International studio (57.1915/1916)

The Wood-Cuts of T. Sturge Moore

state of the block. This was subsequently altered
by the addition of a number of small figures which
the god was made to hold in his left arm, an after-
thought which I am not at all sure was an improve-
ment. Pan and Echo is a gracious and delightful
fantasy. The dark, rugged, vigorous figure of the
god holds and sustains the white limbs of the
nymph, while one of his hands caresses her golden
hair. The Limit of the Land is another of these
bold and striking images. We seem to be at the
very ends of the earth. The waves in the fore-
ground dash themselves against the gaunt and
immensely high cliffs. A tiny human figure
crouching in one of the crevices of the rocks gazes
full of wonder and awe out at the beyond. The
Young Mother and some designs of laughing,
romping children—Baby Giants and Childhood—
complete the contents of this portfolio.
It is hard—nay, impossible—to describe works
like these in which the substance and form are
merged in such indissoluble unity. The only
adequate way of praising work of this kind is to
show it, and this can only be done imperfectly in
reproductions which have to be printed in large
numbers by machinery. The illustrations which
accompany this article have been printed in most
cases from electrotypes made direct from the
original wood-blocks. These are excellent speci-
mens of modern reproductive processes, but of
course, to appreciate fully the delicacy, sweetness,
and absolute beauty of Moore’s work one must look

only at the hand-printed impressions taken by him-
self from the original wood-blocks.
After the publication of the Portfolio of 1895,
Moore’s chief work was done to illustrate books
published by the Vale, Unicorn, and Eragny
Presses. His subjects ranged from Wagner’s opera
of “Siegfried” to Wordsworth’s reflective poems.
One of the illustrations to “The Centaur and the
Bacchante,” here reproduced, accompanied the
translation made by Moore of Maurice de Guerin’s
delightful poem. It was published in 1899. In
1902 Moore illustrated Perrault’s “ Peau-d’Ane,”
issued by the Eragny Press. The design of Peau-
d'Ane Bathing, here reproduced, is taken from
that volume. A fire in a warehouse unfortunately
destroyed a number of blocks prepared for a Vale
edition of Wordsworth’s poems, so the volume was
never issued. Some of these blocks, like the tail-
piece to “ Dion,” of a dying swan on a wave, are
on so small a scale and so full of delicate and
intricate work that it is impossible to reproduce
them here, but the beautiful little block, As in a
grove L sat reclined, gives some idea of the wealth
of invention lavished in vain on what would have
been probably the first satisfactory attempt to
illustrate Wordsworth.
The winding-up of the affairs of the Vale Press in
1903 left Moore free to return to work on a larger
scale than the illustration of small books permitted,
and also free to follow the suggestions of his own
restless imagination. Theseus Finding the Body of


“horses and ships”

BOOK-PLATE DESIGNED AND ENGRAVED BY T. STURGE MOORE
(By permission of George H. Milsted, Esq.)

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