tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21954250696708242142024-03-19T10:32:16.425+00:00Modern PrintmakersHaji babahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619515066447546979noreply@blogger.comBlogger415125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195425069670824214.post-25800340804018635292024-03-18T19:40:00.002+00:002024-03-18T19:40:33.826+00:00Three drawings by Mabel Royds<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUIM7nhz-ZIGi1zbnp5J6eryNAO2t_V1_TgnqpuvfusNslZXe8N2EDoc-nHzdBdi577jNwuOosEuDlRh4RKYPJjzQtPbtoEyrKdFSs3XfO7VYejlcVm1scBnZt4DqbnZuQyN4_5YeYsZj28UZe-L6ccqxI9UU32IA2ZzA7ufuoGB8jabfmhyphenhyphenM_ZgNcYpxv/s940/Screenshot%202024-03-18%20190846.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="713" data-original-width="940" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUIM7nhz-ZIGi1zbnp5J6eryNAO2t_V1_TgnqpuvfusNslZXe8N2EDoc-nHzdBdi577jNwuOosEuDlRh4RKYPJjzQtPbtoEyrKdFSs3XfO7VYejlcVm1scBnZt4DqbnZuQyN4_5YeYsZj28UZe-L6ccqxI9UU32IA2ZzA7ufuoGB8jabfmhyphenhyphenM_ZgNcYpxv/w400-h304/Screenshot%202024-03-18%20190846.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>I heard more today about what happened to the large collection of work by Mabel Royds that was left in her studio following her death in 1941. I have to say I was surprised by the variety but what you see here are three of the drawings sold by her daughter, Marjorie Barton, many years ago. Despite that, Goldmark at Uppingham in Rutland still have drawings for sale. These three are amongst them and they probably represent some of the best drawings left you can still buy.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUtrYMVtdUqBzaJVeMjA9qKVgrGd65GQOtL5_hz2XvJdKewnprsOE-VXZ5ZU-dgCDJxuTDid3krLJLDZVC8zfsk-DX_UxiYyaB5-aZmuj_AGOwSzOiODAVIG1E-eiCCjZlc4EnahzwSbrXET4J5QkuVN_4OOp77VB8kYvFde5H894hU2oTkHPLM-rRk4wg/s884/Screenshot%202024-03-18%20190429.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="884" data-original-width="572" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUtrYMVtdUqBzaJVeMjA9qKVgrGd65GQOtL5_hz2XvJdKewnprsOE-VXZ5ZU-dgCDJxuTDid3krLJLDZVC8zfsk-DX_UxiYyaB5-aZmuj_AGOwSzOiODAVIG1E-eiCCjZlc4EnahzwSbrXET4J5QkuVN_4OOp77VB8kYvFde5H894hU2oTkHPLM-rRk4wg/w259-h400/Screenshot%202024-03-18%20190429.png" width="259" /></a></div><br /><p>But Goldmark is not all there is to it. Those of you who cannot leave ebay alone will also know that there are more drawings there being sold by a long-time Royds dealer in Nottinghamshire. It may sound incredible but all the drawings you see here and the ones on ebay were part of the same horde that Marjorie Barton sold about 1984 when interest in colour woodcut was taking off.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLi0Yn8riK_8LtLEBPhkAwX9gfTA_NmNWXdDGjJotDjh0E8k8rLUc8yEoMLhA2goskqs2_rE3uOEI8WXqXs9ME0ayu4tTx7lDepZVL3CWHVAOXSUGarLVpFVyroKQwrGS-5_LNDp67goSU4oG9mk3eWsgKhGBNlGNMdgzh3HrzaMJLZzBUh1Uud4SzDrmd/s876/Screenshot%202024-03-18%20190643.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="876" data-original-width="644" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLi0Yn8riK_8LtLEBPhkAwX9gfTA_NmNWXdDGjJotDjh0E8k8rLUc8yEoMLhA2goskqs2_rE3uOEI8WXqXs9ME0ayu4tTx7lDepZVL3CWHVAOXSUGarLVpFVyroKQwrGS-5_LNDp67goSU4oG9mk3eWsgKhGBNlGNMdgzh3HrzaMJLZzBUh1Uud4SzDrmd/w294-h400/Screenshot%202024-03-18%20190643.png" width="294" /></a></div><br /><p>Royds is not for the faint-hearted and I decided against using one of the Goldmark here in case e-blogger slapped a warning on Modern Printmakers. She was a great colourist as we all know, vibrant, subtle, uncompromising. She also had a powerful drawing style which increased in drama as art deco took hold. She was possibly the first woman to make male nudes (more or less) and I suspect this has not always helped some of the Indian prints to sell.</p><p>Anyway, you can buy any of these for less than you will pay for a print. If you can find one, that is.</p>Haji babahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619515066447546979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195425069670824214.post-43383273046402260062024-03-18T16:14:00.001+00:002024-03-18T16:15:24.297+00:00Further information about S.G. Boxsius 'Spring'<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcwS4h7Gmbz1rcLV_1m2hmokNijYFm1BK0LX72MaeVNbrJqCdc4HqluOpzXnwzN7ydsFyD82NDe7-r0019cWMwSCyB6EpcX1loiPyFNujppYuil9AGLVrc-moPPP5y6Buni2PdxsxoVJkmwrb2r-93t9L7CPO2Q-iagugYdnuoBudrMscHU9Qz1xlwQYMm/s668/Boxsius%20Spring.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="668" data-original-width="527" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcwS4h7Gmbz1rcLV_1m2hmokNijYFm1BK0LX72MaeVNbrJqCdc4HqluOpzXnwzN7ydsFyD82NDe7-r0019cWMwSCyB6EpcX1loiPyFNujppYuil9AGLVrc-moPPP5y6Buni2PdxsxoVJkmwrb2r-93t9L7CPO2Q-iagugYdnuoBudrMscHU9Qz1xlwQYMm/w315-h400/Boxsius%20Spring.png" width="315" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>I had always believed that S.G. Boxsius never dated any of his prints but I found out today that I was wrong. A reader generously gave me his spare copy of his calendar image, <i>Spring</i> (above) which I posted about not long ago. I showed him my own proofs of <i>Autumn</i> and <i>Winter </i>which he printed on a fine tissue. (See below) <i>Spring </i>on the other hand is printed on heavy wove and I said it looked as though he used heavier and less expensive paper for another year. It turned out I was right because after my visitor left, I had another look at my new <i>Spring</i> and discovered a faint '1932' underneath his signature.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHgbWhy9xJAuzCvSFIlHeMJtLrqAjIJ665ofQAskTU1NryT4wVqf5OX9rxkLolwPDxV0Eao3V9P3Nu-5BXfhmxGTzamiPI4wCzKxP-pPR7niOd4DgWxef-2NhtKMc7sxU6-C-upF7I7GHBktERcHO20eX8j0yQSsPQThlUELACvMZYgButEEW_wnlbd8jl/s947/Screenshot%202023-09-12%20200041.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="745" data-original-width="947" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHgbWhy9xJAuzCvSFIlHeMJtLrqAjIJ665ofQAskTU1NryT4wVqf5OX9rxkLolwPDxV0Eao3V9P3Nu-5BXfhmxGTzamiPI4wCzKxP-pPR7niOd4DgWxef-2NhtKMc7sxU6-C-upF7I7GHBktERcHO20eX8j0yQSsPQThlUELACvMZYgButEEW_wnlbd8jl/w400-h315/Screenshot%202023-09-12%20200041.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Haji babahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619515066447546979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195425069670824214.post-48590409403029867812024-03-02T10:18:00.005+00:002024-03-02T10:18:52.439+00:00E mail for Modern Printmakers<p> </p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix55PbgOmXmlB1PnnG7m0ztKp41eJ4gtKM0eb2QI78Q1TrGgQYr2laYtP_OpX8nhawq6IDuGpFTNDmV3D_c60E16ybebfvMdQudUSRzvfuqHxXzg38xr9UGUyooF9NgKDmbYIl_zAp5E5-PwvRX-0LN4ceJaCSQM34Zr3piLpVWKIbrQuYFktomCAglg96/s517/Henneberg%20Dalmatia.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="508" data-original-width="517" height="393" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix55PbgOmXmlB1PnnG7m0ztKp41eJ4gtKM0eb2QI78Q1TrGgQYr2laYtP_OpX8nhawq6IDuGpFTNDmV3D_c60E16ybebfvMdQudUSRzvfuqHxXzg38xr9UGUyooF9NgKDmbYIl_zAp5E5-PwvRX-0LN4ceJaCSQM34Zr3piLpVWKIbrQuYFktomCAglg96/w400-h393/Henneberg%20Dalmatia.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>I needed an excuse to post Hugo Henneberg's colour linocut <i>Dalmatia</i>. It had not been online all that long when I came across it and is one of the few colour prints he made that was not part of the portfolio of prints. Mainly, though, I wanted occasional readers to know my email address has changed from the one that appears in older comments to cgc505@outlook.com and they can write to me, Gordon Clarke, for information or with any information about artists who I have written about or even ones I have not.</p>Haji babahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619515066447546979noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195425069670824214.post-37156434817403516982024-02-29T21:54:00.003+00:002024-03-02T10:22:23.688+00:00The enigmatic E.A. Hope<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcWlad_NUJYpeQswqo_LiMVJRCEeXGJ05sGXx3rCIGtETIhf9IuUHY2Wq3aVg6GgLNW8lHLJyDpsyLg0ez58MF8Hjidm02U4iNIyQ44oXnsrLhHTWsoFN_i_B_Ip3kHlAd7-V0FrhIVkueUhGWFTx77OS7R57EIUk6CFF8kDROT7ggm26KzKrlpHOAh9FP/s456/EA%20Hope%20Gargunnock%20House.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="428" data-original-width="456" height="375" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcWlad_NUJYpeQswqo_LiMVJRCEeXGJ05sGXx3rCIGtETIhf9IuUHY2Wq3aVg6GgLNW8lHLJyDpsyLg0ez58MF8Hjidm02U4iNIyQ44oXnsrLhHTWsoFN_i_B_Ip3kHlAd7-V0FrhIVkueUhGWFTx77OS7R57EIUk6CFF8kDROT7ggm26KzKrlpHOAh9FP/w400-h375/EA%20Hope%20Gargunnock%20House.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>Modern Printmakers is not short on women artists of the early C20th who have turned out to be hard to discover much about even though Hope herself was well-connected. Worse still, it is almost impossible to find her prints for sale though I did come across one in Australia where she was born. I should say here I was mistaken when I said in the first post I devoted to her that her father had been the governor of Australia. He was governor of the state of Victoria and returned home to become the Queen's chamberlain before returning to Australia in 1900.</p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOQKjo3xPosUCk95VeZNqJnwA7rEP0MksRx-Gwk0u8SW49HNVVCq1Mj1NY3ImRwmMh5ih8VoP_Kb0oYwA7scgwgRVzDhf14EiGEWIsPSA3lm5_HhHsyCD_1KAHSRoI0Xxiq8FtSt_Nv9wHbVhUeI1uSq0z-d7n3sQY-EIpGmSwqjy-w_-M7XtIOspDSTL6/s483/Screenshot%202024-02-28%20072108.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="483" data-original-width="278" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOQKjo3xPosUCk95VeZNqJnwA7rEP0MksRx-Gwk0u8SW49HNVVCq1Mj1NY3ImRwmMh5ih8VoP_Kb0oYwA7scgwgRVzDhf14EiGEWIsPSA3lm5_HhHsyCD_1KAHSRoI0Xxiq8FtSt_Nv9wHbVhUeI1uSq0z-d7n3sQY-EIpGmSwqjy-w_-M7XtIOspDSTL6/w230-h400/Screenshot%202024-02-28%20072108.png" width="230" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Hope first studied at the Slade School of Art before moving to the London School of Art about 1908 and where the potter Bernard Leach and the Australian artist, Jessie Traill were fellow students. The School has been set up by Frank Brangwyn in Stratford Road in 1904. Brangwyn himself had never had any formal training and as sceptical about British art school as British art schools and art critics were about him. Like Claude flight at the Grosvenor School in the 1920s, Brangwyn had an inordinate influence on his students who tended all to end up looking like him rather than themselves. At some stage Hope went so far as to commission a bookplate from Brangwyn who produced this studied pose of a boy-girl figure filling a basket with apples. I could go on but I will resist the temptation to mock Brangwyn and can only add that Hope continued in much the same vein with her images of wicked fauns drinking wine from 1911.</p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4qXSXyxHDeXTyRvt-dSG_BtEJf94AxZ-mRxcpVYbNsalipxqPKx4OUyw9wGALvIRvqDbGIfKZvhDv-TTm1eT4sKkiisdUMFYFhN5k3jTWuGS8NfsZalLIOjnXMPNeJ5ID8ihiRLM_un2DDBoETVh6afSsFd70YqdDQRpFyf-oVSftPQIIqvkekl_uEvDt/s936/Screenshot%202024-02-29%20134041.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="727" data-original-width="936" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4qXSXyxHDeXTyRvt-dSG_BtEJf94AxZ-mRxcpVYbNsalipxqPKx4OUyw9wGALvIRvqDbGIfKZvhDv-TTm1eT4sKkiisdUMFYFhN5k3jTWuGS8NfsZalLIOjnXMPNeJ5ID8ihiRLM_un2DDBoETVh6afSsFd70YqdDQRpFyf-oVSftPQIIqvkekl_uEvDt/w400-h311/Screenshot%202024-02-29%20134041.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>The lush literary style had little in common with the <i>faux naif</i> woodcuts she eventually made but her work was shown at exhibitions organised by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art early in the century and a couple of works went into the collection of the National Gallery of Canada. But they all tend to seem remote from the kind of work that interest readers of Modern Printmakers. Yoshijiro Urushibara was also a student at the London School of Art about then and went on to make the <i>Bruges</i> portfolio with Brangwyn during the war but the small scale colour woodcuts have little in common with either artist apart from the nocturnal subjects they chose for <i>Bruges.</i></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaPZcUSvwqGpELvnFzUY3n73ircokzdff9Asbc30WIRAl_7nGsdljhzHW_79lRkvOE4K6ySA74andu8BIGJDXHwJt_0rbUkUZXAZ8ejHDJNzvNRUWiK3pOvnGTmpvhU3nCmE2QFmr2y4BGe27I3GFCWmK-3W7Tz_sOxHJ6yuap_p4jhwuZV2I6A7TCKDD1/s697/Subiaco.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="628" data-original-width="697" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaPZcUSvwqGpELvnFzUY3n73ircokzdff9Asbc30WIRAl_7nGsdljhzHW_79lRkvOE4K6ySA74andu8BIGJDXHwJt_0rbUkUZXAZ8ejHDJNzvNRUWiK3pOvnGTmpvhU3nCmE2QFmr2y4BGe27I3GFCWmK-3W7Tz_sOxHJ6yuap_p4jhwuZV2I6A7TCKDD1/w400-h360/Subiaco.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>I have now discovered the night scene (above) show the town and monastery of Subiaco south of Rome while a reader tells me the print at the top hangs in Gargunnock House near Stirling. This was not all that far from her ancestral home at Hopetoun House near Edinburgh and presumably the two families knew one another. (My reader tells me all the pictures on the wall at Gargunnock are associated with the house). The impression I get from Alan Guest's records and copies of catalogues I have is that in common with many other artists who began to make colour woodcuts, it all happened after the war. She exhibited <i>Albi</i> with the Graver Printers in 1928, followed by <i>York</i> and <i>Sturminster Newton </i>1929 and went on exhibiting with them until 1938. </p><p>Some of the prints like <i>Albi, Boston market </i>(1934) and <i>Trotton Bridge</i> (1936) can be seen first post I put up, 'Land of Hope and Glory: the colour woodcuts of E.A. Hope. The problem is only the photo taken by my reader and the one of Subiaco do Hope much justice and all I have been able to do here is offer some more of the story.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Haji babahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619515066447546979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195425069670824214.post-39092174101324047322024-02-26T20:14:00.004+00:002024-02-26T20:17:17.100+00:00'Spring' by S.G. Boxsius<p> </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEU6V3f0rJED74s6VCA66Qs2rjNaW0lO0OuEl2Z6KylT6N-x77jkugdWIiF1hPSfeql4oblG5g5hILH-yPYZDsGR0jISahQdn9Wd6v6muf-f2_iLLbRAZjSjzAcwZvSSsp1HY0GxxwQCjc-fPevlSVgLyvg0YOMYPqYmoURFvObJHXJyV7V6LepXod3uhO/s726/Screenshot%202024-02-26%20200553.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="726" data-original-width="573" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEU6V3f0rJED74s6VCA66Qs2rjNaW0lO0OuEl2Z6KylT6N-x77jkugdWIiF1hPSfeql4oblG5g5hILH-yPYZDsGR0jISahQdn9Wd6v6muf-f2_iLLbRAZjSjzAcwZvSSsp1HY0GxxwQCjc-fPevlSVgLyvg0YOMYPqYmoURFvObJHXJyV7V6LepXod3uhO/w316-h400/Screenshot%202024-02-26%20200553.png" width="316" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>A reader has just sent me photographs he has taken of his two proofs of S.G. Boxsius calendar image <i>Spring</i> to show just how much they can differ. As I had expressed doubts about the condition of some of the prints that turn up, I thought I would post the reader's photos here so that anyone who is thinking about buying one has some idea what the print should look like. Draw your own conclusions but I wonder if some of the printing was unstable and the images has faded.</p><p> </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFv7m7OpsCVVYIYxeIz6kk-GsypGFdURpNor7mlJSSm2WQFKtojM-7xmZ-UUWa9AwZ4TytCsxrINyh_JSE04NmRz-pRLU-jebnfpcZmgnoPSs-CklFeAmZp25I6ez18MMhDfS3_Up-VrShlyb1PLb30iZ8uMd4oOZ_pfEhMEJZXxvhyNzAP_ZH5ESBVWWJ/s728/Screenshot%202024-02-26%20200636.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="728" data-original-width="588" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFv7m7OpsCVVYIYxeIz6kk-GsypGFdURpNor7mlJSSm2WQFKtojM-7xmZ-UUWa9AwZ4TytCsxrINyh_JSE04NmRz-pRLU-jebnfpcZmgnoPSs-CklFeAmZp25I6ez18MMhDfS3_Up-VrShlyb1PLb30iZ8uMd4oOZ_pfEhMEJZXxvhyNzAP_ZH5ESBVWWJ/w323-h400/Screenshot%202024-02-26%20200636.png" width="323" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Haji babahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619515066447546979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195425069670824214.post-36500346032418054632024-02-25T09:36:00.003+00:002024-02-27T17:36:47.675+00:00Gertrude Brodie's 'Portrait of a tree in Giggleswick'<p> </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG00I5fwH0vFm6iR5-2ajvTn-e4U1ZJhHezW8KD3GeEHZJ090TJnzPbWL8UNkX5XiOCvBg9OYtTx42OQs-5wqGdErMh7IyCjPoKphPaF2UDh3ovCC4i2Y2ptUO3SsuHzPQVwgzLPfdUNGeD79K8dDxkBw3hyphenhyphen8J4fKXPekze5UmN7hQWN4ZoXK1cvZriDwy/s3490/1000010266%201.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3490" data-original-width="2840" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG00I5fwH0vFm6iR5-2ajvTn-e4U1ZJhHezW8KD3GeEHZJ090TJnzPbWL8UNkX5XiOCvBg9OYtTx42OQs-5wqGdErMh7IyCjPoKphPaF2UDh3ovCC4i2Y2ptUO3SsuHzPQVwgzLPfdUNGeD79K8dDxkBw3hyphenhyphen8J4fKXPekze5UmN7hQWN4ZoXK1cvZriDwy/w325-h400/1000010266%201.jpg" width="325" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>I wanted readers to know that another poster-size work by Gertrude Brodie has turned up. Unless the previous two, this one has a direct link with the artist herself because the reader's grandmother became friends with Brodie after she taught her at Settle High School. The drawing was then given to the former pupil following her marriage at the church in the picture and has remained in the family ever since. As ever, I am very grateful to the reader for sending the image to me. As other readers will know, Brodie has staying power and is the kind of artist you do not push in a cupboard but hang on your wall. <i>Portrait of a tree at Giggleswick </i>(above) would certainly join my own <i>The hill over Settle</i> which is hanging on the wall only a few feet behind me as I write. I should also say it wasn't always there. My mother loved it so much, it hung in her home for many years.</p><p>Brodie was onto something with her poster-size drawings. Wherever she went, she used the same format which allowed her to make the best of the narrow Yorkshire streets, stately trees and church towers. So for as I can make out she employed gouache and conte crayon for all the four pieces by her we know of and it is the consistent use of the same size of picture and the same medium that suggests someone who was serious about her work.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgInsk5aPXBlJMOg17ACqnm4sTdIs7PF24W-anitiNR4r4uEg2jClLtnZSwhI61zPlTe2HA7c5me6EtNie8LBMD7OgC4G4arNqvz1-rxdT5TQQkTC4rTc5byDfk0hvChSmyDe5ssaa9mBrtR-9Mxbs2FMgWykgp9j-DlYOpwcU2gCb50-wZHkAJETajllYe/s897/Brodie%20From%20my%20Essex%20window.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="897" data-original-width="658" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgInsk5aPXBlJMOg17ACqnm4sTdIs7PF24W-anitiNR4r4uEg2jClLtnZSwhI61zPlTe2HA7c5me6EtNie8LBMD7OgC4G4arNqvz1-rxdT5TQQkTC4rTc5byDfk0hvChSmyDe5ssaa9mBrtR-9Mxbs2FMgWykgp9j-DlYOpwcU2gCb50-wZHkAJETajllYe/w294-h400/Brodie%20From%20my%20Essex%20window.png" width="294" /></a></div><br /><p>To go over the little we know about her biography, she was born at Redbridge, Essex, in 1882 and taught at Settle High School and Giggleswick School. Both schools are in small towns in the old North Riding of Yorkshire. She then returned to Essex where I assume she went on working in the same way and made <i>View from my Essex window</i> (above). I am including this to allow readers to make comparisons. So far as I am concerned, what impresses me is the combination of a decorative style and a successful overall tone. As you see, this differed from picture to picture. Also compare the very different moods. The calm sense of withdrawl in the Essex picture is very different from the vigorous sense of movement at Giggleswick, with the wild growth of its beech trees, sloping uneven streets and uncertain sky. Here is an artist who could do both public and private and who had a strong enough sense of form and firm enough handling of technique to get across how very different the two counties she worked and lived in were.</p><p>Brodie died in 1967 and deserves to be better known. But then I could say that about so many. </p><p><br /></p>Haji babahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619515066447546979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195425069670824214.post-46236641525133494792024-02-24T12:23:00.003+00:002024-02-27T17:38:13.645+00:00Colour prints on ebay this week.<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtmB_rxM5WAbYM_VBK1NYDRfMDyLAwYL4d1DmPzlM5-8BdwxkfaQh_47kxBYQs1dAl0cSmRFGeYGGLtlLZkBMUcK7zsUoPsekfUNPlG0H22RKUNqbP8Ncabs9Ioiu8OKgyK4pX6BiPZKAPRDcxGVO9Jwhy5afchyvRBc3SlnA9uugTUcFVEWjrw_FrFIjD/s903/NBR.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="903" data-original-width="837" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtmB_rxM5WAbYM_VBK1NYDRfMDyLAwYL4d1DmPzlM5-8BdwxkfaQh_47kxBYQs1dAl0cSmRFGeYGGLtlLZkBMUcK7zsUoPsekfUNPlG0H22RKUNqbP8Ncabs9Ioiu8OKgyK4pX6BiPZKAPRDcxGVO9Jwhy5afchyvRBc3SlnA9uugTUcFVEWjrw_FrFIjD/w371-h400/NBR.png" width="371" /></a></div> <p></p><p>I may as well begin with a stand-out linocut by Norbertine Bresslern Roth. <i>Wolves</i> is such an exquisite print when you see it in front of you, it would be hard to resist if you had £1,200 to spend on a work of art. Right now I don't but that doesn't matter because I was fortunate enough to pick it up at my local auction. I still remember the sharp intake of breath as I told Alan Guest over the phone what it was like and when he saw it later that morning, he simply said, 'You're right.' I say all thus because, as with all good prints, you need to see <i>Wolves</i> yourself to appreciate what a good work of art it is. It is not merely an imaginative design; it has the surface magic that all good prints ought to have.</p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzc3ceQRBaBU8G0v4-gy8T11NAZ9uw8hIV9EVLu1DVInColkjPx6FrXHTbO90gHu_TL3_paDviJqtt03TPLvjVFD_CYLgjEQDlQl_GEzYs3q_xNbl3qvpcE7kD1qiny7egrvKSU8HtfgskAV1T3FxtIu3C59a5V3WtuJPItf3WkGqcrJV8ceM_Gu33oCm7/s622/WNP.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="622" data-original-width="412" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzc3ceQRBaBU8G0v4-gy8T11NAZ9uw8hIV9EVLu1DVInColkjPx6FrXHTbO90gHu_TL3_paDviJqtt03TPLvjVFD_CYLgjEQDlQl_GEzYs3q_xNbl3qvpcE7kD1qiny7egrvKSU8HtfgskAV1T3FxtIu3C59a5V3WtuJPItf3WkGqcrJV8ceM_Gu33oCm7/w265-h400/WNP.png" width="265" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>This could not be said for William Neave Parker's colour linocut <i>Lynx </i>(1927).<i> </i>Don't get me wrong. I like everything Neave Parker ever did but he had no formal training and was not a maker of fine prints. <i>Lynx</i> is a well designed and neatly printed work but it comes from a book he published when linocut was just getting going in Britain and once you see Neave Parker's linocuts in front of you, the do not have the glamour that a print should have, so if you have £205 to spare, you would be better spending it elsewhere. Forty and fifty, maybe; two hundred knicker, no.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji06w5FnYFqD5divoIdqqliSzTkST6S7wf-2olkQQ1Oa5noy0mqFXSmJR04F-8V6xok0Tj-mIRGW0sGAVB5aM15KG2wgNCkJIiKUQ7x5Cibd1Yi1b8wZkGCeVQ2SSh2kvfXFByqhvBS1jTjzFOWqHvLT2mvakrW1JI5MeZrezUgR9H4gXzPPY1omXwadBT/s1221/Twins.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="881" data-original-width="1221" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji06w5FnYFqD5divoIdqqliSzTkST6S7wf-2olkQQ1Oa5noy0mqFXSmJR04F-8V6xok0Tj-mIRGW0sGAVB5aM15KG2wgNCkJIiKUQ7x5Cibd1Yi1b8wZkGCeVQ2SSh2kvfXFByqhvBS1jTjzFOWqHvLT2mvakrW1JI5MeZrezUgR9H4gXzPPY1omXwadBT/w400-h289/Twins.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>As for poor Allen Seaby, frankly, they have been scraping the barrel for years. There is nothing wrong with either <i>Twins</i> (above) or <i>Dormice</i> (below) but Seaby had already been at it too long and all he was basically doing was substituting other animals for birds when birds was what he liked and what he did best. They said this in the 1930s and it is still true now. And while I am at it, <i>Twins</i> is the correct title not <i>Goats</i> or <i>The white kid</i> or anything else dealers dream up.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwzP3Qs4Z9HQIF59BhhuFdYLQgyCqJz10f8Ajg-ye1SkBB9EYhc8dbwKekcF7YNmn0mS4cFU941PMrdlsZzP3TjbHPQ8-gSLyZNEM5F7GuuHifgi04r9XbnHkk0LJ4ZXImcw9oUQFyB7kwJbrUKAK98DwOD5H2HqANHa5jN8jJbqGU_qrPgwwstitOLFmB/s897/Dormice.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="731" data-original-width="897" height="326" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwzP3Qs4Z9HQIF59BhhuFdYLQgyCqJz10f8Ajg-ye1SkBB9EYhc8dbwKekcF7YNmn0mS4cFU941PMrdlsZzP3TjbHPQ8-gSLyZNEM5F7GuuHifgi04r9XbnHkk0LJ4ZXImcw9oUQFyB7kwJbrUKAK98DwOD5H2HqANHa5jN8jJbqGU_qrPgwwstitOLFmB/w400-h326/Dormice.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>Flight for Seaby had the same soft magic as pulling a proof. In his mind, lifting a proof from the block was no different from lifting a wing and no amount of interest in natural history or animal husbandry in general can make up for the less of his major subject. The awareness of the fleeting moment is where he has most in common with great printmakers like Hokusai or Hiroshige and that, I am afraid, is all there is to it. Stripping back off a tree or crawling through azaleas doesn't really do it though neither of these prints are pricey and I have considered buying <i>Little blighters</i> more than once. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA6oJxfIpdBj86IQld3ALCuiWLApbaNzHYW_eDF6lbjrdL90d6qCQPn6JoGgEzxT1yGZedD-fRAOqP6HuVksVdBKxINpq7-BKwU8Dwj3djF21w45OW6SFwXTFXPQ8ZMIzqcJqv69sRfmvFxfrN4EcpeWmQHes6eA0dfDPMGGNkW9O-7Zdcap6aVWIm7TM2/s892/Screenshot%202024-02-24%20114631.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="678" data-original-width="892" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA6oJxfIpdBj86IQld3ALCuiWLApbaNzHYW_eDF6lbjrdL90d6qCQPn6JoGgEzxT1yGZedD-fRAOqP6HuVksVdBKxINpq7-BKwU8Dwj3djF21w45OW6SFwXTFXPQ8ZMIzqcJqv69sRfmvFxfrN4EcpeWmQHes6eA0dfDPMGGNkW9O-7Zdcap6aVWIm7TM2/w400-h304/Screenshot%202024-02-24%20114631.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>You cannot go wrong with the bookplates of Alfred Peter. They are consistently good, consistently inexpensive though this one is over-priced at £23 considering the stains on the paper. It's a pity but it wouldn't put me off. Also some are signed and this one isn't and if you have nice signed examples, this one, for all its interest, would not make sense. Interesting though to see how much modern work was being done by 1912.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0VX9QmxKE4NvLYK0U_2YmBcTtIIWsgZ6bpA1wLXP18_2GAS1CFuxPvjzlqeFzhqMEKg9l8_EDRkhXI7uiE25DVET65py45DI7NRWxryr1cmrvZyxFSXTSWnkKIh5uQ0GiwZRSkfWtkdOsvoR3FOY2hwDXwV3dEyRyM6cEx0CvWO_ARALyb04Lw6xaiVvH/s338/18%20Spring%201.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="268" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0VX9QmxKE4NvLYK0U_2YmBcTtIIWsgZ6bpA1wLXP18_2GAS1CFuxPvjzlqeFzhqMEKg9l8_EDRkhXI7uiE25DVET65py45DI7NRWxryr1cmrvZyxFSXTSWnkKIh5uQ0GiwZRSkfWtkdOsvoR3FOY2hwDXwV3dEyRyM6cEx0CvWO_ARALyb04Lw6xaiVvH/w318-h400/18%20Spring%201.jpg" width="318" /></a></div><br /><p>Last but far from least in S.G. Boxsius' calendar image <i>Spring. </i>I was tempted to add 'notorious' to the description, partly because it seems nigh on impossible to find a good image of this intriguing piece of work. None of this series (as you will know) were ever signed and I assume all of them were printed by students under Boxsius' supervision. Obviously what Boxsius wanted to depict was the peculiar light of an English spring and unless the photos are any good, they will not do the print much justice. But none of the available photos are any good and if you are tempted to pay out £295, remember this: the image here is the best one I have on file and not the one for sale. The one on ebay has nothing of the colour of this one, which is certainly well over-priced. But it has been a round for a long time and no-one will buy it now, I should think.</p>Haji babahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619515066447546979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195425069670824214.post-55267955673079188442024-02-22T21:58:00.005+00:002024-02-22T21:59:21.561+00:00'Wind' by S.G. Boxsius<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYHCrPuzxqnivtyFyKNCeLstLGeCjgi4G3tJctQgyZH8M7OJjxyFUc3vnj1GzjW24sYeYaEbsfU-gYDADjA_FamhT901XqVPLRvuDS7vX88Z2PblQakVTsDtd_9J3Eyj6i3cprPZCUHbDql-QYg8u7C8_SWSpZIOGpLSpPcEquF31U7dA-g-cPClM-ZqzE/s892/Wind%20Boxsius.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="827" data-original-width="892" height="371" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYHCrPuzxqnivtyFyKNCeLstLGeCjgi4G3tJctQgyZH8M7OJjxyFUc3vnj1GzjW24sYeYaEbsfU-gYDADjA_FamhT901XqVPLRvuDS7vX88Z2PblQakVTsDtd_9J3Eyj6i3cprPZCUHbDql-QYg8u7C8_SWSpZIOGpLSpPcEquF31U7dA-g-cPClM-ZqzE/w400-h371/Wind%20Boxsius.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>It has been a good year for S.G. Boxius. To my surprise, not one but two unrecorded linocuts have turned up (<i>The black bull</i> and <i>Unloading gravel</i>) and we have been able to ascertain the correct title for <i>The broken plough</i>. The latter print has been familiar for many years as a small, poor image but now there is a much better one which I will include in another post. But nothing was more exciting than this excellent image of 'Wind'.</p><p>It is one of his calendar images from the series that includes <i>Autumn, Winter</i>, <i>Early morning</i> and <i>Evening afterglow. </i>The latter has a tittle straight from William Giles and attests to the mutual admiration between the two artists. But <i>Wind</i> is more a Giles image than the others. Its is the kind of long view of a distant monument or hill-top farmhouse surrounded by cypress trees that he liked. But what it also reminds me of is Paul Nash during the 1930s. Both Nash and Giles had imaginations that were attracted by the occult although Nash eventually towards surrealism. </p><p>I was tipped off by a reader only a few days ago who had come across four proofs of 'Wind' for sale at a Swedish auction in October, 2023. He tells me that despite a very low reserve the lot did not sell and the linocuts have not reappeared. What took me by surprise was not only the number of proofs in good condition, but the presence of working proofs by Ethel Kirkpatrick, including a fine image of Edinburgh Castle, which was discussed many years ago when it came up on <i>Art and the Aesthete </i>I seem to remember. </p><p>I would assume a Swedish collector was in touch with one of them and my conclusion is it may all be to do with William Giles who was a friend of both Boxsius and the Swedish-American artist, Bror Nordfeldt, and had visited Sweden in about 1903. But that is only a hunch. Suffice to say, here is another missing link in the tale of S.G. Boxsius and not before time.</p>Haji babahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619515066447546979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195425069670824214.post-15864235130899556732023-10-30T20:44:00.001+00:002023-10-31T04:08:42.513+00:00Alice Coates & John Platt at Shrewsbury<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxd0a8D6uNm15cf85z3k_-zCwS4mV7qGR9K0TymANw8zPzTTlyqRp1hmMf4ibkr6dTR2FwvKmec5-0qUK4MOW73qUlYFKDbB4UlQSK234zsqeqVDEA0p3bsbXF-a3uaWA79m7NhdXKKinpTPPZ2cpCyelUX4sqbKBx3FHDzV9CtZ0_sfTxAZW1MtzmwXxL/s697/Alice%20coates%20the%20signpost.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="697" data-original-width="520" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxd0a8D6uNm15cf85z3k_-zCwS4mV7qGR9K0TymANw8zPzTTlyqRp1hmMf4ibkr6dTR2FwvKmec5-0qUK4MOW73qUlYFKDbB4UlQSK234zsqeqVDEA0p3bsbXF-a3uaWA79m7NhdXKKinpTPPZ2cpCyelUX4sqbKBx3FHDzV9CtZ0_sfTxAZW1MtzmwXxL/w478-h640/Alice%20coates%20the%20signpost.png" width="478" /></a></div><br /><p _msthash="50447" _msttexthash="81210740">This is a very late alert about a timed sale by Hall's of Shrewsbury. It has been open for about two weeks and closes at 4pm on 31st October. Tomorrow is still not to late to snap up some very choice work bought by a surgeon from Hilary Chapman in 2003 and 2004. There is also an interest modern colour woodcut 'The sower' by John Petts and a wildly misconceived colour linocut by the irreproachable Gertrude Hermes.</p><p _msthash="50447" _msttexthash="31089669"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBp0ejuli0-3Ba2IGdjjlGjCsa26aBzDt9cknmzypzpTJy4l8ShmlPqzA6JevRErRIOujQ92vpNYzpbEUAxXobO7AEjscK0mlpM4psXcOjrbReaFzs720AUSKDuyoCvBEyHLuGcNfCSpiYxp_BK1tzcpAqLHt6c8xZpjyVD3Yydg5z7TGqxDdKhXEtH-3i/s1708/Screenshot%202023-10-30%20191300.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="692" data-original-width="1708" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBp0ejuli0-3Ba2IGdjjlGjCsa26aBzDt9cknmzypzpTJy4l8ShmlPqzA6JevRErRIOujQ92vpNYzpbEUAxXobO7AEjscK0mlpM4psXcOjrbReaFzs720AUSKDuyoCvBEyHLuGcNfCSpiYxp_BK1tzcpAqLHt6c8xZpjyVD3Yydg5z7TGqxDdKhXEtH-3i/w400-h163/Screenshot%202023-10-30%20191300.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p _msthash="50447" _msttexthash="31089669"><span _msthash="157376" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="6323239">There are six epic colour woodcuts by John Platt and a rare and sublime colour linocut by Alice Coates called </span><i _msthash="5193" _msttexthash="197249">The signpost. </i><span _msthash="5192" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="385439704"><span _msthash="75114" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="381669704">It is England at a crossroads and I am never sure whether it represents Staffordshire or Worcestershire though in a way it hardly matters. No one but Coates would have seen the West Midlands as a hothouse, half-French, half-Grosvenor, the signpost at the foot of the slope subtly lets us know the countryside near Handsworth had found its own poet who unfortunately did not stay the course. She is closest in feel to her great Scottish contemporary, Ian Cheyne, perhaps not surprising because she has Scottish ancestry herself. But her great love was botany and she went on to work at botanical illustration until arthritis forced her to stop. So if you can't buy the print, you can buy one of her books. </span></span></p><p _msthash="50447" _msttexthash="31089669"><span _msthash="5192" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="385439704"><span _msthash="75114" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="381669704">I love Coates' work but I can only admire John Platt's. That said there is plenty to admire in this small but judicious collection of the complete range of his oeuvre. From the scintillating </span><i _msthash="75115" _msttexthash="233090">The goat stride</i><span _msthash="75115" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="92944" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="17572867"> to the late dark masterpiece 'Sails' to make the very best of this auction, you will have to buy all six. You may never again get the chance to pick up such a good range of what Platt could do.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p _msthash="50447" _msttexthash="31089669"><span _msthash="5192" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="385439704"><span _msthash="75115" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="92944" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="17572867"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p _msthash="50447" _msttexthash="31089669"><span _msthash="5192" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="385439704"><span _msthash="75115" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span _msthash="5192" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="385439704"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdgXmdtylRA1VpPqSKJdO7Al_BYgAkql_Jf39yMJqPVU3e_q_q6GdrI5iiYcdcOc0bsdTVMx1wMCncgN6crwHfNWiD4Vm1Ybd5bO-P5_c7uw87YRG1rdqQkbtqyWVXTSZ_D0_vhWH8kj_dOjdTNakbWIFJriEMkvV5K9ztDR7gKAi7Fg1CFUUG21D9eI93/s690/Sails.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="690" data-original-width="487" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdgXmdtylRA1VpPqSKJdO7Al_BYgAkql_Jf39yMJqPVU3e_q_q6GdrI5iiYcdcOc0bsdTVMx1wMCncgN6crwHfNWiD4Vm1Ybd5bO-P5_c7uw87YRG1rdqQkbtqyWVXTSZ_D0_vhWH8kj_dOjdTNakbWIFJriEMkvV5K9ztDR7gKAi7Fg1CFUUG21D9eI93/w283-h400/Sails.png" width="283" /></a></span></span></span></span></span></div><span _msthash="5192" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="385439704"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="75115" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="92944" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="111223190"><p _msthash="50447" _msttexthash="31089669"><span _msthash="5192" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="385439704"><span _msthash="75115" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="75115" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="92944" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="111223190"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>I have to say my own personal favourites are his wide angle beach scenes. 'Pilchard boats, Cornwall' is an elegant tour-de-force from his middle period when he took note of everything he saw like a masterful surveyor of British leisure and life. Let no one tell you this dynamic vision originated with the colour linocutters of the Grosvenor School as some would have us believe; it originated here, with John Platt, and derived from sound schooling at the Royal College of Art.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><p></p><p _msthash="50447" _msttexthash="31089669"><span _msthash="5192" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="385439704"><span _msthash="75115" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="75115" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="92944" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="111223190"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p _msthash="50447" _msttexthash="31089669"><span _msthash="5192" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="385439704"><span _msthash="75115" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="75115" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span _msthash="5192" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="385439704"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQA7f373FDBCkzyAU50pr56a367EAsWlWMyZ9tK83UqiH1XTeWI2b_unk3Oh7eTH_ofeKv0uAaxqdLhEuxowJpHCwZu-N_fFoCkTyKpfYa59Y6YeXShC23Q2axW4fdT3V3Gx-xyrnS4LmWi8eT1qYmZmH3w3FBY-NCCLxBXzlg4YwAG9HU5Yz-xnumZWRw/s688/Screenshot%202023-10-30%20191517.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="688" data-original-width="393" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQA7f373FDBCkzyAU50pr56a367EAsWlWMyZ9tK83UqiH1XTeWI2b_unk3Oh7eTH_ofeKv0uAaxqdLhEuxowJpHCwZu-N_fFoCkTyKpfYa59Y6YeXShC23Q2axW4fdT3V3Gx-xyrnS4LmWi8eT1qYmZmH3w3FBY-NCCLxBXzlg4YwAG9HU5Yz-xnumZWRw/w366-h640/Screenshot%202023-10-30%20191517.png" width="366" /></a></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span _msthash="5192" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="385439704"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><br /><span _msthash="92944" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="111223190"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><p></p><p _msthash="50447" _msttexthash="31089669"><span _msthash="5192" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="385439704"><span _msthash="75115" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="75115" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="184188472"><span _msthash="92944" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="82767152"><span _msthash="197998" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="82767152"><span _msthash="199394" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="184188472">I have never been a big fan of Platt's later work. He tended to take a good idea like a rock guitarist and then do it to death. I mean you either love Led Zep or you can take two or three minutes of them and I think it is something like that with Platt. He had done all those flitting swallows years before on the walls of All Saints at Leek and no amount of appealing to Hokusai could redeem. It is an exercise in aerial effect. 'Sails' on the other hand is hard to explain. Although it derives from his torn paper method which he used with students, he transformed the harbour at Brixham into a seascape of Germanic half-abstraction. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p _msthash="50447" _msttexthash="31089669"><span _msthash="5192" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="385439704"><span _msthash="75115" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="75115" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="184188472"><span _msthash="92944" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="82767152"><span _msthash="197998" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="82767152"><span _msthash="199394" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="184188472"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p _msthash="50447" _msttexthash="31089669"><span _msthash="5192" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="385439704"><span _msthash="75115" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="75115" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="77969138"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="184188472"><span _msthash="92944" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="82767152"><span _msthash="197998" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="82767152"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span _msthash="5192" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="385439704"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="77969138"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="184188472"><span _msthash="92944" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="82767152"><span _msthash="197998" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="82767152"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha_oeckzjMvrtRKuq6DH874VT5CUuUaxitHO6UFRPYtFgRSvvL9qOyb0aJMxsN84jvjAURXAhN-4nZPwKxO6stx1UnQS9sllA1lFgpNY6cML9H5wtszKvP4CI0CgY8AyBVtUj4rpnINDXyzVt0EuR1fwV06c0MPZ9uY4w6pdVZR6WQUqr0dkee5xDXhOfv/s1302/Screenshot%202023-10-30%20191620.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1302" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha_oeckzjMvrtRKuq6DH874VT5CUuUaxitHO6UFRPYtFgRSvvL9qOyb0aJMxsN84jvjAURXAhN-4nZPwKxO6stx1UnQS9sllA1lFgpNY6cML9H5wtszKvP4CI0CgY8AyBVtUj4rpnINDXyzVt0EuR1fwV06c0MPZ9uY4w6pdVZR6WQUqr0dkee5xDXhOfv/w400-h210/Screenshot%202023-10-30%20191620.png" width="400" /></a></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span _msthash="5192" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="385439704"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="77969138"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="184188472"><span _msthash="92944" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="82767152"><span _msthash="197998" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="82767152"><br /><span _msthash="199394" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="77969138"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><p></p><p _msthash="50447" _msttexthash="31089669"><span _msthash="5192" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="385439704"><span _msthash="75115" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="75115" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="77969138"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="184188472"><span _msthash="92944" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="82767152"><span _msthash="197998" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="82767152"><span _msthash="199394" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="77050246">Platt was very much a man of his time. While some modern artists wanted to expunge the narrative and literary elements from their work, others like Platt took the academic and literary and made it into a new form of modern art which disappeared from view at the outbreak of war and did not reappear until young artists like David Hockney were being trained in the sixties at the Royal College of Art.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p _msthash="50447" _msttexthash="31089669"><span _msthash="5192" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="385439704"><span _msthash="75115" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="75115" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="77969138"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="184188472"><span _msthash="92944" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="82767152"><span _msthash="197998" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="82767152"><span _msthash="199394" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="78410969"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p _msthash="50447" _msttexthash="31089669"><span _msthash="5192" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="385439704"><span _msthash="75115" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="75115" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="79228" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="612170"><span _msthash="80602" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="654485"><span _msthash="84715" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="77969138"><span _msthash="87459" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="184188472"><span _msthash="92944" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="82767152"><span _msthash="197998" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="82767152"><span _msthash="199394" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="78410969"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p _msthash="50447" _msttexthash="31089669"><span _msthash="277501" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="44161">Plan</span><span _msthash="287260" _mstmutation="1" _msttexthash="44161">Plan</span></p>Haji babahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619515066447546979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195425069670824214.post-46773190351714301342023-10-27T13:06:00.002+01:002023-10-27T13:10:06.665+01:00Four colour woodcuts by SG Boxsius at Leominster<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG756dolYINjkDD4OriyGi3eKFs_qEht5Ow4VKEIYvNrHtPkXz5GcoYqK4PgO13TvTu5NQotZeXGYrZUIumEAO_2-DrPfEtB5AxHVjJvJzrqw-iaf8NUBu0RYY3Z_aDQ7owskNjxj8dbvoSNjE4cJVNhu7y-yoLtlTy07wQaQRToWanTVAn1LrNPyKieV7/s842/Screenshot%202023-10-27%20094010.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="842" data-original-width="763" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG756dolYINjkDD4OriyGi3eKFs_qEht5Ow4VKEIYvNrHtPkXz5GcoYqK4PgO13TvTu5NQotZeXGYrZUIumEAO_2-DrPfEtB5AxHVjJvJzrqw-iaf8NUBu0RYY3Z_aDQ7owskNjxj8dbvoSNjE4cJVNhu7y-yoLtlTy07wQaQRToWanTVAn1LrNPyKieV7/w363-h400/Screenshot%202023-10-27%20094010.png" width="363" /></a></div><br /><p>I have been surprised on visits to Leominster recently how many antiques shops and centres you find there are. The overall effect is to make the place look tatty and temporary. In fact someone who lives nearby went as far as to describe Leominster as 'a hole'. Readers from outside of the UK will not be aware that this has become standard practice here. This means Evesham is a hole and so is Hereford while Gloucester is merely 'depressing'. I could go on. All I can say is such people have never been anywhere near a real hole. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZbYNTLzQ-m3gam_OcbI_mBqkxq8wnktzzUqL13a5-5WlLl_gyZydppO3QGkaRVVUimrdok1ftcOml3gn5LNSW5wkcAHU4naXvEPqgV-t7N_D75pknLD5CIbbsxBNt-ZRJ9XKh2gHnd4GgQ_7g_POv9PHSsyK4NLsfCzety3FWRwQmchBATU1VdZiXJNSA/s675/Screenshot%202023-10-27%20094243.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="515" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZbYNTLzQ-m3gam_OcbI_mBqkxq8wnktzzUqL13a5-5WlLl_gyZydppO3QGkaRVVUimrdok1ftcOml3gn5LNSW5wkcAHU4naXvEPqgV-t7N_D75pknLD5CIbbsxBNt-ZRJ9XKh2gHnd4GgQ_7g_POv9PHSsyK4NLsfCzety3FWRwQmchBATU1VdZiXJNSA/w305-h400/Screenshot%202023-10-27%20094243.png" width="305" /></a></div><br /><p>Suffice to say, you would not find colour woodcuts by S.G Boxsius coming up for sale in a proper hole. Nor would Boxsius himself have gone anywhere near one. He spent the last days of his life in 1940 visiting Tenbury Wells just over the boundary in Worcestershire. How these four prints ended up in Herefordshire is another matter. They were all handed out as Christmas presents to employees and clients of British Belting and Asbestos from 1930 onwards. I thought I had covered this subject fairly well but as I have had an enquiry from a reader about the Leominster prints, I thought it was as well to try and clear up any remaining confusion.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNIAl8mi7kETxjEDgrA5K8eCmTrBT1cZ3xO__FBT1weiM4_hNJckK45kSXZkhqFW7xsec-5sACfcV7-mapGUEYHfSkmt7U7BVKCYbLXGrM-XL9rkUcts6DHTvc2Fatb-e6-M1_rooFa2ke9jGLZhappD5fFXGePlJbuHw33mNObK5SwJf4ibCweeo8D5aA/s752/Screenshot%202023-10-27%20111436.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="752" data-original-width="706" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNIAl8mi7kETxjEDgrA5K8eCmTrBT1cZ3xO__FBT1weiM4_hNJckK45kSXZkhqFW7xsec-5sACfcV7-mapGUEYHfSkmt7U7BVKCYbLXGrM-XL9rkUcts6DHTvc2Fatb-e6-M1_rooFa2ke9jGLZhappD5fFXGePlJbuHw33mNObK5SwJf4ibCweeo8D5aA/s320/Screenshot%202023-10-27%20111436.png" width="300" /></a></div><br /><p>The term 'the four seasons' came into use quite a few years ago and I can assure you all that the idea did exist but that Boxsius only produced <i>Spring</i>, <i>Autumn</i> and <i>Winter.</i> <i>Summer</i> was the work of John Hall Thorpe and was the only one of the four to be machine-printed (presumably by the art printers Bemrose of Derby). All three of the seasonal prints by Boxsius were printed by hand on fine paper and unlike the Hall Thorpe were only signed in the block and never in pencil below the image. Nevertheless, <i>Autumn</i> remains one of his very best and most rewarding pieces of work and is well worth buying. <i>Winter </i>also found Boxsius on top of his form<i> </i>with the scudding clouds being some of his most remarkable effects. As the notes on the back say they suggest further snow to come and emphasise how much atmospheric effects were a concern in his work.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUgX4mo5ThmUseOne5E0eXBPAfybeCc7kaDiVSHhpQ3XPG1QyL1AM-S4vkkmIcpj97CsEHDVBVef1Wwd9rGNX5hIYdO8IXNLBJ5j-XzYfKLIh3Q84XAXFj6nhD1nScwkN5d2GjXP_bH0pKxXNa3Lgg9_-ZTeMk7CJcfJGMGpe1LhkNY44DSa6GNGAWjHgS/s848/Screenshot%202023-10-27%20094128.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="848" data-original-width="708" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUgX4mo5ThmUseOne5E0eXBPAfybeCc7kaDiVSHhpQ3XPG1QyL1AM-S4vkkmIcpj97CsEHDVBVef1Wwd9rGNX5hIYdO8IXNLBJ5j-XzYfKLIh3Q84XAXFj6nhD1nScwkN5d2GjXP_bH0pKxXNa3Lgg9_-ZTeMk7CJcfJGMGpe1LhkNY44DSa6GNGAWjHgS/w334-h400/Screenshot%202023-10-27%20094128.png" width="334" /></a></div><br /><p><i>Spring</i> and <i>Winter</i> come with the original labels supplied by B, B & A attached to the back. My hunch is the notes are the work of William Giles. For all the elegance of the phrases he uses, Giles was both a knowledgeable and perceptive writer and worth attending to. The labels suggest the work was framed by the recipients back the thirties. All the images here are the ones on the auction house website. Its is always preferable to buy the prints unframed. Now and then, they even come up in their original calendar mounts though I only the containing <i>Valencia</i> one by Arthur Rigden Read.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglun37kT9U4m5RpQwnBnI2ALSSpDFFr8Z5O-FQSisrq_2MljrRIKi1ymAN4xGU0zfo-KT5theHtz9MgDAPID3CeegiGID3L6TTf2tySmjNl_ttHESMPQevq7ZiUtqhVpBQ1gK2UzjF1rePyshQzNScoC9foyTXynfbvSm4pr-Fo9H3L5SklsTct3JEJq2G/s676/Screenshot%202023-10-27%20111327.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="676" data-original-width="458" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglun37kT9U4m5RpQwnBnI2ALSSpDFFr8Z5O-FQSisrq_2MljrRIKi1ymAN4xGU0zfo-KT5theHtz9MgDAPID3CeegiGID3L6TTf2tySmjNl_ttHESMPQevq7ZiUtqhVpBQ1gK2UzjF1rePyshQzNScoC9foyTXynfbvSm4pr-Fo9H3L5SklsTct3JEJq2G/w271-h400/Screenshot%202023-10-27%20111327.png" width="271" /></a></div><br /><p>This means there were at least three artists working on commission for B, B & A during the thirties, with Boxsius being the artist they work with most and most successfully. The fourth print in the sale is <i>Early morning. </i>Like the Read and Hall Thorpe images, this one was machine printed but is a better and more professional image than the other two. There were two further prints, both with titles straight from Giles. <i>Evening afterglow</i> is the least common of any of the series. In fact, the only one I have ever come across is the proof that I now own. I have certainly never seen it since. <i>Mid-day</i> (not to be confused with <i>Noon-day</i>) was sold quite a long time ago by Hilary Chapman and is again pretty rare.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbETMxJKWwyXpRS4oGCs6eEr1wGNMfUniFaZMuK6AcH68pTDHgi2_7TOCW2-kQi6lF2FTKPlgLNEHYA4ThOA6WdfNYWLF3GzPZE38sWG4Jj61KLvTaGFqhAN4QAucDSs1ajYe64y_3zv3gKtdFAjXYnF9KtxMJpArTpVJxHYu3LEj4a5Djsv5iCVwyiylE/s642/Screenshot%202023-10-27%20094343.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="642" data-original-width="508" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbETMxJKWwyXpRS4oGCs6eEr1wGNMfUniFaZMuK6AcH68pTDHgi2_7TOCW2-kQi6lF2FTKPlgLNEHYA4ThOA6WdfNYWLF3GzPZE38sWG4Jj61KLvTaGFqhAN4QAucDSs1ajYe64y_3zv3gKtdFAjXYnF9KtxMJpArTpVJxHYu3LEj4a5Djsv5iCVwyiylE/w316-h400/Screenshot%202023-10-27%20094343.png" width="316" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>One reason for buying any of the series is the fact that they are all woodcuts. Lino could be unsuitable for long print runs and wood may also have been easier for professional printers to work with. The first ones are the best but as you know almost anything by Boxsius is worth buying. It is a pity Minster decided to put all four in one lot. Presumably they expect the trade to buy while collectors will already have one or two of these themselves (as I do) and will regretfully have to let the others pass. I would have certainly considered bidding for <i>Spring</i> and it is going to be interesting to see what the lot fetches and who buys it.</p><p>Lot 371 comes up at Minster Auctions, Leominster, Herefordshire on 1st November, 2023.</p>Haji babahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619515066447546979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195425069670824214.post-59067416674926937172023-10-11T13:49:00.000+01:002023-10-11T13:49:18.101+01:00Ernest Watson & American linocut<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQyfk9u2QgANJr-flc5QmLK-gdqDfe6_q2W9z9wOHsIJmqsU0nYk1tVSrMXjDBjztAp0XJwxROqibx1fQulw_YlssH-Jlsqvntha1GEFcJ3MDPHjVXzmSiDpKHVg2RKyFV0wDAh-y6uVgZp8bhillvW3hlwmfDO43ZzI9c4U1hAp3tiXvJyUAG-yyYnoqe/s648/Screenshot%202023-09-30%20153055.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="628" data-original-width="648" height="388" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQyfk9u2QgANJr-flc5QmLK-gdqDfe6_q2W9z9wOHsIJmqsU0nYk1tVSrMXjDBjztAp0XJwxROqibx1fQulw_YlssH-Jlsqvntha1GEFcJ3MDPHjVXzmSiDpKHVg2RKyFV0wDAh-y6uVgZp8bhillvW3hlwmfDO43ZzI9c4U1hAp3tiXvJyUAG-yyYnoqe/w400-h388/Screenshot%202023-09-30%20153055.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>The California Society of Printmakers were in the habit of not distinguishing between colour woodcut and colour linocut. Instead they referred to them collectively as colour block prints (and the same thing went for galleries like Brown Robertson in New York). This said quite a lot about the north American attitude towards colour print. I have always found many American prints to be more generic than the ones made by British contemporaries and it may help explain why, given the choice between a New Mexico idyll by Gustave Baumann, Watson's <i>Misty morning</i> and the stylish aplomb of Arthur Rigden Read's <i>Cite de Carcassonne</i>, the jury at the California Printmakers exhibition of 1926 gave the gold medal to Read, and this in a country where showmanship matters. Read simply beat the Americans at their own game. The question is why? It was not the first time and it was not to be the last.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6kwmIgWoH_iY8pAirEmumWH_EjVEvBEtPBQlrbDFn_66yzAa76D5CDxYi8yBXqUAzNUmCq0ugrsET-e2-ekKRo6JeYwpf9QwGh375omS1T1vnvnX596jIVzoydVDGUHhOlGmMa_0zm3caFylyauCmCGPnB9h0KESllsflnZrUAFBf42wg41hyphenhyphenBUKdsw8_/s760/Screenshot%202023-09-30%20154329.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="760" data-original-width="650" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6kwmIgWoH_iY8pAirEmumWH_EjVEvBEtPBQlrbDFn_66yzAa76D5CDxYi8yBXqUAzNUmCq0ugrsET-e2-ekKRo6JeYwpf9QwGh375omS1T1vnvnX596jIVzoydVDGUHhOlGmMa_0zm3caFylyauCmCGPnB9h0KESllsflnZrUAFBf42wg41hyphenhyphenBUKdsw8_/w343-h400/Screenshot%202023-09-30%20154329.png" width="343" /></a></div><br /><p>In the first place, what the Minneapolis Institute of Art say about <i>The explorers </i>(top) (which they own) is worth taking into account. 'Ernest Watson spent his career exploring the limits of linoleum. In this strange scene he takes advantage of the medium's best attributes: its glass smooth surface, which allowed for even application of color; and its soft composition, which allowed for crisply detailed carving.' Now all of this can be true but what is ironic is an American reader who had bought a linocut by S.G. Boxsius wondered about the <i>mottled</i> surface of his print and you can only draw the conclusion that Boxsius did not think an 'even application of color' was always such a good thing. But without doubt it is in the distant details where Watson and Boxsius have so much in common. In other respects Watson's approach is more like Robert Howey or Oscar Droege and Minneapolis might have been closer to the mark if they had said that what linocut did best was 'effect'. But did Watson really make the best of lino as MIA suggest? Only compare the dynamic approach taken by Claude Flight and his students at the Grosvenor School and you can see an artist wanting to do something original with linocut.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeoW1umrpiz15XJ0OxJRnZkEZAWIAaBhEdOgxOYxm96sJVr_Xepqrfrt01Htzn3AI7dFXeYAkm4JkDgobVPzEA1FlNhnzLHFnbe2Q2-ItVXLm6wFNQRcpsh9BNfaptx8TmazAOcTz2q5-IJG6kRKgU0ZPRz1WKlKwNezxwoGxV5Ah18b1g1XaGStzClyAP/s861/Screenshot%202023-10-11%20114317.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="861" data-original-width="780" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeoW1umrpiz15XJ0OxJRnZkEZAWIAaBhEdOgxOYxm96sJVr_Xepqrfrt01Htzn3AI7dFXeYAkm4JkDgobVPzEA1FlNhnzLHFnbe2Q2-ItVXLm6wFNQRcpsh9BNfaptx8TmazAOcTz2q5-IJG6kRKgU0ZPRz1WKlKwNezxwoGxV5Ah18b1g1XaGStzClyAP/w363-h400/Screenshot%202023-10-11%20114317.png" width="363" /></a></div><br /><p>It strikes me that a lot of what Watson did was not very different from the work some of his British contemporaries like E.A. Verpilleux, Eric Hesketh Hubbard or Howey were doing. The difference is Watson rarely depicted anywhere you could put a name to and even when he made a print of St Ives in Cornwall, the whole approach was too atmospheric for the place to matter. <i>The plowman </i>(above) is mainly an exercise in design, colour and brilliant and dramatic effect. No one would deny Watson's skill and seriousness, but it remains the work of a teacher whose job it was to impart a high level of skill to his students. This is true of teachers of fine art everywhere It doesn't matter where you go, their own work usually has the same problem. The real subject is skill. This is why the got the job in the first place. And this is why Watson is so fond of depicting workers. That is the way he saw himself I suspect.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmsLH8_viA55E0yXCBaFONIQsSxFRDZkE2L3N6LEyiS2igwm6zT17JIJejwdURSkUcoNAz291bhr5UKQxLT-9bV8CjfU43iZCvkKub8yN-sD_4KGSPwZ5mL1AzEh3JZ8oiZU4FFK3SoH6xUGeSYuP04724H2w4Mfl2KJvFYwt4efXnQdRimnn4kQRsWbTt/s1127/The%20last%20load.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="892" data-original-width="1127" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmsLH8_viA55E0yXCBaFONIQsSxFRDZkE2L3N6LEyiS2igwm6zT17JIJejwdURSkUcoNAz291bhr5UKQxLT-9bV8CjfU43iZCvkKub8yN-sD_4KGSPwZ5mL1AzEh3JZ8oiZU4FFK3SoH6xUGeSYuP04724H2w4Mfl2KJvFYwt4efXnQdRimnn4kQRsWbTt/w400-h316/The%20last%20load.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>Watson trained as a teacher of art at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn (where the colour woodcut artist, Arthur Wesley Dow, was a teacher). He was then taken on at the Pratt as a teacher of design, drawing, perspective and composition in 1908 and remained until 1928. He met Eva Auld while she was training and after the couple married, he set up a summer school at Monterey in Massachusetts. This meant he spent almost all of the year teaching and even when he left the Pratt, he became an art editor on a journal. For me, all that shows. He never gave either himself or his subjects a chance to develop. Only compare the work of Edna Boise Hopkins who was another student at the Pratt to see what a wonderful American colour print artist can achieve.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwB0I8V0Re6ofl2Ho5ZJcmpK_RCseiaRodSBg0vi4StI0LXToB7gpYusd8Bgo2SyUDlQug9g5fbqg0jSEYzRbCghLtpyh0Y4Q1tdq67XEZGpCgpMcL8-K-DpxSpXXjnAq3LjYAtYZzWsTNFZqGobAda5SA7vhww8GA3-TvQJfQEZ2PEESz0X9J3kGWGvaS/s543/quiet%20anchorage.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="543" data-original-width="480" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwB0I8V0Re6ofl2Ho5ZJcmpK_RCseiaRodSBg0vi4StI0LXToB7gpYusd8Bgo2SyUDlQug9g5fbqg0jSEYzRbCghLtpyh0Y4Q1tdq67XEZGpCgpMcL8-K-DpxSpXXjnAq3LjYAtYZzWsTNFZqGobAda5SA7vhww8GA3-TvQJfQEZ2PEESz0X9J3kGWGvaS/w354-h400/quiet%20anchorage.png" width="354" /></a></div><br /><p>Eva Auld Watson deserves a post to herself but you will not be surprised to hear the couple worked together and it is not always obvious whether print is by Eva or Ernest. It was the same with Hesketh Hubbard who sometimes collaborated with Frank Whittington. The style slips between fine art and commercial, not surprising when you consider some of Watson's students would go on to become commercial artists themselves. It still didn't mean he had to adopt a commercial style himself. Obviously, like Verpilleux's woodcuts, they were designed to look good framed on the wall. It is worth adding Verpilleux was influenced early in his style and choice of subject matter by the American etcher, Joseph Pennell, because what it all seems to amount to is 'International colour print style'. All very well done but lacking the finesse that gives colour prints their allure.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh58-HzlUgSlAKrc9r5MWn4KeJ65_Ei6krHQ_ZB7KFRHwdvSllEjOkRB5tq_eN2yMCR9DV3HDl0ruG7nt_vlcGndEf0_KhJpmULPti6DogVy6aiLr4_p-B22VkAca8oxEHgyPkC_iD52WMr4MbGrnU_tDBTCOjRefMewFgjT8PEmsLwmJFKVXRevrl0lQ8O/s562/Screenshot%202023-10-11%20114635.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="410" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh58-HzlUgSlAKrc9r5MWn4KeJ65_Ei6krHQ_ZB7KFRHwdvSllEjOkRB5tq_eN2yMCR9DV3HDl0ruG7nt_vlcGndEf0_KhJpmULPti6DogVy6aiLr4_p-B22VkAca8oxEHgyPkC_iD52WMr4MbGrnU_tDBTCOjRefMewFgjT8PEmsLwmJFKVXRevrl0lQ8O/w291-h400/Screenshot%202023-10-11%20114635.png" width="291" /></a></div><br /><p>The only Watson print I have ever seen in front of me was one for sale on the High St in Oxford. It was large, impressive and relatively expensive and I reluctantly left it behind. This only meant a visiting American could come along and take it back home. And why not? Americans have always thought far more of their own colour print artists than the British have when it comes to their own. Not only that. They also tend to think more or ours, too. So, I can say what I like about Watson. It will not put them off. And quite rightly so.</p><p><br /></p><p> </p>Haji babahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619515066447546979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195425069670824214.post-29983206218859604132023-09-30T13:49:00.005+01:002023-09-30T14:27:31.971+01:00The making of a masterpiece: Anna Findlay's 'The paper mill'<p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNcGcH5VTQFkTgPfkU6KEM_mh5zyCF0MoYim8DAf0P-RU_AJ4My_NsCthKZszl4wA4RWPLw4JUfm1ZK3QwFbGrqm4SZ1UIUrVCQbZuC-jIdnFpR00BnWZD3TAjx42ExnICtoDB_QdBu22wMJ5dIC95sexbhOBMndm99x0tv2IlJ_grpScaBUauyhDL8Qfi/s627/5.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="627" data-original-width="495" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNcGcH5VTQFkTgPfkU6KEM_mh5zyCF0MoYim8DAf0P-RU_AJ4My_NsCthKZszl4wA4RWPLw4JUfm1ZK3QwFbGrqm4SZ1UIUrVCQbZuC-jIdnFpR00BnWZD3TAjx42ExnICtoDB_QdBu22wMJ5dIC95sexbhOBMndm99x0tv2IlJ_grpScaBUauyhDL8Qfi/w316-h400/5.png" width="316" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>If <i>The paper mill</i> had been the only print Anna Findlay had ever made, it would still have a reputation as the one modern colour linocut that showed the way forward, even though no one followed, including Anna Findlay. She attended Glasgow School of Art and was a founder member of the Society of Artist Printers set up in Glasgow in 1921. Because their exhibition catalogues are few and far between it is hard to know what prints she was making at the time. All of them were colour woodcuts like the harbour scene (below). Her brother and his wife, Cecile, lived at St. Ives and Findlay spent time in Cornwall and exhibited with local societies but eventually moved back permanently to Glasgow so the harbour may be in Cornwall or in Scotland (and the houses suggest it is the latter).</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI8SEDIFP30wb16GiR76IjIp1tgEV5MZw_EEiBr2GbGs2tp8NW4v8O29PgjfMs8MvLZvPZDI4tVn3DnDxhhz2JqIFZx0rgoqq75H_98XEXhR8hpPp3gTPah6wHX3YlDA4KDCSRCx8akixGjbDxde00xbRhL1t3BPr7AkhCX0wBYDBZZtetBDyc0sM4GjDc/s341/3%20a.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="341" data-original-width="190" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI8SEDIFP30wb16GiR76IjIp1tgEV5MZw_EEiBr2GbGs2tp8NW4v8O29PgjfMs8MvLZvPZDI4tVn3DnDxhhz2JqIFZx0rgoqq75H_98XEXhR8hpPp3gTPah6wHX3YlDA4KDCSRCx8akixGjbDxde00xbRhL1t3BPr7AkhCX0wBYDBZZtetBDyc0sM4GjDc/w223-h400/3%20a.PNG" width="223" /></a></div><br /><p>Moving between Scotland and Cornwall was all very well. The fact was the British print scene was metropolitan and to make a mark you needed to be in London or nearby. Ethel Kirkpatrick worked in Devon and Cornwall for many years but her main home was always at Harrow on the Hill on the outskirts of London. All I have of Findlay's work from the early twenties are two black and white reproductions for a print catalogue. Apart from illustrations that appeared in The Studio Magazine, that is about all there is though everything I have on file is worth considering. You can see the viewpoint she adopted was the same as the one she later used for <i>The papermill. </i>In both prints we are looking across an enclosed area of water towards a group of buildings and even though the style is different, the sense of purpose is the same; she is well organised and offers narrow spaces to lead us in.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsWMkWxZ6LB0Lnz316o_Dxu68B70leOYylYURdZK6nqlTo6pa5bVN9UZrU8P8X-pwLedHfLYUE2S0kpejVOjrRpor1pQkEj-zZaUrOYDAP2YEi8HzdS-2fvQ8sVfSweDUbJ11-HqIR1SjI9DUpf1ABi9Lu93yhP1c9ZLkKB-7_E3rEeNv-at65uhyphenhyphenoLHBR/s2144/DSCF9200.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2144" data-original-width="1608" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsWMkWxZ6LB0Lnz316o_Dxu68B70leOYylYURdZK6nqlTo6pa5bVN9UZrU8P8X-pwLedHfLYUE2S0kpejVOjrRpor1pQkEj-zZaUrOYDAP2YEi8HzdS-2fvQ8sVfSweDUbJ11-HqIR1SjI9DUpf1ABi9Lu93yhP1c9ZLkKB-7_E3rEeNv-at65uhyphenhyphenoLHBR/w300-h400/DSCF9200.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><p>We are fortunate that two of Findlay's sketchbooks have survived. One of them contains the striking scraperboard image (above). I have tried without success to identify the paper mill and I cannot even be certain the scraperboard mill is the linocut mill but I think it is likely simply because one image is certainly in preparation for the other (or at least for a different print). It is the first real sign of the rigour Findlay applied as she made herself into a modern artist rather than a genre one. The scraperboard also infers she was experimenting with new mediums. It is often said that Findlay studied with Claude Flight at the Grosvenor School. I do not think this is true and moreover it implies she needed Flight to help her change. I am not saying <i>The paper mill</i> does not show the influence of Grosvenor style but by 1932 of his teaching at the Grosvenor but by 1932 when Findlay first exhibited the print, the linocut class was history (it ended in 1929) and Findlay's cool appraisal and sense of formal depth has little in common with the self-conscious verve and surface design typical of about every linocut made by an artist who worked with Flight. You could just not ignore him - or his approach!</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjRf8EJYtINOehxM6ixmWq-4u9pf0p_MY_H0MOs8gJNlUJgCkyfIuEXhwcRRRJRYsC4C17tpIcLqT4NIpQm510wqij7NdNiM-63ryG-cJA4lKHZxicMEc-zGWxvK_tqrxHj-79ryuPo_BzDsVZKHsEgm1D5bQRBP97wWujtmrK_nrdc124F-3bUCMOEk-t/s800/picture1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="689" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjRf8EJYtINOehxM6ixmWq-4u9pf0p_MY_H0MOs8gJNlUJgCkyfIuEXhwcRRRJRYsC4C17tpIcLqT4NIpQm510wqij7NdNiM-63ryG-cJA4lKHZxicMEc-zGWxvK_tqrxHj-79ryuPo_BzDsVZKHsEgm1D5bQRBP97wWujtmrK_nrdc124F-3bUCMOEk-t/w345-h400/picture1.jpg" width="345" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>What is perhaps worse about all this is the way the example set by Chica MacNab has been missed. Unlike Flight, she offered both woodcut and linocut training to her students. Beyond that, the faux naif genre style Findlay used for her early woodcuts owes a good deal to MacNab's example (though again we have very few examples to go on). In the end, we do not have all that much to go on, though the survival of the sketchbooks have at least made it possible to see say something about her working methods. As I said, it is now generally agreed <i>The paper mill</i> appeared in 1932 and was an immediate success. The Contemporary Art Society bought number two from the edition of fifty printed on cream paper (see top) and presented it to the British Museum in 1934. But by then, Findlay had already made some changes to the print. The first proof she signed (above) does not have the light reddish-brown on the central building and is cream <i>and</i> white. It is clearly marked 1/50 (below) but I do not offhand recall seeing it in the BM. But then I have never seen any of these proofs. I think 1/50 must have come up somewhere for auction otherwise I would not have the detail of the edition number you see below. Details are not what museums do.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFqkBFMtLSSJoGh-xGg40y1je1qGu-N0-lbOdFytAYhxtmXsJ-EQ3eQ6J5eKmgGAV4W_svq3uyrTFucfU7yZ6s6TLqo9UfOVVHSIe7Pt0MsILarswJ1DKKMnnzwkAXMaGr_Ia_1vit2Gffg4Oj1nsiyis17BgarGUCppF_wG26epe4bEjRjAokuiFZMTo-/s800/picture5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="397" data-original-width="800" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFqkBFMtLSSJoGh-xGg40y1je1qGu-N0-lbOdFytAYhxtmXsJ-EQ3eQ6J5eKmgGAV4W_svq3uyrTFucfU7yZ6s6TLqo9UfOVVHSIe7Pt0MsILarswJ1DKKMnnzwkAXMaGr_Ia_1vit2Gffg4Oj1nsiyis17BgarGUCppF_wG26epe4bEjRjAokuiFZMTo-/w400-h199/picture5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><i>The paper mill</i> even made its mark in St. Ives when shown there in 1933. <i>The Cornishman</i> newspaper advised its readers that Findlay's 'meritorious sketches' would 'repay close scrutiny in 1929, and here conservative Cornwall appraising a modern artist for the first time (or so it would appear): 'There is some attractive work in non-traditional modes, but nothing clamorous. Miss Anna R Findlay has given the Japanese manner the impetus of her intensely personal vision. She show <i>The paper mill</i>, <i>Le Treport</i> and <i>Railway Bridge</i>, of which the first, a lino cut, is decidedly the best.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimwEHi5L_PQHoMXDQT-RsYf0aOk6un-3y7M62EAdCe4vWHkHA86PumdoibnqQafdj_p6ii6z3_qcOM3P57J7AeCmEgB8C0xLTYqQPJ0NZjr_2pBwNfmnW2vdeAVsFxh_c_18x8XaIqg_TtuUiWz-TnIZKnrGi6eBhd2hp6LbWwU3Px_kFieGtcP3k94D63/s780/Screenshot%202023-09-27%20185807.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="780" data-original-width="643" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimwEHi5L_PQHoMXDQT-RsYf0aOk6un-3y7M62EAdCe4vWHkHA86PumdoibnqQafdj_p6ii6z3_qcOM3P57J7AeCmEgB8C0xLTYqQPJ0NZjr_2pBwNfmnW2vdeAVsFxh_c_18x8XaIqg_TtuUiWz-TnIZKnrGi6eBhd2hp6LbWwU3Px_kFieGtcP3k94D63/w330-h400/Screenshot%202023-09-27%20185807.png" width="330" /></a></div><br /><p>The praise of the modern style is not only generous it is also perceptive and no one would disagree ninety years later that <i>The paper mill</i> was 'decidedly the best' though with hindsight we could say it was decidedly one of the best of all British linocuts made during that hectic ten years between 1929 and 1938. The way Findlay herself took a second and a third look and made at least three versions of the print implies she was pleased but could not decide what exactly was 'decidedly the best'. Christchurch Art Gallery in New Zealand hold a proof inscribed in the margin and not within the image (above) that may be 19/50. This contains a further revision that suggests how modern Findlay's sensibility was. Rigorousness and self-criticism helped to make the 1930s what is was and in that respect she is closer to Ben Nicholson than she is to Flight. The gallery give an edition number that does not make any sense to me but we can assume their proof came from the Redfern Gallery some time in the early 1930s because their former director gave it to Christchurch in 1954. The Metropolitan Museum of Art own a fourth proof but do not illustrate it or give the edition number.</p><p><i>The paper mill</i> was exhibited widely in the early thirties. It was chosen by Campbell Dodgson of the British Museum to go on tour as one of 100 prints bought by the CSA, with venues including Blackheath School of Art, the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle and the City Art Gallery, Leeds. (It reached Blackheath in February, 1934). It also toured the West Country alongside a smaller number of modern linocuts early that year and presumably also toured with the Exhibition of British Linocuts.</p><p>Is <i>The paper mill</i> a masterpiece in the way Ian Cheyne's <i>Beeches at Glen Lyon </i>is a masterpiece? Or does it stand out because it is unlike Findlay's other prints (<i>Railway Bridge</i> aside)? Contemporary judgements are often the best so it may be wise to acknowledge the praise given by <i>The Cornishman. </i>Frankly given the option of owning the Findlay or the Cheyne, I hesitated, but in the end I am sure <i>The Cornishman</i> was right.</p>Haji babahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619515066447546979noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195425069670824214.post-20625337416927260432023-09-22T18:16:00.000+01:002023-09-22T18:16:29.544+01:00The unusual case of Carl Rotky<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOYjdL_EvCnkSOBIbx-ACArsbA6rHRO1AxsvEDky8tbxitRHeUeFp1UFoUjbMbqd6PpDKTQalPHVKDye7OFF_A_9JhO67Kt0upHRfHU9qc0lD_pqSsym9PxoIMvMHUizq2k4UoIZmPrldRId_amEqAcjLs0cwRKtEQCU3AzQwGnwqDmWlRyTImuYp-blE_/s527/Screenshot%202023-09-18%20144040.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="527" data-original-width="438" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOYjdL_EvCnkSOBIbx-ACArsbA6rHRO1AxsvEDky8tbxitRHeUeFp1UFoUjbMbqd6PpDKTQalPHVKDye7OFF_A_9JhO67Kt0upHRfHU9qc0lD_pqSsym9PxoIMvMHUizq2k4UoIZmPrldRId_amEqAcjLs0cwRKtEQCU3AzQwGnwqDmWlRyTImuYp-blE_/w333-h400/Screenshot%202023-09-18%20144040.png" width="333" /></a></div><br /><p>If you have always had the impression that Carl Rotky was predictable, you may have to readjust for more than one reason. He is best known for his views of the Styrian mountain countryside in southern Austria where he lived for many years, a pity because there is more to Rotky. His prints are varied and often display the same sense of style as many of his Austrian contemporaries but for some reason his best and most interesting prints still do not come up all that often online and it is not easy to see why.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv2bNexxZ2SJIHSU1hSo0yYNGzipPZuBVtDv0tcxEtfUoCFU-rUhHgngahqOh92EcOuwDDSw6O3UEQ_C9OODmYoVEPPKauCCjg0XvJcYWoqP_a-z2pM0FEROXI8vE7X6OA1pqS1qJEJSM6OT6dLy1OBdYXwtRu3wvjo8HuQnhx6uxLmK4shpwPGLe2YXs1/s1022/Obersteirische%20Seelandschaft.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="761" data-original-width="1022" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv2bNexxZ2SJIHSU1hSo0yYNGzipPZuBVtDv0tcxEtfUoCFU-rUhHgngahqOh92EcOuwDDSw6O3UEQ_C9OODmYoVEPPKauCCjg0XvJcYWoqP_a-z2pM0FEROXI8vE7X6OA1pqS1qJEJSM6OT6dLy1OBdYXwtRu3wvjo8HuQnhx6uxLmK4shpwPGLe2YXs1/w400-h297/Obersteirische%20Seelandschaft.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>Rotky's father was an official in the Austro-Hungarian government and disapproved of his son's ambition to become an artist and like so many young men and women of his background, Carl acceded to his father's wish and went to train in medicine in Graz and then at the Charles University in Prague where he graduated in 1914 and soon found himself working as a military surgeon on the eastern front. Despite coming out of the service with a reputation as a good doctor, he returned to his old ambition and took lessons is art in Graz and then Munich. Finally in 1928 he returned to the Kogelberg where his family had lived during the summer months.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguh6kdxBl6meEk3EaSqOlgAgjXuTHFmO3_a-2IQLEsVtsCIAhKni8P_qO5zpriLifIrcni7LlhdTQ9Fn3nTpAdtpKqH2pXukBuBJXmMzPwQL9JhsEM19fQs90KrT5lIiDZDMTIgqBXpJ8E-b996A6MxciwjqF_ie_PxfnVwzCHPgpw2Q5FCP6B-IOFd-8q/s601/Screenshot%202023-09-18%20143402.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="601" data-original-width="482" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguh6kdxBl6meEk3EaSqOlgAgjXuTHFmO3_a-2IQLEsVtsCIAhKni8P_qO5zpriLifIrcni7LlhdTQ9Fn3nTpAdtpKqH2pXukBuBJXmMzPwQL9JhsEM19fQs90KrT5lIiDZDMTIgqBXpJ8E-b996A6MxciwjqF_ie_PxfnVwzCHPgpw2Q5FCP6B-IOFd-8q/w321-h400/Screenshot%202023-09-18%20143402.png" width="321" /></a></div><br /><p>So far so good. Or at least that was the case until one day I decided to take one of the two linocuts I own out of their frame. The two prints had come from the collection of someone called Mrs Hockey in Richmond, Surrey, but had not been bought by myself. I was disconcerted to find Rotky had printed the Styrian landscape on heavy card and it looked better in the frame than it did out of it. The mountain landscape was a much better print and I had never intended to remove it from Mrs Hockey's gilded frame but it was obvious that too had been printed on card.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWk0fceZyGR9e1ozcBt6_Zs7eXSElcXlYoDmtsJHZz4QyYaj1LQhE2bYskJQSFbgdapHCUxVFnsbKjbSXdB_Sy3X9VayjxR-nBqs_Wqt-7xMJzMbrPJEm5yduY8EXKgoJz9XHUg-FEJlzfhclLioNcIfHbzArIezDJc8H9MC-4LWrOTffUkkQGAqrBbcEl/s732/Screenshot%202023-09-18%20143652.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="488" data-original-width="732" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWk0fceZyGR9e1ozcBt6_Zs7eXSElcXlYoDmtsJHZz4QyYaj1LQhE2bYskJQSFbgdapHCUxVFnsbKjbSXdB_Sy3X9VayjxR-nBqs_Wqt-7xMJzMbrPJEm5yduY8EXKgoJz9XHUg-FEJlzfhclLioNcIfHbzArIezDJc8H9MC-4LWrOTffUkkQGAqrBbcEl/w400-h266/Screenshot%202023-09-18%20143652.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>It is not hard to find work printed on paper by Rotky. In fact Bonham's in London mention that one print they were selling was on paper. One one other the paper has cockled and the National Gallery of Australia have a collection of eighty printed on paper though even here it is not easy to tell whether those prints are laid on the back card. I have never come across this before and wonder why an artist like Rotky ever adopted the method because it does not make for a happy outcome. It also will leave anyone wondering how many are on paper and how many are on card. I have not looked at any other museum collections but as prices continue to rise into four figures in Austria and Germany I assume collectors there are content. It is different here in Britain where we have limited access. His work appears in exhibitions advertised by British dealers and like my own were still available in the 1980s and I have been asked to identify his work by dealers in the US.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGYTCAi2k812b1I6oNnJ70JT8MQDVbuGSqkX53gKNaVzXr1U9ZczmBjlrFAVBtvAoNp4zf2iUT-OuzcCCqqWQ6OQHRrsZFvA4sVcoFHDz1eYzz30nDcmnEkygsqX7oijvf8aYIzc-LgCBhl2ZU6mpFK_qaSIQ-zbHrp0XilsN1ttJCNxX5s7cUBMwxCzMZ/s817/Screenshot%202023-09-18%20135757.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="817" data-original-width="653" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGYTCAi2k812b1I6oNnJ70JT8MQDVbuGSqkX53gKNaVzXr1U9ZczmBjlrFAVBtvAoNp4zf2iUT-OuzcCCqqWQ6OQHRrsZFvA4sVcoFHDz1eYzz30nDcmnEkygsqX7oijvf8aYIzc-LgCBhl2ZU6mpFK_qaSIQ-zbHrp0XilsN1ttJCNxX5s7cUBMwxCzMZ/w320-h400/Screenshot%202023-09-18%20135757.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>So it is hard to understand why an artist who was selling his work abroad was using a rather crude method. It may be that he only used card for a time but would help to explain the bold simplicity of the images he is famous for. Printing with any degree of subtly on the heavy card would be a challenge. It would also deter an artist from employing detail. There is also the issue of whether or not he was using both wood or lino. It has always been accepted his made use of lino. The artist himself went as far as to describe his work on his portfolio <i>Salome</i> (above and below) as <i>Farbschnitte</i> or colour-cuts, a term I have never come across until now.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlF6eBwQMvvOn2XAmpA2yGIqUiIUUPIGI1k3nzPUE1jQxLZZfq_Rx64R_4PR2K2NlOBJPbEdVTp3Mp5WhR4zmHQ7pHnAJMh5zfHkq4vLywSsqBI1tIeW-Qy5MSDLFAO60fGyRdsvw9KqgF_HfotS2wmD1IHCIwaThVrMfDNaXh3jJ5gf-QZWHV9ffiH6z-/s830/Screenshot%202023-09-18%20135631.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="830" data-original-width="717" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlF6eBwQMvvOn2XAmpA2yGIqUiIUUPIGI1k3nzPUE1jQxLZZfq_Rx64R_4PR2K2NlOBJPbEdVTp3Mp5WhR4zmHQ7pHnAJMh5zfHkq4vLywSsqBI1tIeW-Qy5MSDLFAO60fGyRdsvw9KqgF_HfotS2wmD1IHCIwaThVrMfDNaXh3jJ5gf-QZWHV9ffiH6z-/w345-h400/Screenshot%202023-09-18%20135631.png" width="345" /></a></div><br /><p>Judge for yourself. Here is Rotky's Hiawatha version of the wanton princess carrying the head of John the Baptist on a dish. As an image it is not unusual in itself for the period but would we have expected it from Rotky? It remains at an extreme but shows that Rotky knew all about contemporary styles. I have already written about the history of linocut in Austria but it makes you wonder what medium Rotky was using and why he chose to describe the work as a colour-cut. There was nothing unusal about lino in Austria after all. Norbertine Bresslern Roth was making a career out of it in nearby Graz.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFOIhhfroGqg6pLh820gCFxgRyNdDZRCQA5Ss6txsvkosreE8-ApPxXU0cOXIiyV3xYJBv1fCGDowuVGhixkXiUtuC9yPcHc_TrC44ICe4_0s2NGrFHSXjp0CjjZgWLdRXReCPKCZ4EEQEXxcCAceJcQt9a_VwMwx3CatAuRH762tQ5LOnU3rHCc8fx79y/s467/House%20in%20moonlight.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="467" data-original-width="327" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFOIhhfroGqg6pLh820gCFxgRyNdDZRCQA5Ss6txsvkosreE8-ApPxXU0cOXIiyV3xYJBv1fCGDowuVGhixkXiUtuC9yPcHc_TrC44ICe4_0s2NGrFHSXjp0CjjZgWLdRXReCPKCZ4EEQEXxcCAceJcQt9a_VwMwx3CatAuRH762tQ5LOnU3rHCc8fx79y/w280-h400/House%20in%20moonlight.png" width="280" /></a></div><br /><p>All this only means there is more to come, including an image of my own mountain scene. He made at least one bookplate for Leo Adler and some of the work above and below does not look like full scale prints. All the same it is intriguing to see Rotky working in this attractive way. There is certainly a lot more available online than there was ten years ago in terms of both images and biography but you will probably guess where this is all heading. Rotky more than anyone needs a proper catalogue and there may well be one in German though somehow I think this is unlikely. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbcHYtLqXfsUnOFi_Ph79bJbA1oWL2GJkSzHa-EYtTo9KmAKf5dI-psI2nBSCTQs6kirTA2iHWAUBXMhW9KVSPK03kg0XR4Y4cnazB2vFETRcZedLmL1UaElzRMNo_0HIdVCJXbc2u_96TFqt1EQViIdkooxE3F3JAO4A2wG6tKWc8iBpNitM1E7GRA2NQ/s665/Screenshot%202023-09-18%20144308.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="326" data-original-width="665" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbcHYtLqXfsUnOFi_Ph79bJbA1oWL2GJkSzHa-EYtTo9KmAKf5dI-psI2nBSCTQs6kirTA2iHWAUBXMhW9KVSPK03kg0XR4Y4cnazB2vFETRcZedLmL1UaElzRMNo_0HIdVCJXbc2u_96TFqt1EQViIdkooxE3F3JAO4A2wG6tKWc8iBpNitM1E7GRA2NQ/w400-h196/Screenshot%202023-09-18%20144308.png" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5TiC32q3wNnSRdeIkJwxnyTcT50QhroP0bNRSIYwQ2uhH7YMJVWU8E3K9tx2SEcTeGdLMktqCXd1JSSfzmsdoQxCG4fjdxk4iEnSmbyNYM14rzeXeBw_cXEqei_Kf1dWcGcDcZjzudDo6rZRdTCUdm3kp7SeQOGpT9YvXUsZTFpCwlIY7PVmWsHoFV9Hb/s626/Screenshot%202023-09-22%20175728.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="155" data-original-width="626" height="99" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5TiC32q3wNnSRdeIkJwxnyTcT50QhroP0bNRSIYwQ2uhH7YMJVWU8E3K9tx2SEcTeGdLMktqCXd1JSSfzmsdoQxCG4fjdxk4iEnSmbyNYM14rzeXeBw_cXEqei_Kf1dWcGcDcZjzudDo6rZRdTCUdm3kp7SeQOGpT9YvXUsZTFpCwlIY7PVmWsHoFV9Hb/w400-h99/Screenshot%202023-09-22%20175728.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><p>Rotky visited Italy, France and elsewhere but I have found few images that obviously record his travels. The one above of the lagoon at Venice is identifiable only because the <i>topo</i> he depicts was only used in the shallow waters. Otherwise the location would be impossible to guess. Then compare the approach taken by Ethel Kirkpatrick. When she made a colour woodcut showing the lagoon with a <i>topo</i> and wooden mooring posts, you will find an artist sympathetic to her subject but able to employ considerable powers of suggestion. I am not saying you get literal depiction with Rotky but true to Austrian aesthetics of the period, colour and design comes first. Try and imagine a British contemporary of Rotky's printing on heavy card. It isn't possible. Behind Kirkpatrick there is Hiroshige and an understanding of the way images work. (See <a href="https//haji-b.blogspot.com/2011/09/boats-of-venice.html">The boats of Venice</a> )</p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSk0P5--CCXTQF5br_MHcvnsHPZyflIxoMwmn8VbX611u9sNHmnUrHlbHpfCP6OyfFDCs9_bVe3s3Uc-SCYrd_QlSX9rKc3e2bIl8AuyhdmHjkvLxi6w-5zEIOcddhdaKs84x-UQF-pzegjBn1ZLoIYY_L2vKhOx3OC5Hzjy1kp0ClZ71t6onUJeNnuu-N/s778/St%20Nilolai.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="778" data-original-width="635" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSk0P5--CCXTQF5br_MHcvnsHPZyflIxoMwmn8VbX611u9sNHmnUrHlbHpfCP6OyfFDCs9_bVe3s3Uc-SCYrd_QlSX9rKc3e2bIl8AuyhdmHjkvLxi6w-5zEIOcddhdaKs84x-UQF-pzegjBn1ZLoIYY_L2vKhOx3OC5Hzjy1kp0ClZ71t6onUJeNnuu-N/w326-h400/St%20Nilolai.png" width="326" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>You only have to look at the British artists who were exhibiting in Vienna at the beginning of the C20th to understand how little interest the Austrians had in the British idea of an original print. Neither William Nicholson nor Frank Brangwyn printed their own work. Even worse, Nicolson engraved on box the way a newspaper illustrator would but made his prints appear to be woodcuts. This was the artifice the Austrians admired and which formed the basis of so much modern design.<div><br /><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYHp5cGDyB22ME8MPybN2u8GADNNUt94cWwF48bi4Env8bazgd5qYTBelxJIeiEoOZjytAU1Ivc3-AMPzi6JpvsgSg4CDboSw5TLXxh8Y71DJkRaqINT3bRcoATf7Msi5nsNpscsGtulwH9jawo_B2886PNRInsOilXjPLi0cOqDA0gBn8BQmTVY04JZOn/s778/Screenshot%202023-09-18%20141918.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="778" data-original-width="582" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYHp5cGDyB22ME8MPybN2u8GADNNUt94cWwF48bi4Env8bazgd5qYTBelxJIeiEoOZjytAU1Ivc3-AMPzi6JpvsgSg4CDboSw5TLXxh8Y71DJkRaqINT3bRcoATf7Msi5nsNpscsGtulwH9jawo_B2886PNRInsOilXjPLi0cOqDA0gBn8BQmTVY04JZOn/w299-h400/Screenshot%202023-09-18%20141918.png" width="299" /></a></div><br /><div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p></div></div>Haji babahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619515066447546979noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195425069670824214.post-40814266265732331562023-09-13T19:14:00.005+01:002023-09-15T17:19:41.822+01:00The week on ebay plus arts & crafts in California<p> </p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW71rMq49fkY9dYPDtnI5Z6jdNNJr5RwAoiF0gUeSRZ42FGPgmM6UsGoXZQC08OVKycWjTsYZhEMp2sVi-kyLK0hlaB0kC6hjSQGL8tbRRMNWTQUOojk_hkwYnyxjJNM_agvlKBcRUB-a2WX1ECl5lg_urxVSYMNWdWLpNAmTiMX73uFVVh0A5JTmGxOua/s675/Screenshot%202023-09-12%20195948.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="547" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW71rMq49fkY9dYPDtnI5Z6jdNNJr5RwAoiF0gUeSRZ42FGPgmM6UsGoXZQC08OVKycWjTsYZhEMp2sVi-kyLK0hlaB0kC6hjSQGL8tbRRMNWTQUOojk_hkwYnyxjJNM_agvlKBcRUB-a2WX1ECl5lg_urxVSYMNWdWLpNAmTiMX73uFVVh0A5JTmGxOua/w324-h400/Screenshot%202023-09-12%20195948.png" width="324" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>I have to lead with the S.G. Boxsius woodcut <i>Winter</i> because it is so unusual to have a print begin with a low starting bid. This is in overall good condition apart from some foxing in the margin and into the image. Any white flecks you can see are intentional, there was never a pencil signature on any of this series and the hand-made japan he used here makes the print something special. The black is printer's ink but the rest of the water-based inks shimmer. Not typical of him but all in all Boxsius at his magical best.<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc5RI1oQu_MwpDqIc00T7of0oLnRlWJ6IFJxnM0PgDhbm5LaJ2jhob0jlJMkCRVHpb0OHS-M3R-4bVHLaUVLKuJRFbDJKSb2EBwa3QcL0eBr36VbBwvIZ8z4Mc_OCec0DigqxXfSlB_CU8xwLzqErPDtc-Qc3SCach3FykqzrMcSI1lZj-OqIPdJWkLtTm/s750/Screenshot%202023-09-12%20205006.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="626" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc5RI1oQu_MwpDqIc00T7of0oLnRlWJ6IFJxnM0PgDhbm5LaJ2jhob0jlJMkCRVHpb0OHS-M3R-4bVHLaUVLKuJRFbDJKSb2EBwa3QcL0eBr36VbBwvIZ8z4Mc_OCec0DigqxXfSlB_CU8xwLzqErPDtc-Qc3SCach3FykqzrMcSI1lZj-OqIPdJWkLtTm/w334-h400/Screenshot%202023-09-12%20205006.png" width="334" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmgpEcyxhuCc4W3DJ2mrz5L2ij0CbyesUy0Ta5pvXBYo7E9GbfcFEM4HvVaORuledezD-sCebzrzkUTPB_qFTQgDqo8dZ9ZPYh3lRzna7Ve3bk-hKQsrkxrDv6E-VY4b0XrtSVLYvOhYJ_8Ax6IlmHhUPNUAqIJTV6qgkTE8od9XQimM9gJa_tqLN019Hd/s726/Screenshot%202023-09-12%20202817.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="726" data-original-width="715" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmgpEcyxhuCc4W3DJ2mrz5L2ij0CbyesUy0Ta5pvXBYo7E9GbfcFEM4HvVaORuledezD-sCebzrzkUTPB_qFTQgDqo8dZ9ZPYh3lRzna7Ve3bk-hKQsrkxrDv6E-VY4b0XrtSVLYvOhYJ_8Ax6IlmHhUPNUAqIJTV6qgkTE8od9XQimM9gJa_tqLN019Hd/s320/Screenshot%202023-09-12%20202817.png" width="315" /></a></div><p><br /></p>From Germany we have Ilsa Koch Amberg's vibrant <i>Zinnia's. </i>Stylish, eloquent and original, it has a lot more impact than Walter Phillip's depiction of the same flowers (above). Popular in the 1920s an 1930s as garden plants but not seen very much today, both prints of zinnias are good examples of the way a well-chosen subject helps make a colour woodcut work. The Phillips is one of a group of British, American and Canadian colour woodcuts at the California Historical Design auction of Arts and Crafts on 16th and 17th September and the catalogue is well worth browsing through even if you don't intend to buy<p></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiw722HuyIhL73WkVbOQQFB2xwu0Gr_uUPvmaY2DauPvThOlauhh1JtVKd76Q88AxUHi-sZ3tzAXDQkfgy7kiQgr4DFSSs6xamCzMzyQ7dCIL5Md5OpwASLHIz0K_colgxstjcq0rwh1nL2409M2SDFZgIQhXgqyO4coKU9Zgc_J3lmsy076yEhVJ9hu1-/s733/Screenshot%202023-09-12%20201837.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="733" data-original-width="400" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiw722HuyIhL73WkVbOQQFB2xwu0Gr_uUPvmaY2DauPvThOlauhh1JtVKd76Q88AxUHi-sZ3tzAXDQkfgy7kiQgr4DFSSs6xamCzMzyQ7dCIL5Md5OpwASLHIz0K_colgxstjcq0rwh1nL2409M2SDFZgIQhXgqyO4coKU9Zgc_J3lmsy076yEhVJ9hu1-/w350-h640/Screenshot%202023-09-12%20201837.png" width="350" /></a></div><br /><p>Also included is Dean Babcock's nicely-handled mountain scene <i>Tamina Peak </i>The faux naif touch and all-over rugged values give it away as American rather than Austrian or German. I have no doubt it will not be cheap even though it will have less actual interest as a print than the Boxsius snow scene. By comparison, I think that will be better value but as a reader suggested American prints are going to attract American buyers.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrEESIH7CfoQwiV9voLadtTUl7zP2Q3Dpf7Hf2kRc4ASrE149ICCbi9Ap3chX5XN3WNTWggv6_gkMOhCHAZZ8tCzUkwS143-w1Sg9wJp92nT5zPpME0oN1KFHf2l6kiUJIm773iU3r05U3dECZHAXplBC_WjOXYu9KX_YO6oTj5CSJajptHkbPIisZ-Qf2/s603/Screenshot%202023-09-12%20205202.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="603" data-original-width="499" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrEESIH7CfoQwiV9voLadtTUl7zP2Q3Dpf7Hf2kRc4ASrE149ICCbi9Ap3chX5XN3WNTWggv6_gkMOhCHAZZ8tCzUkwS143-w1Sg9wJp92nT5zPpME0oN1KFHf2l6kiUJIm773iU3r05U3dECZHAXplBC_WjOXYu9KX_YO6oTj5CSJajptHkbPIisZ-Qf2/w331-h400/Screenshot%202023-09-12%20205202.png" width="331" /></a></div><br /><p>It may be the same situation for Alfred Peter's colour woodcut bookplates. They are no longer the bargains they used to be. I bought this ex libris for O Bertschi when they only cost a few pounds. They are a bit more now but remain still well worth having if you like small works to put in portfolios. This one makes great use of only three colours and his trademark sense of design.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE29IhHIeuDtC2nPLRgwLOHu48ECJj1fpbRTkCuXXSa9nyUeAUUJfJFaB-5zoNF5w64FY0CxaRh0FAYZzZdN3ZCOnyT2Pvb6ISSJbDZO1DTou-eg5FZ3SRzs4yzF_xFkWrbmVpDqFqciggIqx3Eq3crSNJuk5Jt0jhx4bC63sl5x8Qofv8jZAlFo9iBaBS/s736/Screenshot%202023-09-12%20201326.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="736" data-original-width="390" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE29IhHIeuDtC2nPLRgwLOHu48ECJj1fpbRTkCuXXSa9nyUeAUUJfJFaB-5zoNF5w64FY0CxaRh0FAYZzZdN3ZCOnyT2Pvb6ISSJbDZO1DTou-eg5FZ3SRzs4yzF_xFkWrbmVpDqFqciggIqx3Eq3crSNJuk5Jt0jhx4bC63sl5x8Qofv8jZAlFo9iBaBS/w340-h640/Screenshot%202023-09-12%20201326.png" width="340" /></a></div><br /><p>Nearer to home is the Birmingham artist Ivy Anne Ellis. Strangely enough two people have recently mentioned either Ellis or the Birmingham group of artists she belonged to. She was the most prolific but was not always as successful as she is here in <i>Columbines. </i>The other woodcut currently for sale on British ebay is not as good<i> </i>How she ended up for sale in California is another thing.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGX41DJtjA9EkuUuiUQD8aox4LFjZiBOI_DyGm3sJDdTmAvWOJiQjbV34b1RAUevX5A9InmsCd2dBUavUVeLyvXbAdCVz5F5yVBJqQn7JO9ijR-l8VzAoMhZU-Ak6Q1mvbQ50kN6eU8SQUZlxgrRKXJYkPx0-tuvTBr9KPq90DryahXP9DttAWJoyVUboW/s747/Screenshot%202023-09-13%20181948.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="747" data-original-width="543" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGX41DJtjA9EkuUuiUQD8aox4LFjZiBOI_DyGm3sJDdTmAvWOJiQjbV34b1RAUevX5A9InmsCd2dBUavUVeLyvXbAdCVz5F5yVBJqQn7JO9ijR-l8VzAoMhZU-Ak6Q1mvbQ50kN6eU8SQUZlxgrRKXJYkPx0-tuvTBr9KPq90DryahXP9DttAWJoyVUboW/w291-h400/Screenshot%202023-09-13%20181948.png" width="291" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>A well-made woodcut by Wilfred Rene Wood (above) of an English town at dawn has been been languishing on British ebay for some while now. At £150 it is not all that expensive but Wood was a late-comer to the roller-coaster colour woodcut scene and does not have a fan-base (and never will). The trade never learn that a colour woodcut is not going to sell simply because it is a colour woodcut. He was fond of architectural prints which made them long like this one. Unfortunately architecture does not have the same appeal it had in the twenties and thirties. I might buy it at half the price but other than that I suspect it is dead in the water.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV-6zGu0YNNM4yXqICVdoXa0KQHmVMkzIKfF8bUM-nBG-6bdISjodXUz1L33idOUXeiIMAmry_VGrj_WJZmotL874UC1AKvo4M0-X0SFriyg8x0RSJzwamdvnXDbOYc9H_X2GTqBRSUEUKjnKuDsyzWZqtW3GzianFsy1n55efW6mtp0wrUX2kgokDX5Mi/s1073/Screenshot%202023-09-12%20200231.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="748" data-original-width="1073" height="279" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV-6zGu0YNNM4yXqICVdoXa0KQHmVMkzIKfF8bUM-nBG-6bdISjodXUz1L33idOUXeiIMAmry_VGrj_WJZmotL874UC1AKvo4M0-X0SFriyg8x0RSJzwamdvnXDbOYc9H_X2GTqBRSUEUKjnKuDsyzWZqtW3GzianFsy1n55efW6mtp0wrUX2kgokDX5Mi/w400-h279/Screenshot%202023-09-12%20200231.png" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p><br /></p><p>The same goes for John Platt's <i>The Vltava at Prague.</i> £950 is a lot to ask for a print that is all skill and no content. Completed in May, 1930, it came at the end of a long series of meticulous prints depicting boats and water that began with <i>The jetty, Sennen Cove </i>in 1921 and came to a dead-end with <i>Mullion Cove </i>early in 1931. As such it is only for die-hard fans, which counts most of us out. It is no more than another detailed and clever work by John Platt. Frankly, I could not care less and if I remember rightly none of us could when this print came up for auction on ebay some years ago. All we were interested in was the price it would fetch and since then we have all moved on.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB4FcCv6XiqmQq0g2pJIXmdUfCPDXimup1ZOny9TRMC5BeuacPcIX4n00Vz9LyOPS8M7qtof-zI5HutAI3SkYN2wajHb7Sunsv0jVhpVhRnmn-HBNYSOX5v17Vyghip5tvYPTpLHV2JepwH6pjFm2XxYfE_YSCNoSwTDVC9MQHfneiwRvCJGYY5iSUnFda/s727/Screenshot%202023-09-12%20203643.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="727" data-original-width="727" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB4FcCv6XiqmQq0g2pJIXmdUfCPDXimup1ZOny9TRMC5BeuacPcIX4n00Vz9LyOPS8M7qtof-zI5HutAI3SkYN2wajHb7Sunsv0jVhpVhRnmn-HBNYSOX5v17Vyghip5tvYPTpLHV2JepwH6pjFm2XxYfE_YSCNoSwTDVC9MQHfneiwRvCJGYY5iSUnFda/w400-h400/Screenshot%202023-09-12%20203643.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>As I was singing the praises of Dagmar Hooch not all that long ago I should not miss her out this jolly but stylish print of nasturtiums. The different tones she used suggest it was a decorating piece intended to match a variety of colour schemes in the manner of John Hall Thorpe. The fussy vase lets it down but I suppose you can't have everything.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXH6DdZ_NGS-mwVTXEuUQTVq6imBGqq1OXpg0eQRZrJrMedGXZoeTmuNc3z9jfuAabImCRRSwTYXdyieRaXYNoa03lqe3WZPssL5poAVAxkbuCq9DhRyG4IpswIaR2MnwIhtSfXdJ6Y6MZi1e3ketGXdAj4pgzKGc4K-RuSl7rCWZVYAaPGXUmtIRn8EN4/s849/Screenshot%202023-09-12%20204146.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="734" data-original-width="849" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXH6DdZ_NGS-mwVTXEuUQTVq6imBGqq1OXpg0eQRZrJrMedGXZoeTmuNc3z9jfuAabImCRRSwTYXdyieRaXYNoa03lqe3WZPssL5poAVAxkbuCq9DhRyG4IpswIaR2MnwIhtSfXdJ6Y6MZi1e3ketGXdAj4pgzKGc4K-RuSl7rCWZVYAaPGXUmtIRn8EN4/w400-h346/Screenshot%202023-09-12%20204146.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">This brings me to Hans Figura's evocation of boats with coloured sails moored along the Grand Canal at Venice. What this has is intelligence and panache. No colour woodcut artist in their right mind could resist such craft and they became almost a sub-genre to themselves with the most perceptive colour woodcutters. Ethel Kirkpatrick, Carl Thiemann and Ada Collier made prints as full of admiration of the Italian scene as this one. Nowhere ever had a better waterfront than Venice and no waterfront ever had more glorious boats than these. This is the heartland of our culture, a factor never found in John Platt.</span></div><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br />Haji babahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619515066447546979noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195425069670824214.post-13488602637978694652023-09-11T09:04:00.005+01:002023-09-11T19:55:41.720+01:00Update on SG Boxsius 'Ruins at Walberswick' at Dallas<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh47KLuedvabwsBrIFQjYgZGrQKDuYsc3mn0zAbakYqhglewtFvCwRmUZnaD8eTNWCW-LSanbspDI7ZFBdRu7kmWkK44ocMSZVD1-WCENgyDUwr160BC4f36XDtm6Ot6NLbGuhJFdtgLu_yGV_FJRqPfy05-Urk_vPbLW-Awkf405OEUwxgCkTLvA2vlKEb/s999/Screenshot%202023-09-11%20084433.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="619" data-original-width="999" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh47KLuedvabwsBrIFQjYgZGrQKDuYsc3mn0zAbakYqhglewtFvCwRmUZnaD8eTNWCW-LSanbspDI7ZFBdRu7kmWkK44ocMSZVD1-WCENgyDUwr160BC4f36XDtm6Ot6NLbGuhJFdtgLu_yGV_FJRqPfy05-Urk_vPbLW-Awkf405OEUwxgCkTLvA2vlKEb/w400-h248/Screenshot%202023-09-11%20084433.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>I thought about calling this update 'Ruins at Dallas' because I am told SG Boxsius' <i>Ruins at Walberswick</i> sold for only $150 yesterday. The only interest came from a reader who assumed it would go higher and tells me he had not intended to bid. I say all this only because there is no certainty about the way a print of even this standard will go and it is always worth watching a lot as my reader did. I can understand why such a dark print might not have general appeal but sooner or later there will be none to buy at all. Finally, I am always pleased when readers do well and in this case the longer the reader owns 'Ruins at Dallas' the more it will prove to have been a great opportunity he did not miss.</p><p>In his own view a print by an American artist would have created more interest. As it was the Boxsius was lost amongst the furniture and jewellery.</p>Haji babahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619515066447546979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195425069670824214.post-76709663948868278572023-09-06T18:45:00.000+01:002023-09-06T18:45:08.448+01:00Ian Cheyne's 'The breakwater' at auction in Chicago<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX3blokJxxr12bKxZCDPLujdc6l_Hc_CFoKSYEi246GfO7ShOQyrKcip9-R-nayU7MKjbV5s6LxaMx9XVUnRY1LTksHwnGPBN4UC8ZIjCokQi6elRn7iUBGmSGbBRQrGrqTAXOhqkxJ088SAPt44ooy-kf7hb7hdyN28l0uJ45zqgVS6ort2VjAZoBaaW7/s623/Screenshot%202023-09-04%20225929.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="623" data-original-width="513" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX3blokJxxr12bKxZCDPLujdc6l_Hc_CFoKSYEi246GfO7ShOQyrKcip9-R-nayU7MKjbV5s6LxaMx9XVUnRY1LTksHwnGPBN4UC8ZIjCokQi6elRn7iUBGmSGbBRQrGrqTAXOhqkxJ088SAPt44ooy-kf7hb7hdyN28l0uJ45zqgVS6ort2VjAZoBaaW7/w526-h640/Screenshot%202023-09-04%20225929.png" width="526" /></a></div><br /><p>The great city of Chicago is many things but one thing it is not; it is not the Centre for Ian Cheyne Studies. A reader in Scotland told me on Monday about the current sale of Ian Cheyne's colour woodcut <i>The breakwater </i>in the city. Unfortunately, Hindman Auctions have chosen to use a handwritten description on the back of the picture that says the work is a colour linocut called 'The Great Wave'. Why it is hard to say. It is easy enough to discover the facts about Cheyne's print. Both the British Museum (above) and the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers (below) have correct description of Cheyne's print although the approach taken by the two institutions is different. The British Museum provide details of the inscriptions and of the work's provenance as well as giving the correct date for the first time it was exhibited. All we get from the Zimmerli is the title and a useful photograph of the complete proof. The British Museum's print was bought from them by the Contemporary Art Society in 1941 but we are given no clues about the Cheyne print at Rutgers which lacks the artist's signature as you can probably make out.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNrhOElHSYqsXiFlcJTP1d6xr-3iuVgFd5flSZIVNj7MYXqYZsQ3rlVVMnRxy0oJn3tN-ZfrhDoY7nX6r4NYuozu7ML-AXhBehCTc2GO1c_69Ez4bL2OaHsuSpF7DfQ8GSsLuMy-h8i2aLs-frXO9OVmet8pApgGmD4LFChquLwJj1uTiopMYSaTi-sV3j/s778/Screenshot%202023-09-04%20225603.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="778" data-original-width="663" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNrhOElHSYqsXiFlcJTP1d6xr-3iuVgFd5flSZIVNj7MYXqYZsQ3rlVVMnRxy0oJn3tN-ZfrhDoY7nX6r4NYuozu7ML-AXhBehCTc2GO1c_69Ez4bL2OaHsuSpF7DfQ8GSsLuMy-h8i2aLs-frXO9OVmet8pApgGmD4LFChquLwJj1uTiopMYSaTi-sV3j/w341-h400/Screenshot%202023-09-04%20225603.png" width="341" /></a><br /></div><br /><p></p><p>It may go without saying you will not find a signature on the Chicago proof either. It hails from the estate of the distinguished American photographer and philanthropist Lucia Woods Lindley and against all the conventions of framing an original print, 'The Great Wave' is mounted to the edge of the image, leaving everyone to conclude Cheyne never signed it. I am not suggesting there is anything wrong with the print. All I know is in the early 1980s, Alan Guest tracked down Cheyne's widow, Jessie Garrow, by the straightforward expedient of going through the Glasgow telephone directory. One result of his diligence was the London dealer Robin Garton visiting Garrow and buying a number of proofs. The artist died in 1983 and in the spring of 1986 twelve Cheyne prints went up for sale at the Alpine Gallery in Mayfair with seven bearing a violet studio stamp. All the others were signed - and I am not suggesting they necessarily came from the studio. My own proof of <i>Summer picnic</i> came from Manou Sharma Levy on Portobello Road.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-E1vbfYCNbKdNrb22mY15urGhzIcFzUnFoBg0dcXpv1kS71ALQxECW_GkGkqeSPbolEK6qSE-kYxHlaTOpAbFacvi6pRDqYqYlXYl7MaugNshB9l1fFysCHg0wnTMG9OrdMiYz_o2uEEucMfxbS2sNIQdNCoVIe5EJAsWumqs9IRZu0etklbco46j-sGs/s789/Screenshot%202023-09-05%20220317.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="617" data-original-width="789" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-E1vbfYCNbKdNrb22mY15urGhzIcFzUnFoBg0dcXpv1kS71ALQxECW_GkGkqeSPbolEK6qSE-kYxHlaTOpAbFacvi6pRDqYqYlXYl7MaugNshB9l1fFysCHg0wnTMG9OrdMiYz_o2uEEucMfxbS2sNIQdNCoVIe5EJAsWumqs9IRZu0etklbco46j-sGs/w400-h313/Screenshot%202023-09-05%20220317.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>The curious thing is <i>The breakwater</i> was not one of them, leading me to wonder where these two unsigned proofs came from (and I admit I cannot be certain the Chicago print isn't signed). The only place Cheyne prints normally come up for sale now is in Scotland. Even by the standard of his contemporaries, Cheyne's editions were small and of the edition of only 20 for <i>The breakwater</i>, all were sold. Cheyne kept meticulous records of all the sales he made from 1925 onwards, though even here there are discrepancies because I have recently discovered there are at least two other colour woodcuts that do not appear on the definitive list. You may also ask yourself where I came upon one of the actual blocks for the print (above). I always believed all the surviving blocks were still in Glasgow but I was wrong. The four blocks made for what I want to call <i>A bigger splash</i> are all at Rutgers University.</p><p>I have to leave you to draw your own conclusions because I am not finished with Chicago. To give an idea of what was happening, I am going to quote from my own book. 'In December, 1929, <i>Glen Cluanie </i>(1929) and <i>The fisherman's church </i>(1929) were selected for the Art Institute of Chicago's Third International Exhibition of Lithography and Wood Engraving and yet again Cheyne's talent proved irresistible. <i>Glen Cluanie </i>was awarded the Brewster Prize as a meritorious print, with Cheyne selling eight proofs as the exhibition toured the U.S. As with Read at Los Angeles, originality had won out and it was soon apparent that the lowered blocks and graduated areas of colour first used in <i>Summer picnic </i>were to be the most original features of an unsurpassed series of Highland prints.'</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMrmQCUocX5cVSbk8NdcLzvVhBWbQc_dvXwnAIYsG8CJRo_s2DYR0YJAZDF7VheQYvqk4Lb7slH8mrVUbw_joDt_QKRbv1VPbqFXN9tq2TrT67UMy256WIv6AYmw6gaiQD_oeexfWFefTA1LK5nSi7S-KRYO3V9IjFJ-Zf6dae8aghXLgT8vbHajLvBAuy/s396/Garrow%20The%20wave.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="318" data-original-width="396" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMrmQCUocX5cVSbk8NdcLzvVhBWbQc_dvXwnAIYsG8CJRo_s2DYR0YJAZDF7VheQYvqk4Lb7slH8mrVUbw_joDt_QKRbv1VPbqFXN9tq2TrT67UMy256WIv6AYmw6gaiQD_oeexfWFefTA1LK5nSi7S-KRYO3V9IjFJ-Zf6dae8aghXLgT8vbHajLvBAuy/w400-h321/Garrow%20The%20wave.PNG" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>The proof illustrated here is the Art Institute's own. As it is marked '6 proofs available for sale price $10' and the Institute's is 12/20, it appears Cheyne had already sold a further two at Chicago. This suggests Alans Guest's version (which appears in an unpublished essay about Cheyne) was misleading. It all goes to show once more that what we need is a full and proper catalogue of Cheyne's prints. Unlike Seaby, this is not a daunting task. The notebooks should still be in Scotland and there are new prints by Cheyne appearing online, including the etching owned by a fortunate reader, that present a different picture from the one in Cheyne's own well-kept accounts. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVVkYhrdVYzT1JmIi8apMA9R_s-tN_PZWBWtOM0dFD0v8Q1ka4AC_O6VLT1pWZFycFZcYew3EPjLf8rwXi2O4a3lScWg2GvnjJG5xr-DAKzMGcER2LdSPW1X0k6n2unxK-zbV4QOGSLfOPNckc2hE-VZyHUciAlbOraVVBgiLCzjqKic8rAjLpgT3-trBo/s575/rough%20sea.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="483" data-original-width="575" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVVkYhrdVYzT1JmIi8apMA9R_s-tN_PZWBWtOM0dFD0v8Q1ka4AC_O6VLT1pWZFycFZcYew3EPjLf8rwXi2O4a3lScWg2GvnjJG5xr-DAKzMGcER2LdSPW1X0k6n2unxK-zbV4QOGSLfOPNckc2hE-VZyHUciAlbOraVVBgiLCzjqKic8rAjLpgT3-trBo/w400-h336/rough%20sea.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>The accounts are all very well but the fact is it is Ian Cheyne we know too little about not collectors, not least the ones in the United States, who were after all the people helping to support Cheyne. Following his success there, Cheyne and Garrow were able to marry and spent their honeymoon travelling in France and Spain. On their return to Glasgow, Cheyne then made <i>Mediterranean bar</i>, the best and most audacious art deco print ever made in Britain and one that has found a good home in a city famed for its art deco seafront. No, this time I mean Miami.</p><p>The post also includes Jessie Garrow's <i>The wave</i> and Eric Slater's <i>Rough seas. </i>Lots for the timed auction at Hindman end on 11th September, 2023.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p>Haji babahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619515066447546979noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195425069670824214.post-65742968922874876092023-09-03T12:17:00.001+01:002023-09-03T12:20:03.045+01:00Results of the sale at Banbury (and what you did not see there)<p> </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzKhK9UYWNwoBC8NMjI7r1MWVrKBAnyvXF6jJIQD3RxopzMjCAsOP5k7YZm0bfVjW_Zeam5IqQuaVBWh4b0u3ua4teumyNs7OUFLU0tngequ8jfrIobHzCEZq7-IDlMd6gDv9dNm9Dt74qrJlfM5y2ggEQ63wG2ugUKJnz79rgtH02ZBLoxwiCM0_DQGNJ/s321/Bowsprits.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="283" data-original-width="321" height="353" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzKhK9UYWNwoBC8NMjI7r1MWVrKBAnyvXF6jJIQD3RxopzMjCAsOP5k7YZm0bfVjW_Zeam5IqQuaVBWh4b0u3ua4teumyNs7OUFLU0tngequ8jfrIobHzCEZq7-IDlMd6gDv9dNm9Dt74qrJlfM5y2ggEQ63wG2ugUKJnz79rgtH02ZBLoxwiCM0_DQGNJ/w400-h353/Bowsprits.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p><p>I would like to say that any one of the colour prints you see here came up for sale at Banbury rather than the ones that did, but all of them are as rare as anything is going to be and would attract any serious collector. But I have brought them up from my records and thought it was a good idea to let readers see some of the work that does not come up for sale at all often. This is not to disparage the prints that were sold. I would have bought any of them but I needed to a bookcase and fridge instead.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPphXPnTmZOqOsgkbpIDnpEG2_HoXhF1wV5YF3itXilUUA31ko28B9j1wcaIcB02dp78QLM9o2BS-6Y0IHcf7ZlKb8csSm6KHVbx3MsetF4FtY_ivQWZ6G3yWNYiweWXn_EQIiVz3MDRma2SMHnPw5GyUe8ymS2puB_PB0KrqP0qT-u2SnEQseYdQVUssJ/s614/Cley%20038.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="361" data-original-width="614" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPphXPnTmZOqOsgkbpIDnpEG2_HoXhF1wV5YF3itXilUUA31ko28B9j1wcaIcB02dp78QLM9o2BS-6Y0IHcf7ZlKb8csSm6KHVbx3MsetF4FtY_ivQWZ6G3yWNYiweWXn_EQIiVz3MDRma2SMHnPw5GyUe8ymS2puB_PB0KrqP0qT-u2SnEQseYdQVUssJ/w400-h235/Cley%20038.PNG" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>I have been warned to let you know that online buyers needed to pay 40% more than the hammer price. The buyers premium of 31.2% includes VAT and on top of that online sales are subject to a further fee of 8.2%, also including VAT. The effect was to depress prices and meant that once the vendor had paid their own fee, they would not be getting very much. Overall it probably means you would be better off selling on ebay if you did not have to pack up all the stuff you have sold.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpOmrLk87cpI5gXcOGUId4Zv-7SY8KzoHYVvLZGiFwOEooynqCQ_fymxmj_lS6-9RFp8cy0s8yDE8ZG3eEatjl4O6d0hSjo8GKtVl-XYojkuTSifH8vSomU28mCesaSIs6ye61GKnWr9_w2RYCRe2djE7sc9Rz3adYaLFx6c4gY-8tZlyl5K3NRdUAe4iZ/s718/Karnak.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="718" data-original-width="497" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpOmrLk87cpI5gXcOGUId4Zv-7SY8KzoHYVvLZGiFwOEooynqCQ_fymxmj_lS6-9RFp8cy0s8yDE8ZG3eEatjl4O6d0hSjo8GKtVl-XYojkuTSifH8vSomU28mCesaSIs6ye61GKnWr9_w2RYCRe2djE7sc9Rz3adYaLFx6c4gY-8tZlyl5K3NRdUAe4iZ/w278-h400/Karnak.png" width="278" /></a></div><br /><p>I was surprised Allen Seaby's woodcut <i>Pewits </i>was the most expensive at £500 (and altogether you would almost pay £700 which is not all that cheap for a piece of work that I personally think falls flat). The barn owl print was much better value at £240 and more attractive than a fridge. It would end up costing you about £330 and as I could have got to Banbury on the train I could have picked it up.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7w83CLbnSFs27CwGrWxOQ8H3K9ggrvCPQO8cojC9KU2qJvEUkfBbzOn2RXrozU9VZhGGM6ncrH60oaVJ24027IBxp2-vAY4IyAB0S-059M9sE7342rnd8UVc_nk06kv0e7xJJmiBcP26ZGF5lAStzKu1_01ecDO5LK63S-lcj0xLDbMiCKlgwWCauKYrr/s696/Screenshot%202022-12-31%20164124.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="696" data-original-width="365" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7w83CLbnSFs27CwGrWxOQ8H3K9ggrvCPQO8cojC9KU2qJvEUkfBbzOn2RXrozU9VZhGGM6ncrH60oaVJ24027IBxp2-vAY4IyAB0S-059M9sE7342rnd8UVc_nk06kv0e7xJJmiBcP26ZGF5lAStzKu1_01ecDO5LK63S-lcj0xLDbMiCKlgwWCauKYrr/w336-h640/Screenshot%202022-12-31%20164124.png" width="336" /></a></div><br /><p>The Phillips went cheap at £420 although the auctioneers did themselves and their vendors no favours by putting up poor photographs. Considering the photos have to be paid for by the vendor, it makes the whole situation even worse. It's all a bit of a stunt but there you are, and going by what you can pay for a Phillips from a dealer, someone will be pleased.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiMv5LRT7jLEEgwjycyw1hyp7P8c0py0HmNvhoQpXIAgxDJKgalVrVIfl3l_xhbwhW-y8u56iRca2bj1TYt5BM0SkDg3uOYWFdIoVX_SQsdGyOw9lNLq1uxbp5EMtCK5AY_SA9YR9qQnxiDVCukoLo9_g8WMweWZQ3FXPMuO0LjIPm2EYx_usB8PqOZ_lE/s784/Old%20Icelander.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="784" data-original-width="572" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiMv5LRT7jLEEgwjycyw1hyp7P8c0py0HmNvhoQpXIAgxDJKgalVrVIfl3l_xhbwhW-y8u56iRca2bj1TYt5BM0SkDg3uOYWFdIoVX_SQsdGyOw9lNLq1uxbp5EMtCK5AY_SA9YR9qQnxiDVCukoLo9_g8WMweWZQ3FXPMuO0LjIPm2EYx_usB8PqOZ_lE/w291-h400/Old%20Icelander.JPG" width="291" /></a></div><br /><p>As predicted, John Hall Thorpe's prices are going nowhere and are well below what they were in their heyday ten years ago. We all knew he was overpriced then and scoffed but I would have gladly paid £130 for this pair of prints. The fuss over Hall Thorpe tended to obscure the fact that his work is well-made indeed. He had been a professional block-cutter in Australian before he came to Britain and had a good eye for colour. What he did not do was print the work himself, something the labels make clear. This never seemed to put buyers off in the past and for that type of decorative work it hardly matters.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTCD7b8goPOSrPTbvSrgIiFgDiAx-_iXEd5_H-PNCQZhom8lg7klYzMyPdHonHAjtG1hWVcZdAkwYGca043_7qWU6p6pgfX-fS6QrABx2TWdhqMMHjhYkmnfknGys9sYx2nOkS0CmxUrYfWDNnitRUMHntL8OvC1-xJoOxjPPs9o2krVM8t88D-AlFWG48/s517/Henneberg%20Dalmatia.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="508" data-original-width="517" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTCD7b8goPOSrPTbvSrgIiFgDiAx-_iXEd5_H-PNCQZhom8lg7klYzMyPdHonHAjtG1hWVcZdAkwYGca043_7qWU6p6pgfX-fS6QrABx2TWdhqMMHjhYkmnfknGys9sYx2nOkS0CmxUrYfWDNnitRUMHntL8OvC1-xJoOxjPPs9o2krVM8t88D-AlFWG48/s320/Henneberg%20Dalmatia.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div><br /><p>The Urushibara was another reasonable buy at £250. Read's <i>Venetian shawl</i> was even better at £270 given the poor condition of so many of the proofs I have seen and the place the woodcut has in British colour woodcut history. Read was the only British colour woodcut artists to pull portraiture off. Not only that, he singlehandedly reinvented the medium for a post-war audience who no longer wanted the earnest work of the pre-war arts and crafts movement.</p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvT0_-SCac-NQFr009KtagZys2GoAfwoHkCtHLh3gKj6iEmmkoSC4-sVY9HRgwz20DMaQ4vNlguE88ZLCk8jUHYtoIb6nA76vKTc0SJ2rh2q5A0mVkQZh9xYAo2zeRGK-BW6Y6_BoaordGb6bs7AHXwQ6K2iYE6NZI2RGQxjMVpOdZyXddNfdjfgfYy0XM/s627/Hastings.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="477" data-original-width="627" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvT0_-SCac-NQFr009KtagZys2GoAfwoHkCtHLh3gKj6iEmmkoSC4-sVY9HRgwz20DMaQ4vNlguE88ZLCk8jUHYtoIb6nA76vKTc0SJ2rh2q5A0mVkQZh9xYAo2zeRGK-BW6Y6_BoaordGb6bs7AHXwQ6K2iYE6NZI2RGQxjMVpOdZyXddNfdjfgfYy0XM/w400-h304/Hastings.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>I have no doubt you will also want to know what the prints are that did <i>not</i> come up for sale at Banbury (and which will probably not come up for sale anywhere soon). First of all comes S. G. Boxsius' diminutive masterpiece <i>Bowsprits. </i>Despite the poor quality of the reproduction, the work stands out as Boxsius at his most Boxsius, with all that that means. Far more rare is Phyllis Platt's stylish portrait of her daughter, Una, lying reading on a sofa. This has never appeared online until today and very few people have ever seen it. I found the illustration in a catalogue that was sent to me. I probably don't need to say she was the wife of John Platt but typically we know very little about her. The third print is Seaby's <i>Karnack</i> from 1925, followed by a more interesting early colour woodcut of a St Ives shop window by the Scottish artist, Frances Blair. Below that is Edward Ashendens's <i>Old Icelander. </i>He is best known as a designer of dioramas but here is making a creditable colour woodcut. Continuing the theme of ships and the sea, there is Hugo Henneberg's important colour linocut <i>Dalmatia</i> and then Kenneth Broad with all his originality and sense of style to the fore in a subtle and sensitive colour woodcut he simply called <i>Hastings.</i><p></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><br /><i><br /></i></p>Haji babahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619515066447546979noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195425069670824214.post-46610294616914168682023-09-01T11:56:00.002+01:002023-09-02T08:56:28.209+01:00A catalogue of the colour woodcuts of Allen Seaby<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGboYNxNVqCCdq5va07OMfaknpCLZVqQTi35D3_n35m-yRKhlMu5S7z6Kw2gk57ndiLi2j6JnGCIjEq8uRjaH6wTd-vRULmLiPqceesDKUd7rg4Das4ONU5uLpCF_d4TraEkGKHfixiHhk5axvgPRCU13vBEb5jdPZqfbtr0sEfqU_D7l2BpDXQrUXJM4U/s626/Screenshot%202023-08-28%20194511.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="462" data-original-width="626" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGboYNxNVqCCdq5va07OMfaknpCLZVqQTi35D3_n35m-yRKhlMu5S7z6Kw2gk57ndiLi2j6JnGCIjEq8uRjaH6wTd-vRULmLiPqceesDKUd7rg4Das4ONU5uLpCF_d4TraEkGKHfixiHhk5axvgPRCU13vBEb5jdPZqfbtr0sEfqU_D7l2BpDXQrUXJM4U/w400-h295/Screenshot%202023-08-28%20194511.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>I once tried to get hold of the exhibition catalogues owned by the writer on colour woodcut, Alan Guest, but was unsuccessful. I was told they were 'only lists' even though such catalogues are invaluable to anyone putting together a detailed catalogue of an artist's work. They form the basis for any scholarship and are no less important for the collectors who preserve the work itself. A number of catalogues for both American and British colour print artists have been published over the past ten years or so. Robert Meyrick's work on Sydney Lee was a model of its kind and of the books published in the U.S., Dominique Vasseur's <i>Edna Boise Hopkins </i>from 2008 is the most attractive and useable. A catalogue was beyond the scope of Martin Andrews and Robert Gillmor's 2014 book <i>Allen W Seaby, art and nature</i> but it was a missed opportunity nevertheless. To my knowledge there are at least eighty colour woodcuts made between 1900 and circa 1940. Mabel Royds was the only other artist making colour prints over that same period. She started out only about a year before Seaby and continued to work up until long before her death in 1941. Unlike Seaby we know what all of Royds' prints look like (though one or two may not have appeared online).</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCG8O6UAYzBXCetPsCZBI9Z62K4ujyEFHvFgijN5O1gWCae1-8gQCQ_8pc1uiU922oJqi7tuYZCTKj8AAjwkr2O1bMiFgmQtCNIJIA0mKmhI4oYZbn2SO_C4mWb4IjhFa5NQyz7SzRdkSbInr--CK_xIqPT3WdN6y9edGtpkDizbRMU7lDYKsdHL0d1pzR/s527/Screenshot%202023-08-28%20193351.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="527" data-original-width="385" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCG8O6UAYzBXCetPsCZBI9Z62K4ujyEFHvFgijN5O1gWCae1-8gQCQ_8pc1uiU922oJqi7tuYZCTKj8AAjwkr2O1bMiFgmQtCNIJIA0mKmhI4oYZbn2SO_C4mWb4IjhFa5NQyz7SzRdkSbInr--CK_xIqPT3WdN6y9edGtpkDizbRMU7lDYKsdHL0d1pzR/w468-h640/Screenshot%202023-08-28%20193351.png" width="468" /></a></div><br /><p>The main resource I have for Seaby is Alan's list of prints exhibited with the Society of Graver Printers in Colour between 1910 and 1938. Alan could be circumspect and how he came to see the exhibition catalogues he based the list on, I do not know. What the National Art Library in London have, I don't remember offhand. All I possess are photocopies of the six or seven catalogues owned by Seaby himself but from what I see on the internet, about eight exist which cannot be found on the main list by Alan Guest. None have titles and some of them would only appeal to a serious collector of Seaby's work. But they are all interesting. What is more you only need to look at <i>Old English pheasants</i> at the top to see what has been missed. If the image above can be identified as <i>Porta Pinciana,</i> at least we have a date. The pheasants find Seaby in the unfamiliar territory of the Scottish wildlife artist Archibald Thorburn who was old seven years older. As a general rule, Seaby appealed to the naturalist rather than the sportsman but here we have him giving the sporting print a go. It is a good print and one i would like to own but it may have been too genre for Seaby to exhibit. Without a catalogue with the relevant details, we can only make guesses about what his intentions were.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCPWqXe5scnYLoSjC4WlRxLilBpEUr3WaBgVblDRYyry-zAfzZSHgnlMLJL5Qcvii7pUSSuUpDDceS0taSWnA2-cBi1Q0Pm8nwKD8UQSegm7y8DMKO6X-zjZRKRcwmnvKdZtFyVycyD0StbgGRyR_0kdV_X1dIRwrN9crBgmwvLtJ20PpMUCW5yd8fYN0u/s1127/Screenshot%202023-08-28%20193144.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="752" data-original-width="1127" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCPWqXe5scnYLoSjC4WlRxLilBpEUr3WaBgVblDRYyry-zAfzZSHgnlMLJL5Qcvii7pUSSuUpDDceS0taSWnA2-cBi1Q0Pm8nwKD8UQSegm7y8DMKO6X-zjZRKRcwmnvKdZtFyVycyD0StbgGRyR_0kdV_X1dIRwrN9crBgmwvLtJ20PpMUCW5yd8fYN0u/w400-h268/Screenshot%202023-08-28%20193144.png" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>It was not until I began to try and sort out sundry lapwing woodcuts this week that I realised how much work still remained unaccounted for. It is not enough to say that Seaby was prolific; he was obsessively hard-working. Even so, it surprised me how little we knew. But judge for yourself. How many of you have seen these cows before? And does anyone know the title? I am sure this must be a very early work made before Seaby was competent with the keyblock. So far as I can make out, he has used silhouette and black-and-white instead and though few of us would rush out and buy it, it is very informative about the progress the artist was making with the medium But where exactly does it fit in? 1900, 1901?Without the catalogue, we just have no real idea. It has to be said, Seaby never made it easy for us. Few prints have titles and so far as I know none have dates. Nor was he beyond selling unsigned prints if he believed the standard of printing was inferior. This is why he took care to sign them in the block and again a catalogue would contain all the relevant information and it would be possible to say when the habit of signing in the block began.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpezgI_7nIQLmdN6XKkbzXb1RH-Ag70_2sKiq40ga0aFb0YowkfMZWNbm8jEiqynXPy9WnMmBqxOr6M4u634h8DQrkunB89D5KFXR_schay-PnxTFrpyrwpRcPLUOyfoH2qeTU_hdlZJXQ_-bEcoOrhJuU9E6Tj9vS8dxIvpFL6Xq51kv526R4GdnSph33/s847/Screenshot%202023-08-29%20221811.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="451" data-original-width="847" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpezgI_7nIQLmdN6XKkbzXb1RH-Ag70_2sKiq40ga0aFb0YowkfMZWNbm8jEiqynXPy9WnMmBqxOr6M4u634h8DQrkunB89D5KFXR_schay-PnxTFrpyrwpRcPLUOyfoH2qeTU_hdlZJXQ_-bEcoOrhJuU9E6Tj9vS8dxIvpFL6Xq51kv526R4GdnSph33/w400-h213/Screenshot%202023-08-29%20221811.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>Now you may be saying to yourself, why is he going on about Seaby when he could be telling us more about Helen Stevenson or Sylvan Boxsius? Good question. And I have an answer. If Seaby had made exceptional colour woodcuts for ten or fifteen years, it still would not have mattered so very much. The truth is Seaby is everyone's idea of a colour woodcut artist and is archetypal in a way no other artist could be. He was already forming his ideas about design by the late 1890s, a process that only came to an end when war broke out in 1939. This means his output lies at the dead centre of the story of British colour woodcut and that a full catalogue of his prints would be of much greater use than any of the ones we have including for John Platt, Yoshijiro Urushibara and Arthur Rigden Read. It does not matter how good those catalogues are, Seaby should have come first and the prints you see here tell us why. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-47eWm9SJB3UUpnC34B9JspX-3yZ5B2lIHsaKR793c2zLulj6Bf5W-2NRo60tw1w13BkhASGRGpH2Mj8wDo5zUItWK4eisWbMdjQGse6fp06mlGPk4bMyCqPoHrmKd8ptC7p0uhiMlBmI46e9pZn37d5cbK_oMJ5G5GIt1SjbqKhIHnucLmYCSbHsx7lb/s788/The%20kingfisher%201910.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="598" data-original-width="788" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-47eWm9SJB3UUpnC34B9JspX-3yZ5B2lIHsaKR793c2zLulj6Bf5W-2NRo60tw1w13BkhASGRGpH2Mj8wDo5zUItWK4eisWbMdjQGse6fp06mlGPk4bMyCqPoHrmKd8ptC7p0uhiMlBmI46e9pZn37d5cbK_oMJ5G5GIt1SjbqKhIHnucLmYCSbHsx7lb/w400-h304/The%20kingfisher%201910.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>If this is the kind of work he did on an off-day or for some reason decided not to exhibit, how much does it say about the colour woodcuts he did put on show? What is important about Seaby is not only the standard of his work; the influence he had has not been assessed at all properly. It is easy enough to detect the influence of Hokusai or Koson on his own work. What is harder to ascertain is how far he set an example. I have to convince myself the beach scene actually is by Seaby at all, but for my money, it is where John Platt's famous <i>The giant stride</i> begins but again, without details, how can we say? <i>The kingfisher</i> was first exhibited in 1910 but by then Seaby had found his own way with the intractable keyblock. <i>The kingfisher</i> finds him struggling to make the bird stand clear of the confusing marks behind it. By the time he made the pheasants he had perfected the technique of experimental cutting where he kept taking trial proofs as he removed more wood from the background. By anyone's standards, <i>The kingfisher </i>is an expressive print but the background remains unresolved.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbJWqAFWhQe-PMLMxcYLgCiYZygAZYmBEx3o9rVSXCjsTtUNx95xTwGnMVi8EzkRu5NmHgH_6XNpXwRRNcqwrKntXIt9-QixQFx7t5rUO6Fr5dq7adXZ1mT2UB74_4OtwAoMh95pr_igvNyBVO6K2bJQ_Xif2olfkxpAbIHHoR2DXJGskaG0jGpFSftiQP/s903/Screenshot%202023-08-29%20215538.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="605" data-original-width="903" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbJWqAFWhQe-PMLMxcYLgCiYZygAZYmBEx3o9rVSXCjsTtUNx95xTwGnMVi8EzkRu5NmHgH_6XNpXwRRNcqwrKntXIt9-QixQFx7t5rUO6Fr5dq7adXZ1mT2UB74_4OtwAoMh95pr_igvNyBVO6K2bJQ_Xif2olfkxpAbIHHoR2DXJGskaG0jGpFSftiQP/w400-h268/Screenshot%202023-08-29%20215538.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>Many artists have been praised by Modern Printmakers but how many of them produced a body work you could follow through as I have just tried to do with Seaby? Seaby is all about identification. He was less concerned to encourage us to look at animals from the outside as Thorburn did; he wanted them to live in front of us. This exceptional gift is not found everywhere in his work. This does not make prints like <i>Bay of Salamis</i> from 1929 unimportant only less crucial. It has come up online recently but if you want to find <i>Assisi </i>(1928) <i>The Parthenon </i>(1928) <i>Acropolis, Athens </i>(1932) or <i>Crossing the Nile at Luxor </i>(1932) you will search in vain. I know surmise is often foolish but all I can say is he sold so few of them, none has have as yet come up for sale again. <i>Bay of Salamis </i>was itself bought up from the vaults by an academic from the University of Reading but has not as yet stood the money test like an unattractive print of The Adoration I remember going fairly cheap on ebay. <i>Kings of Orient </i>is much better but you will need to ignore the hackneyed figures if you buy it. Whether we like these prints or not, they help to suggest what his real strengths were.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUvVaNlAYuJMCEOpuMfZn9ZRAbdpzHLe5J_l-D3FWS0jM466OtX8bfej0xPq4jAn2aAc2SrpfRFHyPKrHyOA0yTVURWlz7Bov4F8ywJDCigGBpDJJyz4-jlpSvE2462zMv_Z679UENJZdi9qeoPEmqCJ4u7N1jMuI8wiriHHGwguZuDJu1ulrI_iTRvtkD/s851/Kings%20of%20orient.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="651" data-original-width="851" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUvVaNlAYuJMCEOpuMfZn9ZRAbdpzHLe5J_l-D3FWS0jM466OtX8bfej0xPq4jAn2aAc2SrpfRFHyPKrHyOA0yTVURWlz7Bov4F8ywJDCigGBpDJJyz4-jlpSvE2462zMv_Z679UENJZdi9qeoPEmqCJ4u7N1jMuI8wiriHHGwguZuDJu1ulrI_iTRvtkD/w400-h306/Kings%20of%20orient.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>No one could fault Seaby for not trying even if <i>Lake Lucerne</i> from the end of his woodcut career in 1937 is more of a watercolour than it should be. Taking a broader view, two remarks made about Seaby by his contemporaries come to mind. A reviewer of one of his books noted signs of deterioration in his drawing and wondered whether Seaby 'had drawn too much'. Another critic who went to see his second one-man show may have been the first person to say what we tend to take for granted, namely Seaby was at his best with birds. I have tried to suggest what it was about birds and their habits that meant so much. All the same we are still in need of perspective about his work and in the end a catalogue will be the only way we can find it.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipTRpkX_3bME56z751Sf8Jw8IepD-GFpuaIoxhckEAglomqYEzde-wZtFtPAfFIEuTijnjGmnsz1TlWOFJ8PSRzmdQpiz3JJ9-aGnq2ndi8wFTGoVVI4n7IrICRXJYf8f17Vytb-KJ7VWlq68e2DuDDfEFZChFmB8Q4lUSqBtDFqJpDOVv-8IGC9JM5RS4/s1247/Screenshot%202023-08-28%20195634.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="785" data-original-width="1247" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipTRpkX_3bME56z751Sf8Jw8IepD-GFpuaIoxhckEAglomqYEzde-wZtFtPAfFIEuTijnjGmnsz1TlWOFJ8PSRzmdQpiz3JJ9-aGnq2ndi8wFTGoVVI4n7IrICRXJYf8f17Vytb-KJ7VWlq68e2DuDDfEFZChFmB8Q4lUSqBtDFqJpDOVv-8IGC9JM5RS4/w400-h251/Screenshot%202023-08-28%20195634.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Haji babahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619515066447546979noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195425069670824214.post-57612635880023202152023-08-29T09:40:00.001+01:002023-08-29T17:40:10.416+01:00Four new linocuts by Laurence Bell<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizXrmHKBu2Ir2TqCIJXMA3y9_uwYrqnOBOcWcBx0WpERjYJB2tpdfVQG8VxnuTTeYpeO6dl4pgPpbxaFZI-ZaUuZ6eJFY1o06i2JT0E4JhXfHizFdt3TObDSiZE2nyq3MWYfDVSNOpIgXQyyqMP0P39KrBxzyP2XdfKFBpN_Fz68Aeqozx1MTg5YNOs4vc/s483/Screenshot%202023-08-28%20202011.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="421" data-original-width="483" height="349" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizXrmHKBu2Ir2TqCIJXMA3y9_uwYrqnOBOcWcBx0WpERjYJB2tpdfVQG8VxnuTTeYpeO6dl4pgPpbxaFZI-ZaUuZ6eJFY1o06i2JT0E4JhXfHizFdt3TObDSiZE2nyq3MWYfDVSNOpIgXQyyqMP0P39KrBxzyP2XdfKFBpN_Fz68Aeqozx1MTg5YNOs4vc/w400-h349/Screenshot%202023-08-28%20202011.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>I know there is more than one reader who collects the colour linocuts made by Laurence Bell. These images may not be new to them but they are new to me so I decided to put them up to augment the examples that have already been posted on the blog. The windmill above reminds me of the work of E.C.A, Brown and the clogs worn by the woman in the print below means the subject is French. (For readers who are not British, clogs were only worn in England in the 1920s by northern mill workers and I don't believe they were all wood like those in the picture).</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge4mQptrKQU9ZrecZFfXRTQAzPxkylSM3fOMUFKjwxR_ylMNukzUIRygC9o7WGxqFyvIYJ4mqbp8Kt-WGh5jmiE0yibqSgy9pJqFLngrv5_lSOjYOsYUiUMQzRaQT8s42i5gkb_YJXxk5wQMdy3b3N3LXfrtRVzlGYrhsMA15OAWb-Kb3JSX9Pw2QVzl9r/s572/The%20sheperdess%20Bell.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="526" data-original-width="572" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge4mQptrKQU9ZrecZFfXRTQAzPxkylSM3fOMUFKjwxR_ylMNukzUIRygC9o7WGxqFyvIYJ4mqbp8Kt-WGh5jmiE0yibqSgy9pJqFLngrv5_lSOjYOsYUiUMQzRaQT8s42i5gkb_YJXxk5wQMdy3b3N3LXfrtRVzlGYrhsMA15OAWb-Kb3JSX9Pw2QVzl9r/s320/The%20sheperdess%20Bell.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>The photos are not all square but the colours look right and the one above has a title <i>The shepherdess. </i>Sometimes it is not easy to work out what Bell was intending but the more we see of his work, the more it all starts to make sense. The titles do not always give very much away and the tones he uses are deceiving and make everywhere look like the veldt (though admittedly some prints are of South African subjects)</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7s0cN2-k5sbQJwGn0B9cZF7LiTsxABLXrivrhcSUKgYDaIAR-InRbjXHij00TLUbD2DDDyjSIZb2wn1WXP_T4mbUBALhtlA6Zcju_CAs1RpW1ZwzVSoY888sM9h8fZ_DN2iKXLaj0F0CbwhKCdKjc43cPLkiS4srmIuO2A5LpV-4F6ISmqTCMQLOsXBR8/s502/Screenshot%202023-08-28%20202343.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="397" data-original-width="502" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7s0cN2-k5sbQJwGn0B9cZF7LiTsxABLXrivrhcSUKgYDaIAR-InRbjXHij00TLUbD2DDDyjSIZb2wn1WXP_T4mbUBALhtlA6Zcju_CAs1RpW1ZwzVSoY888sM9h8fZ_DN2iKXLaj0F0CbwhKCdKjc43cPLkiS4srmIuO2A5LpV-4F6ISmqTCMQLOsXBR8/w400-h316/Screenshot%202023-08-28%20202343.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><i>Russet and blue </i>(above) is better known but is included here because for the first time we have a title for it. The one below I have never seen before and despite the high colour, I assume the subject is Sussex (in common with the one at the top) as the trees are English elm. His use of strong colour has the effect of making the places he depicts look generic but I have come to the conclusion Bell usually worked from the subject as he did with 'The Mermaid' tavern at Rye.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidu210n6-Cr0yfgMY0-RZ995BfO-HgVDVIjn7Fl-uM2j-A6DGYfriMiKTxoLkY1zogYDeYnwPTFwCRiu-90XG0MN5r7KXfiH6lZjWzSHXmtSZztzGdIc1t2h2Mlm52ZkSvT7Wn7NogwXyE1HbHubGfjENd6VDt-BSrXl99TLiuVIFKq_4RK52D4qWtO-qN/s492/Screenshot%202023-08-28%20201915.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="413" data-original-width="492" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidu210n6-Cr0yfgMY0-RZ995BfO-HgVDVIjn7Fl-uM2j-A6DGYfriMiKTxoLkY1zogYDeYnwPTFwCRiu-90XG0MN5r7KXfiH6lZjWzSHXmtSZztzGdIc1t2h2Mlm52ZkSvT7Wn7NogwXyE1HbHubGfjENd6VDt-BSrXl99TLiuVIFKq_4RK52D4qWtO-qN/w400-h336/Screenshot%202023-08-28%20201915.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>There are a number of tree prints that have a samey feel, including the one below sent to me only today by another contributing reader from Chicago and who did not hang around. If you only have one or two things by Belll, it hardly makes any difference how many elegant trees there are, though note the difference between the elms and the French poplars. This is a particularly good one and a good photograph as well. It presumably shows Chateau Gaillard and may have been online before but these things come and go, so it always a good idea to replace them when they do.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifqR6T2x8Vc5psrQNc12I-7C5UYBz82RnCT16tLWMMJ5BJR-imIGdwY744ZEZVGfw_7ENvULAbpKc410fzyL3AlQ2xzH8UgvE2Z0aCx0teAjcZngOmB_r2zvmeRfmLmGUK-xksD34oovooEQOvQwVZvU5sWc6Hzur0sVEQYysaU30dYp3QAlof_KtSx__O/s611/Screenshot%202023-08-29%20172218.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="611" height="349" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifqR6T2x8Vc5psrQNc12I-7C5UYBz82RnCT16tLWMMJ5BJR-imIGdwY744ZEZVGfw_7ENvULAbpKc410fzyL3AlQ2xzH8UgvE2Z0aCx0teAjcZngOmB_r2zvmeRfmLmGUK-xksD34oovooEQOvQwVZvU5sWc6Hzur0sVEQYysaU30dYp3QAlof_KtSx__O/w400-h349/Screenshot%202023-08-29%20172218.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">.</div><br /><p><br /></p>Haji babahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619515066447546979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195425069670824214.post-28297999120203854462023-08-27T21:31:00.009+01:002023-08-29T06:56:23.267+01:00Classic British colour woodcuts for sale at Banbury<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwM7jGF6RLiUzQmfJPthRp2roOw5lx-Vg3hoJZ8CCRSNaGSpu9T_2B17Jar-bh9wZ59sBNjUvpsVIx10RnmpXvUjvysJMDH_Q37velMXI5gz3Ux0eN6SFbxtmCqzprsYpXY9oyxu7_O80dRZNEwK1mZeW2qONPnBtUh9CYXD7aZl4eR76QmMr5M8Ym5eFC/s708/Screenshot%202023-08-26%20214110.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="708" data-original-width="497" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwM7jGF6RLiUzQmfJPthRp2roOw5lx-Vg3hoJZ8CCRSNaGSpu9T_2B17Jar-bh9wZ59sBNjUvpsVIx10RnmpXvUjvysJMDH_Q37velMXI5gz3Ux0eN6SFbxtmCqzprsYpXY9oyxu7_O80dRZNEwK1mZeW2qONPnBtUh9CYXD7aZl4eR76QmMr5M8Ym5eFC/w450-h640/Screenshot%202023-08-26%20214110.png" width="450" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">It is not often we are presented with a good choice of colour woodcuts in a single sale but the forthcoming auction at Banbury has an old collection of prints put together with care and good judgement. All seven come in their period frames and some have well-known dealers from the 1920s like Redfern, Bromhead and Abbey Galleries on the back. I say this partly because the labels suggest the prints were bought framed but mainly because I prefer the way prints were placed in good-sized mounts at that time. Apart from the Arthur Rigden Read, the frames themselves are not up to much (and one has bowed outwards).</span></div><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUbYo0DdeYZuhNrpgohUl0vJcTaCCncMAvPRun8yAOi8debs_rTHBUUf56_qojlE8oYVztIPcsTIe79YFYhJEQH7_qChL0L-iCV7eBZo-JlmSZWmc7x1o40TC6swAik72-2TcoK2CpdR0Nedzo0bXhWEYYBIHDn2AUequ-CEVkBvGE1WR80W0M9zJnZKqG/s801/Screenshot%202023-08-26%20212406.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="801" data-original-width="605" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUbYo0DdeYZuhNrpgohUl0vJcTaCCncMAvPRun8yAOi8debs_rTHBUUf56_qojlE8oYVztIPcsTIe79YFYhJEQH7_qChL0L-iCV7eBZo-JlmSZWmc7x1o40TC6swAik72-2TcoK2CpdR0Nedzo0bXhWEYYBIHDn2AUequ-CEVkBvGE1WR80W0M9zJnZKqG/w303-h400/Screenshot%202023-08-26%20212406.png" width="303" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>Heading the post is Rigden Read's bravura early masterpiece from 1923. Here is one of the most irresistible of all British colour prints with Kathleen Rigden Read in a sumptuous golden shawl worn over a plain linen shift, presumably of her own making. Read has dated the proof 1924 but that was the year it was pulled. It first appeared the year before. It has a large area of unprinted paper and this may have led to many proofs being discoloured. The one you see at the top is not the one in the sale. You can see that above. So far as I can see this one is in good condition and has been housed in a sympathetic frame.</p><p>The downside to many prints by Read is firstly they are small and secondly he often used drab colours in order to team up with the vegetable dyes his wife was using for her fabrics. <i>The Venetian shawl</i> was made before they held joint exhibitions and stands out, even though it is remains quite small. My mother had my own proof on loan for many years and everyone who came into the room for the first time commented on it. Read was a showman and that characteristic is to the fore here. This is not to say that Allen Seaby's owl does not have the necessary sense of drama but his theatricality was different. Read was just as observant as Seaby the naturalist. What Seaby has on offer in this print is poetry. Half-owl, half-ghost, what you have here is Seaby's presiding spirit, the constant search for what is always absent. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwEG6XC3yfxPbaQmKaVyXSnP47CYGxmjMQ6gu72b6ieL6G6FcWBaYNt9m6y8gDlkFzBU5-J-NMkxVxufSIEXhYGR07Sl5AZzJ4YI7FyHQ6BTmY7RBrEzlrO35IBnyf0RLog-GZXbuaekL2aIZjEUpeuqK9-iK5JD69IjtSIwICA1oy_FBg9KdIV0MGljv2/s1057/Screenshot%202023-08-27%20105301.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="767" data-original-width="1057" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwEG6XC3yfxPbaQmKaVyXSnP47CYGxmjMQ6gu72b6ieL6G6FcWBaYNt9m6y8gDlkFzBU5-J-NMkxVxufSIEXhYGR07Sl5AZzJ4YI7FyHQ6BTmY7RBrEzlrO35IBnyf0RLog-GZXbuaekL2aIZjEUpeuqK9-iK5JD69IjtSIwICA1oy_FBg9KdIV0MGljv2/w400-h290/Screenshot%202023-08-27%20105301.png" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><br /><p>The auctioneers give the title as 'The owl'. This must be wrong. To begin with, Seaby was a dedicated ornithologist and would have said it was a barn owl. Secondly, he made two similar but different prints of barn owls. One was more the work of the naturalist, the other more expressive. Regretfully, these are two of the only prints of Seaby's I have no record for. His output of about 100 colour woodcuts is too large to catalogue easily and the only records I have are the exhibition dates for the Graver Printers.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdTZ8Q_YYb9vOI7EWiCPNAFMh95JHut3k5phaxW_AuHGIbPOQ9ICqB6sqwa8GvFx9qdlX_ZxAlfps-JW7HJnBnLfocEk_BuEU_oVBeAbRwWPKwQikRpBsQFMhlh6LXTCqJImyyBRUBkBdsgrArtZIWCIeJNPfLt1XPUByFjJG__vB-ffQzQ9nb7iwG_DiC/s443/Screenshot%202023-08-27%20200622.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="443" data-original-width="332" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdTZ8Q_YYb9vOI7EWiCPNAFMh95JHut3k5phaxW_AuHGIbPOQ9ICqB6sqwa8GvFx9qdlX_ZxAlfps-JW7HJnBnLfocEk_BuEU_oVBeAbRwWPKwQikRpBsQFMhlh6LXTCqJImyyBRUBkBdsgrArtZIWCIeJNPfLt1XPUByFjJG__vB-ffQzQ9nb7iwG_DiC/w300-h400/Screenshot%202023-08-27%20200622.png" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">In 1910, Seaby exhibited fourteen colour woodcuts alone at the Graver Printers. This was the society's first exhibition and Seaby already had many prints in hand, including one entitled </span><i style="text-align: left;">Lapwings. </i><span style="text-align: left;">As with his barn owl, Seaby had two tries at the same subject and also made a print of young birds, which the National Gallery of Scotland call 'Lapwings' too. With no proper catalogue being available, the confusion is understandable. Seaby rarely put titles on a print. What you can see bottom left is the edition number. My guess is the one you see here is the first one and the better known one with the birds facing the opposite direction is </span><i style="text-align: left;">Lapwings</i><span style="text-align: left;"> prepared for the Graver Printers exhibition of 1910.</span></div><p></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJSwQNZ0oBO_zovAkmHGoq5gwGs12zOFEcOA7GkYIguuvyK1hIzlLqUxCC667-jcqOzq6pNzd7p8JSW63A4DV2QLLDYOuw9L9MCCDjUpoLVUs7LgrDlY59ManVO3ck4nqam8MnSPhXLyhBJxyF_58h1rdX-2xIPJ3qtAe_4dOAYVFjmJe1X3gPesNy8-H_/s885/Screenshot%202023-08-27%20105504.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="776" data-original-width="885" height="351" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJSwQNZ0oBO_zovAkmHGoq5gwGs12zOFEcOA7GkYIguuvyK1hIzlLqUxCC667-jcqOzq6pNzd7p8JSW63A4DV2QLLDYOuw9L9MCCDjUpoLVUs7LgrDlY59ManVO3ck4nqam8MnSPhXLyhBJxyF_58h1rdX-2xIPJ3qtAe_4dOAYVFjmJe1X3gPesNy8-H_/w400-h351/Screenshot%202023-08-27%20105504.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>For all the effort Walter Phillips put into making colour woodcuts, I remain unenthusiastic. Even so, his strong links with north America make him sought after over there and I have no doubt <i>Norman Bay no 2</i> will be pricey. Phillips liked to present himself as a backwoodsman who taught himself how to the make colour woodcut by dint of his own ingenuity and hard work. This is tosh but Phillips was an able journalist with a regular column who could present himself as he wished. He was as earnest as Seaby (who was also a friend) but lacked Seaby's broader interests and his sense of humour. His prices are commensurably high without being an out-and-out joke. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGY2lv0-ge-cIi2ikryI3DSTN-DBry8QRgxo2k_3ysEcERNRdDDxpSTZ5nNrDnAyTlIvy1-qOIRO2R_dKr6oJXU7yPN9CcEbu05AzvgDcQ0Qc0ZwM4k6Dd4YaiaDJku7e1PqyfhUCqXcghz1_0M-8rE5oayzfcMwVZ2q096I8EWw2nb6fxl61PK-j6YNcV/s483/Screenshot%202023-08-27%20195806.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="483" data-original-width="447" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGY2lv0-ge-cIi2ikryI3DSTN-DBry8QRgxo2k_3ysEcERNRdDDxpSTZ5nNrDnAyTlIvy1-qOIRO2R_dKr6oJXU7yPN9CcEbu05AzvgDcQ0Qc0ZwM4k6Dd4YaiaDJku7e1PqyfhUCqXcghz1_0M-8rE5oayzfcMwVZ2q096I8EWw2nb6fxl61PK-j6YNcV/w370-h400/Screenshot%202023-08-27%20195806.png" width="370" /></a></div><br /><p>John Hall Thorpe on the other hand has had his day, partly because people are better informed about colour woodcut than they were ten years ago and partly because the fashion for art deco has died the death. All this will should make <i>Cowslips</i> and <i>Forget-me-nots</i> affordable and, I will admit, I was tempted recently by <i>Marigolds</i> mainly because it was still housed in its original frame. It is a glorious decorative print and was the first colour woodcut I owned but I decided against. If I found these two in a junk shop for £1.50 (as I did <i>Marigolds</i>) I would buy them. But that will not bring the 1970s with all its fads and bargains back. They are gone for good. And so is John Hall Thorpe.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjow-o8ggXJy3i4d5_XVIyjCT-sAqn6iY-R76Tk_oQzuAeoPXOUHzWL19bOblBHoGtI_t6lURbLl_1fO2rkL6lgRIHxW4i2tiKs-BrIFTCv1i4Eq0ck9DiAIR5nll5lDf-cVaVeWwk2zsyfKF7BTw-vD3n9qeQ-tja0v_z4VzPSvhj8GuUAJ1xL3DEp13nj/s530/Screenshot%202023-08-27%20200811.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="452" data-original-width="530" height="341" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjow-o8ggXJy3i4d5_XVIyjCT-sAqn6iY-R76Tk_oQzuAeoPXOUHzWL19bOblBHoGtI_t6lURbLl_1fO2rkL6lgRIHxW4i2tiKs-BrIFTCv1i4Eq0ck9DiAIR5nll5lDf-cVaVeWwk2zsyfKF7BTw-vD3n9qeQ-tja0v_z4VzPSvhj8GuUAJ1xL3DEp13nj/w400-h341/Screenshot%202023-08-27%20200811.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>While Seaby's <i>Lapwings </i>was hanging on the wall at the Goupil Gallery on Regent St., a twenty-two year old called Yoshijiro Urushibara was giving demonstrations of colour woodblock printing beyond even Seaby's capability in Shepherd's Bush. Only eighteen years later he became one of only four colour woodcut artists to ever have a solo exhibition of prints in London. (It says a good deal about what we have here that the other three were Hall Thorpe, Phillips and Seaby). <i>Grasshoppers </i>was among the exhibits at the Abbey Gallery in 1928 and provides firm evidence of the breadth of his work by the age of forty. One of the most thoroughly Japanese of all his many woodcuts, the series of images and his prominent signature are played off one against the other in a virtuoso display of nuance. Nowhere in the annals of British art has the relationship between image and calligraphy been so well made (unless we take his <i>Crayfish</i> into account as well). But where the detachment of <i>Crayfish </i> is unnerving and creepy, <i>Grasshoppers </i>introduced collectors to the muted colours of the 1930s a good two years before the decade began. And if that doesn't sell it to you, nothing will.</p><p>The sale will be held at Holloways Auctioneers, Banbury, on 2nd September, 2023. There should be a follow-up post regarding prices once the sale is over.</p><p><br /></p>Haji babahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619515066447546979noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195425069670824214.post-5151153843478886822023-08-24T22:45:00.003+01:002023-08-25T06:53:11.780+01:00The curious rise of S.G. Boxsius <p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigq2o-phF8MJJ868FojvKc04WkN9ZsmNlzaHKBvAht0kRsP6mCgM6-X-gZ0PgQffGHtIOQUTxY8XHP6VtJx8Zo0CD16uQUCXgo1XL9fXl1nBDXOmn_dEuWn4Bk-ZswS8QNQOncC8f9RfYVxuOCurTgGhz1TJXYnCR3zsm646W0-B_2y8IOrCujHgmqva75/s683/Screenshot%202023-08-24%20211849.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="432" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigq2o-phF8MJJ868FojvKc04WkN9ZsmNlzaHKBvAht0kRsP6mCgM6-X-gZ0PgQffGHtIOQUTxY8XHP6VtJx8Zo0CD16uQUCXgo1XL9fXl1nBDXOmn_dEuWn4Bk-ZswS8QNQOncC8f9RfYVxuOCurTgGhz1TJXYnCR3zsm646W0-B_2y8IOrCujHgmqva75/w404-h640/Screenshot%202023-08-24%20211849.png" width="404" /></a></div><br /><p>Clive Christie recently suggested to me that S. G. Boxsius was 'an artist for uncertain times'. Readers who have been round long enough will know that Clive can be relied on for such perceptive remarks. What he said certainly made me stop and think. A part of the appeal of Boxsius is his sense of place and small scale sensibility. It doesn't matter where he goes, from St Paul's Cathedral to the quay at Looe, he tends to make it his own. It is always England and it is often momentary but whether it is a sudden shower or the heat of midday, there is always an ongoing conversation, sometimes literally.</p><p>This does not explain why Boxsius prints have been turning up first in Britain and now in the U.S. I heard only today from a relieved reader, telling me the proof of <i>The black bull</i> he had purchased had arrived at his home and turned out to be a loose sheet in good condition ( aside from a poorly attached hinge). But there is more. The same person tells me <i>Ruins at Walberswick</i> is coming up for sale at J. Garrett Auctioneers in Dallas on 10th September. I have known about this print for quite a few years but until this year, I had never seen it. Now good images have turned up twice. As for <i>The black bull</i>, until this year, I don't believe any of us had even heard it. Suddenly there are two. As for the one in South Africa, how did that get to be there?</p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhalnzqnuUKxkeDEkqlLYwkCidrmISbeyHkAVJTGhNhcflTbbvAn4pnKMT3g4lY7S0Lf2E67jkSjJQnij_vjO33nYwSuY9vdpIL1GSx5V6DrGxzAFzD-YuMYx7pULHDb_T6-9hW6qRoTQXaIxktsC8c3OGU3kmBG61kOvDa9taqMGWAPRbTBMIXruKNC20p/s963/Screenshot%202023-08-24%20212053.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="963" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhalnzqnuUKxkeDEkqlLYwkCidrmISbeyHkAVJTGhNhcflTbbvAn4pnKMT3g4lY7S0Lf2E67jkSjJQnij_vjO33nYwSuY9vdpIL1GSx5V6DrGxzAFzD-YuMYx7pULHDb_T6-9hW6qRoTQXaIxktsC8c3OGU3kmBG61kOvDa9taqMGWAPRbTBMIXruKNC20p/w400-h249/Screenshot%202023-08-24%20212053.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>This doesn't look like a blip. If it means there is growing interest and that prices have risen, well, it has not been an overall disaster as both myself and readers have discovered in the past month or so. What all this means is there is an opportunity to buy and build a small collection and frankly it hardly matters what you buy. On the whole, what you pay will average out and although there is the odd dud, Boxsius was not only a proficient artist, he had a vision of England and its coast and buildings, holidays and days out that is coherent. This means everything you buy will fall into place and the more you have the more will be revealed.</p><p>As it happens, I was in Pershore in Worcestershire today and Ian Pugh the second-hand bookseller there mentioned Tenbury Wells which lies on the other side of the county. This was where Boxsius died and frankly nowhere could have been better. Like Winchelsea and Devon or Spitalfields and Kew, Tenbury Wells is Boxsius country. But then, every now and again, I look out from the train and there it is once more, Boxsius country, that curious land of uncertain light and certainty of purpose.</p>Haji babahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619515066447546979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195425069670824214.post-81242826598502052792023-08-18T17:50:00.002+01:002023-08-18T18:36:38.993+01:00The colour woodcuts of Winifred McKenzie<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdST44OXudW1O2KS7fV4BGqdhLrLTTJmbQg88LnNXvGbicqbOnpTC0fcDgHuxNs7I40yrMELMUMuIuJuuojOBON83QrsilwJ4X_z8bm3pH6KrQiJcjigPa24qPL9J3l1I9D0XV8VKBARhyatJa9IGB1mfalevWmu7HpiT5BV4WHA-2TVNuLHO-SxSeFW72/s502/evening%20in%20france.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><i><img border="0" data-original-height="502" data-original-width="462" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdST44OXudW1O2KS7fV4BGqdhLrLTTJmbQg88LnNXvGbicqbOnpTC0fcDgHuxNs7I40yrMELMUMuIuJuuojOBON83QrsilwJ4X_z8bm3pH6KrQiJcjigPa24qPL9J3l1I9D0XV8VKBARhyatJa9IGB1mfalevWmu7HpiT5BV4WHA-2TVNuLHO-SxSeFW72/w369-h400/evening%20in%20france.png" width="369" /></i></a></div><br /><p><span style="font-size: large;">I heard last week from a reader in Scotland about a proof of Winifred McKenzie's colour woodcut <i>Waterfall</i></span><span style="font-size: large;"> (third from top) from 1935 coming up for sale in Edinburgh. Like the rest of McKenzie's colour prints, <i>Waterfall</i> </span><span style="font-size: large;"> is rare and shows what kind of work from the 1920s and 1930s is still appearing at auction houses in Scotland. No-one expected it to be cheap but at about £500 it was not expensive either. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOqvMaQTZQJIhlyF2RKa_l3FTyWZ6IT43mZYkWqhPLNqVMmYLDmttlttY9OmW3uZNjurR75ZGdLWvUTX1g8KsHJCXq5tMj1qrnsFIY46fFhh3gywoEvlJBOeYZtrh8YRGY3gXd_geYTu302huTv8A2jyJf2Ifbzm9fPf62E7usYrwqoMM5WGlSe-x0gpac/s1177/6%20Ben%20Lui%201933.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="874" data-original-width="1177" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOqvMaQTZQJIhlyF2RKa_l3FTyWZ6IT43mZYkWqhPLNqVMmYLDmttlttY9OmW3uZNjurR75ZGdLWvUTX1g8KsHJCXq5tMj1qrnsFIY46fFhh3gywoEvlJBOeYZtrh8YRGY3gXd_geYTu302huTv8A2jyJf2Ifbzm9fPf62E7usYrwqoMM5WGlSe-x0gpac/w400-h297/6%20Ben%20Lui%201933.JPG" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: large;">One of the big gains in recent years has been the appearance online of good quality photographs on auction house websites. Online auctions also mean that many images that were sold by means of printed catalogues are also coming up online nowadays. This means it is time for a second look at McKenzie mainly because there is more to show you on this post than the one I put up some years ago.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7JMQfXeRG2vPrWvkTVTdkd-rBHgwEmpAyJHyGbgcneo7GyYFMG5zDf37lVlEkIUkYZg93xoFXcAuDxKpIKHli5LP1jq6wCaFRAbs0yCSPv7ye0CEMIeEDnXdTwFpJ5Nyg8-jVKAPZv3XkjfA1PXACvOH7mNkXMI1M9_MMK3v7eJUgG2dp_Axw15Sa_M2a/s622/Screenshot%202023-08-11%20213049.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="622" data-original-width="497" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7JMQfXeRG2vPrWvkTVTdkd-rBHgwEmpAyJHyGbgcneo7GyYFMG5zDf37lVlEkIUkYZg93xoFXcAuDxKpIKHli5LP1jq6wCaFRAbs0yCSPv7ye0CEMIeEDnXdTwFpJ5Nyg8-jVKAPZv3XkjfA1PXACvOH7mNkXMI1M9_MMK3v7eJUgG2dp_Axw15Sa_M2a/w320-h400/Screenshot%202023-08-11%20213049.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">As with Hans Frank, it will be the earlier woodcuts that will figure in the post. To be honest, I just prefer them. I suspect the early ones show the effect of linocut on her woodcuts while the later woodcuts may be more in line with the wood-engravings she began to make a little later. McKenzie enrolled on the teacher's diploma course at Glasgow School of Art in 1923. Chica MacNab graduated from the same course two years later and was offered a job teaching a relief printmaking class in conjunction with the intalgio class taken by Charles Murray. I am never sure exactly when MacNab resigned. I think it was in 1927, so there must have been a number of students who took her class but McKenzie and Ian Fleming are the only artists I know of for sure.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggMSBUej_vbde_oQpRhjbGB3mylaRarheyAt-zOVd05gkPDU0ipY501VrelE-tuBCiC9znIy-H9k2M4XFE75WP14wSuHqPrBTOrO1vNSSzBnhRUgMrobGidAMoUDiOwkbIB9Gy-wx0VBH3u3s60bfb8aIKUwSQvez93quDMy7aqSnUYGumMXGBYR0WEx-n/s685/Screenshot%202023-08-11%20221914.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="372" data-original-width="685" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggMSBUej_vbde_oQpRhjbGB3mylaRarheyAt-zOVd05gkPDU0ipY501VrelE-tuBCiC9znIy-H9k2M4XFE75WP14wSuHqPrBTOrO1vNSSzBnhRUgMrobGidAMoUDiOwkbIB9Gy-wx0VBH3u3s60bfb8aIKUwSQvez93quDMy7aqSnUYGumMXGBYR0WEx-n/w400-h217/Screenshot%202023-08-11%20221914.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">What is interesting is that Fleming was more influenced by Murray and McKenzie by MacNab. She did not take to Murray (who drank) and I have not seen any monochrome prints from her Glasgow years. A shame because Murray was a good printmaker and Fleming did some exceptional work after studying with him. McKenzie herself made her black-and-white prints after taking MacNab's advice and studying wood-engraving with her brother, Iain, at the Grosvenor School.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTQHDT5NfppTmtkulUcp8hayQ2lTp_xaHHSi7v6Lcf1dLT1-RN1IeHlOZ_j00qyHeElcx4hEK61S837d6GT9qkBXiFyO_DX4hRFhGvnQIqBaBNgPIqMa7tDTSTK8ADza918KrY_u8SPIId7gerZpaiC89kAsgp715iMCkfxPZSIodqbug16HQNd-jzp7ME/s957/3%20Valley%20of%20the%20Dee%201928.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="862" data-original-width="957" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTQHDT5NfppTmtkulUcp8hayQ2lTp_xaHHSi7v6Lcf1dLT1-RN1IeHlOZ_j00qyHeElcx4hEK61S837d6GT9qkBXiFyO_DX4hRFhGvnQIqBaBNgPIqMa7tDTSTK8ADza918KrY_u8SPIId7gerZpaiC89kAsgp715iMCkfxPZSIodqbug16HQNd-jzp7ME/s320/3%20Valley%20of%20the%20Dee%201928.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">So far as I know, there are no colour linocuts surviving by either McKenzie or Fleming but I assume they made use of the medium simply because they adopted a pared-down style for their colour woodcuts. Notably, neither made much use of the keyblock while their work at the time had a lot in common with MacNab's <i>faux naif</i> style. I may of course be wrong about lino. McKenzie complained about the expense of materials for making colour woodcuts and said when her costs were taken into account, she hardly made any money. This may help to explain why there are so few colour prints by her; it doesn't explain why she didn't turn to lino instead.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxIdVbCE2L-ppW-cYU3ubIR2mIcbXTaV8Mdz1PQHpQg3EGcaft53h3hAbgw5fAA1VlyYGpX805H02NeOKOL3T3_Z3vnJXZm5UyHqOiIkTITqfb_t4_pTI8zAGYsjb7SYdNjqZaTlw25SGumwRriSCjtu9ObYoqzUlTriU1lxl_JD8DIv5HPqSyWq8H9-e7/s790/Devon%20valley%201937.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="790" data-original-width="697" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxIdVbCE2L-ppW-cYU3ubIR2mIcbXTaV8Mdz1PQHpQg3EGcaft53h3hAbgw5fAA1VlyYGpX805H02NeOKOL3T3_Z3vnJXZm5UyHqOiIkTITqfb_t4_pTI8zAGYsjb7SYdNjqZaTlw25SGumwRriSCjtu9ObYoqzUlTriU1lxl_JD8DIv5HPqSyWq8H9-e7/w353-h400/Devon%20valley%201937.png" width="353" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p><span style="font-size: large;">From the top, the prints are <i>Evening in France, Ben Lui</i> (1933) <i>Waterfall</i>, unknown, <i>Valley of the Dee</i> (1928) <i>Devon valley</i> (1937). <i>Valley of the Dee</i> is the only one I can be sure she made while still a student. It is the most Japanese of the lot but could not be anyone else. <i>Evening in France</i> is reminiscent of MacNab and I assume was also made while McKenzie was at the school of art. Whether the early prints are a bit too samey, may be down to taste. <i>Ben Lui</i> is the one I would go for myself. It has also been remarked that her work has a lot in common with Ian Cheyne's but that may only be because both were influenced by the same range of Japanese prints. It has to be said McKenzie never achieved the same imaginative mastery as Cheyne in work such as <i>Beeches at Glen Lyon.</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">What she also lacked was Cheyne's sense of place. This is what gives artists like Eric Ravilious and S.G. Boxsius their coherence. What they saw around them remains recognisable to this day. Like McKenzie, neither ever trained on fine art courses but had the kind of unique vision we associate with all good artists. I tend to think she took a wrong turn with wood-engraving. In the end, colour prints of the period (whether on wood or lino) have proved to have greater staying-power and <i>kudos. </i>Ironically, I tend to think the same thing about the engravings of Murray, Fleming and Robert Austin. What McKenzie might have achieved if she had stayed the course, no one now can say.</span></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>I<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p>Haji babahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619515066447546979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195425069670824214.post-21125832530927532112023-08-14T11:06:00.001+01:002023-08-14T11:08:40.670+01:00Print & prejudice: Ethel Kirkpatrick at the V&A<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL_T-RugPRumxGhlGbM0lIGxHE65CTHgpvLlxQvixN_zQzuOXt2mxfsimdLRxE1d7sFh0tHVsvp6PWdssJTk2jH6VU-8Hyts1y2s-3QgRIuEQuuGZbEo8bfZwIpZB6SOuHcN7qfn8F79Br6Qjzc7C_QRF4Mz3hXbhKol3R2Rejez9YMJX6PLsVzSQp2l53/s701/Screenshot%202023-08-06%20212522.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="668" data-original-width="701" height="381" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL_T-RugPRumxGhlGbM0lIGxHE65CTHgpvLlxQvixN_zQzuOXt2mxfsimdLRxE1d7sFh0tHVsvp6PWdssJTk2jH6VU-8Hyts1y2s-3QgRIuEQuuGZbEo8bfZwIpZB6SOuHcN7qfn8F79Br6Qjzc7C_QRF4Mz3hXbhKol3R2Rejez9YMJX6PLsVzSQp2l53/w400-h381/Screenshot%202023-08-06%20212522.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>The V&A South Kensington cannot have heard about the Ethel Kirkpatrick Society (and perhaps you haven't either). To curators at large institutions like the V&A, artists like Kirkpatrick have been mislaid. But we can let that pass. She was included in a small exhibition of women printmakers at the V&A which closed on 11th May this year. If you missed it (as I did) you can see some of the highlights on the website under 'Print and prejudice: women printmakers 1730 to 1930' where you will find the best reproductions of her work I have yet seen, including <i>Bowl of marigolds </i>from 1922 and <i>Mount's Bay </i>(1914). <p></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI1wy9VvfGniRMXZbX3cdy5v5JRewkdt_n9aOCsJSH1muRtPbEHIBruqTX-Jn-X3rBbnJ1WzToVwBNGgtfQBmKzCt1UwWUL98xGw145w7FRww-WzV9GkrKner4uYRitKpWsMD17meHZGTFgMN-eI1HbOBI-9wLf3CkSqsNdZXpyjuWSkZPfXK-zEqHluy_/s826/Screenshot%202023-08-06%20212629.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="526" data-original-width="826" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI1wy9VvfGniRMXZbX3cdy5v5JRewkdt_n9aOCsJSH1muRtPbEHIBruqTX-Jn-X3rBbnJ1WzToVwBNGgtfQBmKzCt1UwWUL98xGw145w7FRww-WzV9GkrKner4uYRitKpWsMD17meHZGTFgMN-eI1HbOBI-9wLf3CkSqsNdZXpyjuWSkZPfXK-zEqHluy_/w400-h255/Screenshot%202023-08-06%20212629.png" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p><br /></p><p>The V&A have done her some justice but the scholarship is poor. Kirkpatrick is all over Modern Printmakers and they only had to get in touch to find out the dates. The research Alan Guest did in the 1980s on Kirkpatrick (when she really was being rediscovered) was as meticulous as the museum's photography. Getting dates and titles right are basic to appreciation of an artist's achievement. Trying to suggest Kirkpatrick was in some way hard done by is not.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq4bce40Sck-UFAyjXvMrIWEwpMH8yH6YYlm3x49E1BvZl9wJ3Xk5MlFaPiY-aj8h7nd8lmvkuFR_dbb8AtsRtDnef1ptvNnEcsJRZAROun0rkAiSGtNq0DnTQH_tVWDVKKlIjuDmXJkt1UmoELdyu_JHsyOFCorKM--AGugUVoapDtzCA9lk4A1Nr4Mjg/s901/Screenshot%202023-08-14%20110127.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="606" data-original-width="901" height="269" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq4bce40Sck-UFAyjXvMrIWEwpMH8yH6YYlm3x49E1BvZl9wJ3Xk5MlFaPiY-aj8h7nd8lmvkuFR_dbb8AtsRtDnef1ptvNnEcsJRZAROun0rkAiSGtNq0DnTQH_tVWDVKKlIjuDmXJkt1UmoELdyu_JHsyOFCorKM--AGugUVoapDtzCA9lk4A1Nr4Mjg/w400-h269/Screenshot%202023-08-14%20110127.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>Alan was fortunate enough to own a proof of <i>Bowl of marigolds</i> and believed it was a linocut. He could be right. The V&A themselves have a series of proofs of <i>Brixham trawlers </i>(1924) pulled by Kirkpatrick and donated by her in 1924. (They are now available online but seeing is believing). The way she achieved her subtle depth of colour by canny under-printing is an education in itself. There are also progressive proofs donated by William Giles and John Hall Thorpe at the same time and for the same reason. Giles had been both a student and a teacher at the Royal College (next door to the museum) and knew how useful such examples could be.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDxUYyaGt0assx71YE8kNL707xj5GUTlh3aZCn8l4WGCTiB7wMv4TT7rlqdm4s_yxOOHc0CEFVvpAusmgSoP7uxM9xC4_tMoRCYiBI6152O0tYJomxIQ6OBbX4YrhwPeVFRyHRzoLf-RDmbqNhl0L-sbBRhSOfqjXQqkQsYxK-bwDKV7lTv6etuTH7Up00/s911/Screenshot%202023-08-14%20105755.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="598" data-original-width="911" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDxUYyaGt0assx71YE8kNL707xj5GUTlh3aZCn8l4WGCTiB7wMv4TT7rlqdm4s_yxOOHc0CEFVvpAusmgSoP7uxM9xC4_tMoRCYiBI6152O0tYJomxIQ6OBbX4YrhwPeVFRyHRzoLf-RDmbqNhl0L-sbBRhSOfqjXQqkQsYxK-bwDKV7lTv6etuTH7Up00/w400-h263/Screenshot%202023-08-14%20105755.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><br /><p><br /></p>Haji babahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619515066447546979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195425069670824214.post-15240851860037171902023-08-13T10:18:00.001+01:002023-08-13T10:18:24.254+01:00The week-end on ebay<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGGFuPuJ4_5JrYXXnZi5N5TbSUU-NSAeb3ITZBuBxq2S1I_VMBJZG0IywP5d9kkBms1jcIH8uB783Tn13qUUO8t86cJR6U7zcInX2fxpRhGp0qXUed0znWmo6c2WbAd48KJ3rDTmExUblzD2EONKydXR63yEX1zgFqc3bLz5Uu0wmCoPZHaax0Y2fy2zX-/s853/Screenshot%202023-08-13%20085607.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="853" data-original-width="347" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGGFuPuJ4_5JrYXXnZi5N5TbSUU-NSAeb3ITZBuBxq2S1I_VMBJZG0IywP5d9kkBms1jcIH8uB783Tn13qUUO8t86cJR6U7zcInX2fxpRhGp0qXUed0znWmo6c2WbAd48KJ3rDTmExUblzD2EONKydXR63yEX1zgFqc3bLz5Uu0wmCoPZHaax0Y2fy2zX-/w260-h640/Screenshot%202023-08-13%20085607.png" width="260" /></a></div><br /><p>A round-up of the prints to be found for sale on ebay this week-end has to begin with Helen Hyde's <i>Butterflies</i> made in 1908. To start with I need to say the image above is not the one for sale. At under £200 you will get a print that has almost certainly been laid and down and is also cockled. On the plus side you will get the original frame complete with the label of the fashionable Glasgow dealer Andrew Duthie on the back. This is the only time Hyde has appeared on Modern Printmakers. It is a very well-made print and by the time she had made it, she had studied with block-makers in Tokyo. But it isn't all that cheap considering the condition and you should be able to find a good proof for not a lot more.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4u7u-C9G56R4vNi6IjeNdlhvVnCBQJ05VhbRHB6iDlhredn81YGOc-f6tDvNpyNQlc1JdOIiJrmGiSPHS3Qci4kA20wrB2vIUFfhaiywqxdNsnarme76wg4awJ---BEbp-MwvoIZOCgTv_NlCXpaSAp3NtgxGiz4afBZ5nl8tjGsNtcQZC6XR9tcZwpaQ/s1003/Screenshot%202023-08-13%20085938.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="596" data-original-width="1003" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4u7u-C9G56R4vNi6IjeNdlhvVnCBQJ05VhbRHB6iDlhredn81YGOc-f6tDvNpyNQlc1JdOIiJrmGiSPHS3Qci4kA20wrB2vIUFfhaiywqxdNsnarme76wg4awJ---BEbp-MwvoIZOCgTv_NlCXpaSAp3NtgxGiz4afBZ5nl8tjGsNtcQZC6XR9tcZwpaQ/w400-h238/Screenshot%202023-08-13%20085938.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>Nor will you get a bargain on Ethel Kirkpagtrick's <i>Brixham trawlers. </i>What you will get is an unframed proof in good condition, with the colours looking bright and fresh. Here we have Kirkpatrick at her insouciant best and from her classic period before the first war. As she has recently been featured in a small exhibition at the V&A, you will need to be just as insouciant when you pay. Kirkpatrick has a sense of movement and magic rare in British colour woodcut artists. Only Allen Seaby is her equal but unlike Seaby, she never made a duff print.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ9Qoh46KV9eV4lsQ0pRaCTj25kM_DaowQxMqr8eXVJdomvbwMa0D3ojhoiTewP3hBTA6XE8456Yis4cycaGY9eKNYLnUdvp1IQPr87aWlP8_8s-BDvYmi1pOscyICrbvKR0Md2pWIMJ-3iKXosXtxbfbCKG-wyRR_F0AE2xCEpeSs5TjWWrY3QuQVIXAd/s421/Screenshot%202023-08-13%20090254.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="332" data-original-width="421" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ9Qoh46KV9eV4lsQ0pRaCTj25kM_DaowQxMqr8eXVJdomvbwMa0D3ojhoiTewP3hBTA6XE8456Yis4cycaGY9eKNYLnUdvp1IQPr87aWlP8_8s-BDvYmi1pOscyICrbvKR0Md2pWIMJ-3iKXosXtxbfbCKG-wyRR_F0AE2xCEpeSs5TjWWrY3QuQVIXAd/w400-h315/Screenshot%202023-08-13%20090254.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>Robert Howey has never been cheap either but I thought the U.S. dealer was pushing it on this one. The impression Howey makes is usually good. <i>After the storm</i> is also well-designed. But so far as I am concerned, Howey doesn't follow through. He was really a commercial artist, with a small business in Hartlepool, and used to use printer's ink so his images tend to look flat on his thin buff paper. Howey was one of the first English artists to make use of lino in the 1920s and provided a bridgehead in the north-east for the 'Exhibition of British Linocuts' tours in the late twenties. All in all, though, if you want sea and boats, stay with the expert.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijta4bd3XLyr-qx7nE5kF1HbkyLJgktNeWcpW8_dUXdQhcULxa8HjxGgptvk9lI-35e-fUb893TSufrIK5L7UVtmMVsQjbzntJViujjvl8Y0MjS_oL2Ty2uTPVIyPzECvg_WT9RCVEvPKaWsXjU8_6lY3J3zmdms7rrJUq98Wd7wR6bMtwYddycDSxKfc1/s847/Screenshot%202023-08-13%20090839.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="668" data-original-width="847" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijta4bd3XLyr-qx7nE5kF1HbkyLJgktNeWcpW8_dUXdQhcULxa8HjxGgptvk9lI-35e-fUb893TSufrIK5L7UVtmMVsQjbzntJViujjvl8Y0MjS_oL2Ty2uTPVIyPzECvg_WT9RCVEvPKaWsXjU8_6lY3J3zmdms7rrJUq98Wd7wR6bMtwYddycDSxKfc1/w400-h315/Screenshot%202023-08-13%20090839.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>I am a fan of the Swiss artist Alfred Peter and own a few of his bookplates and would have considered this one myself if it had not been for the condition of the paper. Peter remains good value if you like small prints. He was a fine craftsman and here you have his own New Year print made in 1911. I suspect the photo does not do the meticulous printing and compact design much justice.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJMye7XikXfPOwG6P9TmV0X4zmu3iz0u3-WDaDTCfTUCluG2cYjZ3Qr4oV02NKhUICM3GTzpLjs0uPZuB9w3pP28cW8PIyYGb82ji7-1RSANeXm6jWYR_8fx3JmXsACWNKU2MoybTop3HcdStK0U_llP89ZNwgyhXO-sH9Acc2oQPZgAZXwaJQgbAXWbSo/s882/Screenshot%202023-08-08%20220129.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="763" data-original-width="882" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJMye7XikXfPOwG6P9TmV0X4zmu3iz0u3-WDaDTCfTUCluG2cYjZ3Qr4oV02NKhUICM3GTzpLjs0uPZuB9w3pP28cW8PIyYGb82ji7-1RSANeXm6jWYR_8fx3JmXsACWNKU2MoybTop3HcdStK0U_llP89ZNwgyhXO-sH9Acc2oQPZgAZXwaJQgbAXWbSo/w400-h346/Screenshot%202023-08-08%20220129.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>Last but not least we have this fine etching of a faun by Hans Frank. At about £25 this looks like a bargain compared to the late colour woodcuts currently for sale in Germany and Austria at almost £500. I know many readers like to have the prints they buy framed on the wall. I keep most of mine loose in portfolios. This means I have am happy to have small prints at negligible prices wrapped in tissue and invariably looking great! Good artists understand the preciousness and intimacy found in small works. It is what gives so many British colour woodcuts their special value though when it comes to very small prints, the Swiss, the Germans and the Austrians are even more appealing than British wood-engravings and a fraction of the price.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Haji babahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619515066447546979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195425069670824214.post-84874916122460898362023-08-12T12:43:00.000+01:002023-08-12T12:43:17.008+01:00Hans Frank revisited<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbTDm3DUFUuo2bsOz5waUg30J3Ltyuftc3kx6TH55piNksVNMoqF1eGMBs-dHIb8frQOjOVlaIsI34h8c4uGkEBLNLHp_qh-NgqDH0Y-j4Dym81eqgmXUygzksNwDWmzdre5fCLvWp9nq3xKGTW-6KZV8vzoNt2WLTxH1JNJpKqQHJIeP4XYhIGqubimGy/s887/Screenshot%202023-08-07%20185706.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="887" data-original-width="776" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbTDm3DUFUuo2bsOz5waUg30J3Ltyuftc3kx6TH55piNksVNMoqF1eGMBs-dHIb8frQOjOVlaIsI34h8c4uGkEBLNLHp_qh-NgqDH0Y-j4Dym81eqgmXUygzksNwDWmzdre5fCLvWp9nq3xKGTW-6KZV8vzoNt2WLTxH1JNJpKqQHJIeP4XYhIGqubimGy/w350-h400/Screenshot%202023-08-07%20185706.png" width="350" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">One way or another I always find Hans Frank hard to avoid and here I am again looking at his early prints. Frank had a long and varied career which began while still a student at the School of Applied Arts in Vienna where he gained a reputation for colour woodcuts of remarkable skill and maturity. He was also fortunate to be studying at the school in the heyday of the Vienna Secession and was able to produce prints like <i>Silver pheasant </i>(above) as eloquent and impressive as any print made during those seminal few years.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_we-K3kp3N2mSr6AoyW7a8yJB6yVkTvyh-dRWiDI0GsyLAjpLdpsnfqsNRP4J4Bf9brfptywxHK9764N_l7hgZJJ2jDy0uOcwc5IwnNkSwwU_BKZtUR81sCYrPeNNxbIHK8CFROwR2-Z14XpHFC1zIDUWfuZQHM-W2aVqU3t4JsaLHcdDDaNAR46i3siV/s678/Screenshot%202023-08-07%20185452.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="678" data-original-width="562" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_we-K3kp3N2mSr6AoyW7a8yJB6yVkTvyh-dRWiDI0GsyLAjpLdpsnfqsNRP4J4Bf9brfptywxHK9764N_l7hgZJJ2jDy0uOcwc5IwnNkSwwU_BKZtUR81sCYrPeNNxbIHK8CFROwR2-Z14XpHFC1zIDUWfuZQHM-W2aVqU3t4JsaLHcdDDaNAR46i3siV/w331-h400/Screenshot%202023-08-07%20185452.png" width="331" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">This is a big claim and I make it because if Frank is the art equivalent of a conviction politician. What he did in those years was never half-hearted. Even when he represented young animals like fauns, they come vivid and fully rounded. At the same stage in his own career, Allen Seaby was struggling to get it right. Why? Because the British allowed technique to get in the way while the Austrians placed the emphasis on design. It was not about animals, it was not about birds, it was not about snow, it was about the ability of the artist to put a memorable image on the page.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5GyKLIiZstJYVNJ26kEbU3D7Ap0UuaLA4jk391W-Qfm0U_ZLyfFrGooJVzZYJNmB5RltzRvIoGC_-qqK5X0PCbYrKVvmMD-p0qN0pEDAxZG6Reza9_PoKxL440YHfIusBQzysXfQHqxR_Y87CLHhW5WlRMlm4lcuNtI_r9IX_2yLLZ4C00X_qDvCOnlH-/s501/Screenshot%202023-08-07%20191634.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="501" data-original-width="386" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5GyKLIiZstJYVNJ26kEbU3D7Ap0UuaLA4jk391W-Qfm0U_ZLyfFrGooJVzZYJNmB5RltzRvIoGC_-qqK5X0PCbYrKVvmMD-p0qN0pEDAxZG6Reza9_PoKxL440YHfIusBQzysXfQHqxR_Y87CLHhW5WlRMlm4lcuNtI_r9IX_2yLLZ4C00X_qDvCOnlH-/w494-h640/Screenshot%202023-08-07%20191634.png" width="494" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">By about 1908, Seaby was doing his best work but try and imagine him then making an etching as good as as Frank's <i>Eagle</i> (above) made by Frank in 1909 about the time Frank moved to the School of Fine Art. Ironically, the Austrians were interested in British printmakers but did not see the ones who were making artists' prints. Frank Brangwyn had three rooms dedicated to his etchings at the Vienna Secession exhibition of 1909 but he did not print his own work. William Nicholson's woodcuts were also widely admired in Austrian and Germany. Like Brangwyn he was invited to exhibit with the Secession (in his case in 1899) and although his portrait <i>H.M. The Queen</i> was responsible for all the square images subsequently made in Vienna from then on, what the Austrians actually saw were wood-engravings made to look like woodcuts. Nicholson only once applied inks by hand and always used printer's ink (and probably did not print the work himself either). As with the Austrians, this all placed the emphasis on the image rather than the impression.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYTiQdFIgFg9_vanypeCB7lqgVWe1YnymJy5OVGXe6_pN4gb4IekZLH1ogaJrdPNt_hgiEUAVhz_CdBjc8lgZMfF3Se4e2BPd_2rWXMm9XX4TGMFPdF5FfseMkFKAoysSTpakW48M_bJtIaU0-tDphe0_wB2pFA585f8J8xml2hj08e1_kSaPiZiBUd3lC/s690/Screenshot%202023-08-07%20185323.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="690" data-original-width="546" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYTiQdFIgFg9_vanypeCB7lqgVWe1YnymJy5OVGXe6_pN4gb4IekZLH1ogaJrdPNt_hgiEUAVhz_CdBjc8lgZMfF3Se4e2BPd_2rWXMm9XX4TGMFPdF5FfseMkFKAoysSTpakW48M_bJtIaU0-tDphe0_wB2pFA585f8J8xml2hj08e1_kSaPiZiBUd3lC/w506-h640/Screenshot%202023-08-07%20185323.png" width="506" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: large;">Frank did not always used a key-block but used pattern to build up the image instead. This made feathers useful and helps explain why exotic birds like peacocks and silver pheasants became subjects. Something similar can be said for butterflies or plants like clover. The butterfly above has a black pattern which means there is no need for an overall key-block while the petals of clover are pink and cream. With snow, there is no detail at all. This is not to say he was making it easy for himself only that he did not necessarily want to create a naturalistic effect.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMgsMZ766Et-DthOeTk8zCm0oVTbfITCXkYEumIpnhPVfbRO_7miW4oxV0tfSGsPzv2r1m0qCj1iVW62_MmIyDCuHYgJi98FI4LCZ0JC_lnAdkqdg3UUGftihM1zI9Aikvg58mEKsb1jiXKYcx7SBqWVIVGcdEaxdmtfTfCrfDDF1-m-bb1db_s62mVeaK/s723/Screenshot%202023-08-07%20190253.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="723" data-original-width="533" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMgsMZ766Et-DthOeTk8zCm0oVTbfITCXkYEumIpnhPVfbRO_7miW4oxV0tfSGsPzv2r1m0qCj1iVW62_MmIyDCuHYgJi98FI4LCZ0JC_lnAdkqdg3UUGftihM1zI9Aikvg58mEKsb1jiXKYcx7SBqWVIVGcdEaxdmtfTfCrfDDF1-m-bb1db_s62mVeaK/w472-h640/Screenshot%202023-08-07%20190253.png" width="472" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;">It was all carefully considered and it would be a mistake to downplay or miss his achievement as I heard one distinguished British wood-engraver do when shown one of Frank's fauns. He called it 'sweet' and that was all. I wonder how he would have described Frank's woodcut of an eagle (above) if I had found that at Oxford Antiques Centre instead of the faun. I suppose Richard Shirley Smith wasn't very interested even though both the School of Applied Arts and then the School of Fine Art in Vienna were training artists like Frank during a time of great innovation for C20th design.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHaj7KRKOREcXt2jw4R-eJ6ToV6QFy5uIWnT5l2JYovylIOXVcbfSUpy4xfrZGZ1WA5etvVtqGMnE8VLZPb-RQBH6fwQuFGBJ-8J9Vt_qZwXjBAr1YWwDio9yii3wkI5exKdg6l6hfCKjpeG1aNb5iG4-8-NdCtOCZw39gJR9XqVBwnDZZwAzHw7DJ-zxi/s672/Screenshot%202023-08-08%20220317.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="661" data-original-width="672" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHaj7KRKOREcXt2jw4R-eJ6ToV6QFy5uIWnT5l2JYovylIOXVcbfSUpy4xfrZGZ1WA5etvVtqGMnE8VLZPb-RQBH6fwQuFGBJ-8J9Vt_qZwXjBAr1YWwDio9yii3wkI5exKdg6l6hfCKjpeG1aNb5iG4-8-NdCtOCZw39gJR9XqVBwnDZZwAzHw7DJ-zxi/w400-h394/Screenshot%202023-08-08%20220317.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Prints made by Frank before the first war remain affordable. (What set me off was seeing a peacock of his up for sale on U.S. ebay. I have probably said this before but what you get with early Frank is a small piece of great period of modern design. What you also get is the work of artist with considerable powers of observation as you will see from the detail (above) and of objectivity (below). He is not as obviously Japanese in manner as, say, his contemporary Carl Thiemann, but when it comes to a stylish but objective interest in the world, he is far more Japanese than Thiemann. It all depends what you mean by Japanese!</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXpMa9m_evUjCKdqUirmD0FD9YEit7bnCe7naTOcnlUHNgXRs0yT0NjG7HBgMZEjT4AXWnXrgamXMc0jQqpvdj8XcIWjiCUrxuZMNl4uc2F8hptaMK2IphSimGd1YlP6hwndGKVM04V0mNp8UBKQcHGpx25GplrualOdAYZfR9sRGvCLSL0stlhS5O0zfZ/s912/Screenshot%202023-08-08%20220452.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="657" data-original-width="912" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXpMa9m_evUjCKdqUirmD0FD9YEit7bnCe7naTOcnlUHNgXRs0yT0NjG7HBgMZEjT4AXWnXrgamXMc0jQqpvdj8XcIWjiCUrxuZMNl4uc2F8hptaMK2IphSimGd1YlP6hwndGKVM04V0mNp8UBKQcHGpx25GplrualOdAYZfR9sRGvCLSL0stlhS5O0zfZ/w400-h289/Screenshot%202023-08-08%20220452.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><br /><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>Haji babahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619515066447546979noreply@blogger.com0