Studio: international art (80.1920)

STUDIO-TALK

WOODCUT BY
ROBERT GIBBINGS

we learn from Messrs. Bromhead, Cutts
and Co., who are showing a selection of
his prints in their pleasant little gallery
in Cork Street, that he has been etching
for twenty years and winning the admira-
tion of collectors and artists. His work
upon the copper has been done, it would
seem, con amore, for his profession was
soldiering until he retired from the
regular army as a colonel after serving
throughout the war. Now he lives upon
a farm in Sussex and enjoys himself with
the gentle art of etching. Particularly he
seems to be interested in the structure of
scenery, especially such as that of the
Weald and the Downs, in the undulating
shapes of which his etching needle finds
rich opportunity for the interplay of
sweeping lines. South Downs from Fyrle,
reproduced here, is so far his most im-
portant plate, in which the treatment of
light calls for special commendation. In
his use of aquatint, as we see in the very
vivid Portland Race, Ebb Tide, Mr.
Buchanan builds up his pictorial im-
pression with flat tones sharply juxtaposed ;
very effective this in suggesting the
structural character of the cliffs and the
lively wash of the sea-breakers, with the
startling lights and shadows cast by
broken threatening sky. 000

The growing appreciation of the wood-

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cut as a vehicle of original expression is
without doubt one of the outstanding
phenomena in the progress of art at the
present day. In France, especially, its
vogue has been steadily increasing, and
many are the publications which appear
with decorations or illustrations from wood
blocks instead of the more commonplace
half-tone blocks. A great stimulus to the
revival of the wood-cut was given by the
Societe de la Gravure en bois originale
which, founded some two or three years
before the war, has recently reorganised its
plan of operations by admitting collectors
and foreign practitioners. In this country
we have hitherto had no society exclusively
associated with wood engraving, but re-
cently a new body has been formed under
the title of The Society of Wood Engravers,
and its inaugural exhibition is being held
at the Chenil Gallery, King's Road,
Chelsea, from November 15 to December
24. The artists forming this new Society
are Gordon Craig, E. M. O'R. Dickey,
Robert Gibbings, Eric Gill, Philip Hagreen,
Sydney Lee, T. Sturge Moore, John Nash,
Lucien Pissarro, Gwendolen Raverat, and
Noel Rooke. 00000
The two woodcuts by Mr. Edmund
Lucchesi which we reproduce are charac-
teristic of the work he is doing. He has
a special predilection for masses of black,

"DANSE JOYEUSE." BY
EDMUND LUCCHESI

iBy courtesy of " Pan ")