Blake puts private collection at heart of push for national gallery of drawing

An exhibition of five decades of drawing by the former Children's Laureate Quentin Blake opens today, offering a tantalising glimpse of what might be on show if the artist's hopes for a national gallery of illustration are fulfilled.

Two hundred drawings from his personal collection of illustrations, including some of his famous collaborations with Roald Dahl, can be seen in Somerset House in London until 28 March next year. But the show is potentially only a curtain-raiser for the artist's ultimate ambition of creating the Quentin Blake Gallery of Illustration.

Once a home is secured, Mr Blake intends to present his personal collection of between 4,000 and 6,000 original drawings which are insured for £2m. But the aim would be also to feature other illustrators including classics such as the French artist Daumier.

Mr Blake, 71, said the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum had promised loans from their extensive collections. And talks were being held with the curators of the Gilbert Collection at Somerset House and with English Heritage over potential homes for the gallery.

Mr Blake said: "We are a registered charity with a board of trustees, but we're not seriously raising money yet because we don't know where our home will be. Once we know that, we can put forward a proper plan. Initially it was an idea which was put to me by friends and it seemed a very good opportunity to have a gallery for illustration. It could be a space for professional illustrators and young illustrators, and I would be anxious to show work from the history of illustration."

The gallery might also raise the status of an art form which does not always get the recognition it deserves, he said. "If you're a fine artist, you get a certain amount of kudos automatically for what your aspirations are assumed to be. But if you're an illustrator you have to fight your corner."

Yet Britain was quite good at illustration, he said. "Because we live in a fog-ridden island, we are more inclined to narrative."

His own fame came comparatively late, even though much of his work - illustrating his own texts and those of writers such as Michael Rosen and Joan Aiken - has been intended for children. He has also illustrated adult books, including work by Evelyn Waugh, George Orwell and Victor Hugo.

But he admitted that by the time he was made Children's Laureate in 1999, it would have been "hypocritical modesty" to deny his success.

When he was artist in residence at the National Gallery, about 250,000 people in three months visited to see an exhibition of his work.