Ralph Steadman Biography

Ralph Steadman is a British illustrator who resides in Kent. He is a social and political caricaturist, whose work dominated the pages of Punch and Private Eye in the 1960s and 70s. Nowadays, you’ll regularly find his work in The New Statesman and The Independent.

Steadman is best-known for providing ‘chaotic texture to the chaotic text’ produced by gonzo journalist, Hunter S. Thompson. The artist provided sketches for Thompson’s ground-breaking 1970 magazine article, The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved, which launched Thompson’s career. Later, the pair collaborated on Thompson’s seminal novel, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – making Steadman’s splattered style instantly-recognisable the world over.

In between collaborations with Thompson, Steadman has written and illustrated more than 20 adult and children’s books, illustrated the DVD boxset for Breaking Bad, and travelled the world’s vineyards producing hundreds of artworks for Oddbins catalogues.