also requested GSF to send all his original cartoons, after using them for his collection. The Prime Minister encouraged him to do more and more cartoons of him saying "Thawa andapan!" (draw more).

Gamvasie Senerath Fernando or GS Fernando - was born on February 2, 1904 in Suddhagoda in Bentara. At the age of 15 his father brought him to Colombo to study Ayurvedic medicine. While studying medicine from a well-known Ayurvedic physician, he attended evening classes at Vidyodaya Pirivena, Maligakanda to study Pali and Sanskrit. On his way to Maligakanda he used to stop at the Tower Hall theatre, Maradana to admire the works of reputed Sri Lankan artist Richard Henricus, whose murals contained both Christian and Buddhist contexts and curtain paintings.

Later, he became friends with Richard Henricus and learnt the basics of drawing and painting. Henricus recognized his skills and sent him to M. Sarlis, a famous commercial artist, who had an art studio in Colombo. GSF abandoned his studies and joined the art studio. He excelled as a commercial artist and was soon recognized in the field. He designed greeting cards, posters and artworks for advertisements. He produced book covers for a number of best sellers written by reputed authors and poets in Sri Lanka, namely Martin Wickremasinghe, W.A. Silva, Piyadasa Sirisena, Hemapala Munidasa, G.B. Senanayake and U.A.S. Perera.

He drew his first political cartoon in 'Swadesha Mithraya' newspaper in 1931 criticizing the Donoughmore Commission report.

Translation

GSF joined the Times Group of Newspapers as a commercial artist in 1933. He met Aubrey Collette, the political cartoonist of the 'Times'. GSF was given the task of doing the Sinhalese translation of Collette's cartoons for 'Lankadeepa'. But later on GSF started doing his own cartoons. When Collette left for 'The Observer' GSF became the chief cartoonist in the Times group. Apart from the daily cartoon, he provided illustrations to the articles published in the newspapers. He also did a picture strip story called 'Neela' which appeared in the Sunday 'Lankadeepa', which became the first picture story published in Sri Lankan newspapers.

G.S. Fernando was also one of the best landscape water-colour painters Sri Lanka has ever produced. He loved painting landscapes and women.

In an interview with 'Kalpana' magazine in 1982, GSF expressed his views on Sri Lankan political cartoons at that time. "At the start we expressed our views with unfinished drawings. But Collette changed the style. Now it has developed in to a very powerful medium. But I feel the ideas are limited. You can't blame the cartoonists for that. There are barriers imposed by the politicians making the task tough. As a political cartoonist, my aim was to show and highlight the mistakes done by the government politicians with a little humour. But it became very difficult when the governments started controlling newspapers."

Reactions

"I have received all kinds of reactions from various political figures. Some of the leading politicians who loved my cartoons were Sir John Kotalawela, S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, D.S.Senanayake, Dudley Senanayake, Dr. N.M. Perera and Philip Gunawardena."

His works were exhibited in major cities including London, Paris, Moscow and New Delhi. As a commercial artist he won many awards and achieved many 'firsts' in the print media history of Sri Lanka.

His signature with his initials 'GSF' became a brand on any form of art, adding value to book covers, cartoons, water-color paintings, or posters etc. He died in 1990 at the age of 86 ending the 'GSF era' of art in Sri Lanka.