As the design and the carving of wood engravings began to merge into the persona of a single individual in the 1930s (as mentioned in yesterday's post), the art form began to attract some of this past century's most talented illustrators: Eric Gill, Gwen Raverat, Paul Landacre, Agnes Miller Parker, Fritz Eichenberg...the list is quite large. Today, we're going to look at the work of a few of these talented individuals . Then tomorrow, we're going to consider some specific ways in which we can most inexpensively build a private library of books illustrated by wood engravings.
To get some sense of the various styles represented in books illustrated by wood engravings, we begin with Blair Hughes-Stanton:
Hughes-Stanton (1902-1981) is best known for the books he illustrated for several fine presses: the Golden Cockerel Press, the Cresset Press, the Gregynog Press and his own Gemini Press. During World War II, he was shot in the face and became a POW. Because this injury affected his three-dimensional vision, most of his best work predates that war. A lot of his wood engravings are somewhat abstract.
Clare Leighton (1898-1988) is best known for her wonderful wood engravings of agrarian life:
Apple Picking, 1933
Born in London, she emigrated to the United States in 1939, where she eventually became a naturalized citizen. Leighton is a popular artist for collectors of books illustrated by wood engravings, since she is known to have so illustrated at least 65 such books. Her work is exhibited in a number of major museums, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Eric Ravilious (1903-1942), like Blair Hughes-Stanton, is well known for wood engravings he did for the Golden Cockerel Press. However, his engravings reached a much wider public by virtue of his later illustrations for advertisements and book jackets. An Official War Artist during World War II, Ravilious was killed during a flying accident off the coast of Iceland. In 2004, the Imperial War Museum in London mounted a major retrospective of his work:
Dr. Faustus Conjuring Mephistopheles, 1929
Lynd Ward (1905-1985) is best known for his wordless novels, the story being told entirely through Ward's wood engravings. Ward produced six such novels from 1929-1937, and left one unfinished at his death (this was published as a limited edition in 2001). He also produced a wordless novel for children, told entirely in lithographs, that was published in 1973:
from Wild Pilgrimage, 1932
Andy English (1956- ) is a modern wood engraver best known for the visual puns often found in his work. He also is well known for his bookplate engravings. One of the earliest proponents of using the Internet to teach wood engraving, his website is a must for wood engraving enthusiasts:
The Fossil Collectors
To explore more works by contemporary wood engravers, go to the left hand column and click on Society of Wood Engravers (UK) and Wood Engravers Network. Both are listed under Bookish Organizations....
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