Beautiful—both the wood engravings and the interplay with Austen’s story. I’m reminded of a recent exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario dedicated to European women artists who worked in a time when painting was impossible for many. There was a flowering of crafts, many textile-based, that could be easily put away when visitors arrived or domestic duties called.
Thank you very much, Rona. I will look up the gallery in Ontario as I didn't know anything about it and it sounds so interesting. Such crafts enabled woment to produce work that would otherwise have not been possible, and of course, textiles were part of that. So many women's work such as this would not have been seen and I feel now on a mission to discover more!
Oh lovely piece thank you - I am fascinated by Claire Leighton; her book about making a garden is so interesting (Four Hedges) written in the thirties and very entertaining … and I so wanted to find out more about her after I read it; she was living with a left wing journalist at the time and later went to America but I couldn’t find any biographies of her … I wanted to know if she went on to make more gardens … all the things I come across about her (illustrating the work of Canadian lumberjacks at one point) make me want to know so much more !
Didn't she have an extraordinary life? I love her books and have two tiny prints of hers, bought over 30 years ago, that I treasure. She writes so well too. I don't know of a biography of her, but it really should be written. Thank you, I am so glad you liked it.
Clare Leighton was the first engraver I ever knew of. In fact, seeing a friend’s copy of her book “The Farmer’s Year” sometime in the 1970s was how I learned that these sort of striking black and white images weren’t drawings at all.
My friend had found the book under the bed, with a pile of other left behind stuff, when she moved into her first bedsit in Liverpool. That was the only precious thing in the pile though!
Sometimes great art finds its own way to the right people. Because I’ll bet she’s still got it.
I didn't realise what an impact they had on me. I always wanted my prints to be in black and white and I feel sure now it was because of that early impression. Clare Leighton's images have such dynamism and strength. I have two tiny prints of hers: one is of broad beans and the other is of a tree being felled. The cost on the back is £8.75 and I must have had them at least 30 years. Great art does find a way to reach those who love it.
I enjoy your erudite work. It's well crafted and informative, and would one day would like to upgrade to subscription. But as I am on a limited budget, I just can't at present. So fortunate to have found you. Thank you for enriching my life
Thank you for these wonderful discoveries. I have Frances Spalding's biography of Gwen Raverat waiting to be read, and I was lucky enough to see some of Elisabeth Vellacott's work in the Manor at Hemingford Grey last autumn, when Diana Boston gave us a tour of the house.
Gwen Raverat was amazing, not least for her engravings, but also her work "Period Piece". The Frances Spalding is excellent and well worth reading. I really hope to revisit the Manor again this summer as I didn't take much note of Elisabeth Vellacott's work at the time as I was so astounded at " The Children of Green Knowe" coming alive! Thank you for reading it and I am so pleased you liked it.
Greetings 🐝, another delicious delightful post that has sent me scurrying off down numerous rabbit holes! I had heard of the first four artists but not the last two. Gwen Raverat’s Period Piece is simply wonderful and the biography by Frances Spalding is fascinating. Both books are on the shelves of the Booknook. As is a slim volume of Gilbert White’s Natural History of Selborne illustrated by Clare Leighton in 1941. Possibly the prize piece of my Gilbert White collection and that’s saying something! Simon Martin’s brilliant book ‘Drawn to nature: Gilbert White and the artists’ features Gertrude Hermes and Agnes Miller Parker, who I hadn’t heard of previously to reading his book. He also mentioned a woman called Claire Oldham , another wood engraver of this period. Do you have a copy of this book? If not, I do warn you that it ‘encourages’ many more book purchases.
It was a reply that you wrote to a reader about having some Clare Leighton prints that sent me off on a search of the book book as I remembered have purchased a couple of small pieces myself, a number of years ago and then putting them away somewhere safe until I could get them framed. Luckily located and now for the wall.
I also love Jane Austen and adored P&P as a young teenager. It’s incredible to think that Gilbert White and the divine Jane lived within a view short miles from each other.
Oh Ruth, you have sent me scouting my shelves looking for "Drawn to Nature" as I had forgotten all about it. I finally found it! Thank you very much for the reminder and suspect it will lead me into temptation...It is such a beautiful book.
I am glad you found your prints, they really are exquisite, aren't they? I have them in my little study and they bring me great pleasure.
I love P and P, but my favourite now is Mansfield Park.
I went to Chawton and Selborne on the same day many years ago and loved both places. I especially loved the stained glass depicting his birds in the church, which is remarkable.
Thank you for your lovely message and for the distraction. Xx
I have both "Period Piece" and "Four Hedges" I love the intricacies of woodcuts. I was recently given The Darkening Green by Elizabeth Clarke each chapter of which is headed with woodcuts by Richard Shirley Smith. The way that you plait two differing art forms together as with these women artists and Jane Austen is brilliant.
Long Live Great Bardfield by Thirza Garwood has been on my wish list for a long while.
I saw your post and have tried to get hold of a copy of " The Darkening Green", but it is a bit out of my price range online, so I will look out for it. But I do have " The Valley" which I haven't yet read. I really want to see the exhibition by Tirzah Garwood and do hope I can make it before it closes, her work is so witty and whimsical.
A couple of new printmakers for me to research-thank you so much! And such beautiful prints. Thank you for always sharing your knowledge, and your research, I learn so much from your posts. And your beautiful bird prints sit very well within this group of wonderful women artists. x
Seeing that book, so long ago, had quite an impact! Their work is so exquisite and especially love Gertrude Hermes who is so quirky. Thank you very much, Cally x
I am enjoying your posts so much and look forward to every new one. I love learning about these women who went unsung but contributed so much. Thank you.
Wonderful article and stunning prints. What a world to discover! I particularly like the snowdrop. I look forward to learning more about these artists. Thank you!
The work is so beautiful isn't it? Gertrude Hermes is my favourite, if I had to choose, as her work is so distinctive. What I have learned already about them has sent me off down somany rabbit holes! Thank you very much for reading it.
Joy of joys - a beautiful piece and a new discovery in Substack for me. I am going to ‘hang in here’ Deborah. The awfulness of all that is happening in our world to darken the mind and eye is too much even for a ‘tough’ warrior woman like me…
I’m looking forward to getting to know you …thanks so much.
What a lovely message to receive, thank you. It is all very hard at the moment and I agree it is a challenge to stay positive. Researching these posts helps me not to dwell on what is happening and I really want to write about things that bring me joy, and hopefully to others too. I m very glad you found my posts and hope you enjoy dipping into the others!
I loved that video of the engraving process start to finish, and was astonished by the beauty of the engravings from the book. It's not only the carving that impresses, it's also that the light of the paper is stunning. Thank you for bringing them forward here and for enlarging them so we can see the detail.
Dear Dudley, I have just spotted my reply to you didn't post - I am sorry, I must have done something daft. I loved watching the engraving films. It is such a concentrated process and they carve into the light with such delicacy. I hope all is going well in the studio.
Such a fascinating article Deborah, especially in the light of my visit to see the Tirzah Garwood exhibition last week. It was her woodcuts I loved the best and was in awe of how small they actually were and how much exquisite detail they contained. I loved the recent TV adaptation of Miss Austen too.
This is brilliant stuff Deborah and totally fascinating. I love wood cuts and you have brought these women to life - Gwen Raverat and Clare Leighton I knew about but not the others. Thank you so much.
How delighted I was to see Clare Leighton and her work among the six featured artists you selected! Though there was a substantial age difference, she and my mother, Elizabeth Hewlett Capehart, an artist in her own right, were close friends, and I had the great good fortune to inherit several of Leighton's magnificent prints. I also have a children's book she wrote and illustrated, The Wood That Came Back, and the biography she wrote about her mother, Tempestuous Petticoat: The Story of an Invincible Edwardian, which I highly recommend. Thank you!
What a wonderful message to receive, thank you! I shall return to Clare Leighton, but there is so much to learn about her extraordinary work and life, I need to spend more time. I didn't know about her mother and will look up the children's book too. I have two tiny prints, but they are much treasured. Did your mother make wood engravings too or was she a painter? I presume this was in America?
My mother was born and largely brought up in the US, except for a few years when she was a toddler and her father, a US naval career officer, was seconded to the Brazilian government for a few years and she lived with her parent in Rio. (Long but interesting story, though, in true American fashion, this is probably TMI!)
My mother probably did do woodblock prints at some point, but I don't have any of her blocks. She did, however, love to do linoleum block prints, so I do have some of those. She received her art education at Bennington College in Vermont and at the fabled Black Mountain College in North Carolina. She was also a gifted draftswoman (if that is a word), sculptor, and watercolor painter.
Her own mother, Elizabeth Scudder Capehart, was also a gifted artist and I have a number of her works, too.
Finally, though it seems as though your interests lies in female print artists, you might want to look into the life story (and art) of another (distant) family relation, Janet Scudder, a sculptor, who had a truly remarkable, little reported-on life. If you are interested, I can send you the various links I've assembled on her.
I write this from cold and snowy midcoast Maine, where I now live in a beautiful rural corner of the state, in a tiny village, after years of living in large cities, including New York (where I was born and raised), Paris, Tokyo, and San Francisco.
I haven't been to the UK for several years now; I was last there about half a dozen years ago when I made a trip to Scotland--wonderful experience and I long to return.
Thank you very much for your reply and how wonderful to come from such a lineage of women artists.
I am fascinated by women artists, particularly from the last century as so much of their work has been neglected. I want their work to be known and appreciated. I love print ( as a lino artist myself) but as as also painters and other disciplines. My own art has led me down this area of research and I have been so interested in the parallels.
I would love to learn about Janet Scudder if it isn't too much trouble.
I have never visited Maine, though would dearly love to, as I have read so many books from that region. I briefly visited Boston and Parts of New England a few years ago and wish I could return.
Wow, these images really show the range of styles possible in woodcuts. Thanks for sharing them. I love your linocut birds too.
The size of Jane Austen's table, and the idea of her having to write at it on small sheets of paper in the family room with distractions and conversations around her, emphasises her achievement. I feel quite spoilt with my computer, and selection of A5 and A4 notebooks, spread out on a big table in the spare room!
Thank you, Jacqueline, I am so pleased you enjoyed the wood engravings.
As I write, my papers are spread all about me and simply cannot imagine working on such a tiny desk. To have produced the novels she did, in such constrained circumstances, really does make her achievement all the more remarkable.
Beautiful—both the wood engravings and the interplay with Austen’s story. I’m reminded of a recent exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario dedicated to European women artists who worked in a time when painting was impossible for many. There was a flowering of crafts, many textile-based, that could be easily put away when visitors arrived or domestic duties called.
Thank you very much, Rona. I will look up the gallery in Ontario as I didn't know anything about it and it sounds so interesting. Such crafts enabled woment to produce work that would otherwise have not been possible, and of course, textiles were part of that. So many women's work such as this would not have been seen and I feel now on a mission to discover more!
Oh lovely piece thank you - I am fascinated by Claire Leighton; her book about making a garden is so interesting (Four Hedges) written in the thirties and very entertaining … and I so wanted to find out more about her after I read it; she was living with a left wing journalist at the time and later went to America but I couldn’t find any biographies of her … I wanted to know if she went on to make more gardens … all the things I come across about her (illustrating the work of Canadian lumberjacks at one point) make me want to know so much more !
Didn't she have an extraordinary life? I love her books and have two tiny prints of hers, bought over 30 years ago, that I treasure. She writes so well too. I don't know of a biography of her, but it really should be written. Thank you, I am so glad you liked it.
Lovely images, Deborah, all of them.
Clare Leighton was the first engraver I ever knew of. In fact, seeing a friend’s copy of her book “The Farmer’s Year” sometime in the 1970s was how I learned that these sort of striking black and white images weren’t drawings at all.
My friend had found the book under the bed, with a pile of other left behind stuff, when she moved into her first bedsit in Liverpool. That was the only precious thing in the pile though!
Sometimes great art finds its own way to the right people. Because I’ll bet she’s still got it.
I didn't realise what an impact they had on me. I always wanted my prints to be in black and white and I feel sure now it was because of that early impression. Clare Leighton's images have such dynamism and strength. I have two tiny prints of hers: one is of broad beans and the other is of a tree being felled. The cost on the back is £8.75 and I must have had them at least 30 years. Great art does find a way to reach those who love it.
Thank you very much for reading it, as always.
I enjoy your erudite work. It's well crafted and informative, and would one day would like to upgrade to subscription. But as I am on a limited budget, I just can't at present. So fortunate to have found you. Thank you for enriching my life
What a cheering comment to receive, thank you. I am trying to keep my posts free, so please don't worry, I value your response very much.
Thank you for these wonderful discoveries. I have Frances Spalding's biography of Gwen Raverat waiting to be read, and I was lucky enough to see some of Elisabeth Vellacott's work in the Manor at Hemingford Grey last autumn, when Diana Boston gave us a tour of the house.
Gwen Raverat was amazing, not least for her engravings, but also her work "Period Piece". The Frances Spalding is excellent and well worth reading. I really hope to revisit the Manor again this summer as I didn't take much note of Elisabeth Vellacott's work at the time as I was so astounded at " The Children of Green Knowe" coming alive! Thank you for reading it and I am so pleased you liked it.
Greetings 🐝, another delicious delightful post that has sent me scurrying off down numerous rabbit holes! I had heard of the first four artists but not the last two. Gwen Raverat’s Period Piece is simply wonderful and the biography by Frances Spalding is fascinating. Both books are on the shelves of the Booknook. As is a slim volume of Gilbert White’s Natural History of Selborne illustrated by Clare Leighton in 1941. Possibly the prize piece of my Gilbert White collection and that’s saying something! Simon Martin’s brilliant book ‘Drawn to nature: Gilbert White and the artists’ features Gertrude Hermes and Agnes Miller Parker, who I hadn’t heard of previously to reading his book. He also mentioned a woman called Claire Oldham , another wood engraver of this period. Do you have a copy of this book? If not, I do warn you that it ‘encourages’ many more book purchases.
It was a reply that you wrote to a reader about having some Clare Leighton prints that sent me off on a search of the book book as I remembered have purchased a couple of small pieces myself, a number of years ago and then putting them away somewhere safe until I could get them framed. Luckily located and now for the wall.
I also love Jane Austen and adored P&P as a young teenager. It’s incredible to think that Gilbert White and the divine Jane lived within a view short miles from each other.
Bless you as always for your wonderful posts!
Ruth B-C xx
Oh Ruth, you have sent me scouting my shelves looking for "Drawn to Nature" as I had forgotten all about it. I finally found it! Thank you very much for the reminder and suspect it will lead me into temptation...It is such a beautiful book.
I am glad you found your prints, they really are exquisite, aren't they? I have them in my little study and they bring me great pleasure.
I love P and P, but my favourite now is Mansfield Park.
I went to Chawton and Selborne on the same day many years ago and loved both places. I especially loved the stained glass depicting his birds in the church, which is remarkable.
Thank you for your lovely message and for the distraction. Xx
The stained glass window is lovely - especially the Hoopoe! Got to love a Hoopoe! ❤️
I do love a Hoopoe! One day I might just see one!
I have both "Period Piece" and "Four Hedges" I love the intricacies of woodcuts. I was recently given The Darkening Green by Elizabeth Clarke each chapter of which is headed with woodcuts by Richard Shirley Smith. The way that you plait two differing art forms together as with these women artists and Jane Austen is brilliant.
Long Live Great Bardfield by Thirza Garwood has been on my wish list for a long while.
I saw your post and have tried to get hold of a copy of " The Darkening Green", but it is a bit out of my price range online, so I will look out for it. But I do have " The Valley" which I haven't yet read. I really want to see the exhibition by Tirzah Garwood and do hope I can make it before it closes, her work is so witty and whimsical.
A couple of new printmakers for me to research-thank you so much! And such beautiful prints. Thank you for always sharing your knowledge, and your research, I learn so much from your posts. And your beautiful bird prints sit very well within this group of wonderful women artists. x
Seeing that book, so long ago, had quite an impact! Their work is so exquisite and especially love Gertrude Hermes who is so quirky. Thank you very much, Cally x
I am enjoying your posts so much and look forward to every new one. I love learning about these women who went unsung but contributed so much. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Candace, I am so pleased! It seems there is much to discover.
Wonderful article and stunning prints. What a world to discover! I particularly like the snowdrop. I look forward to learning more about these artists. Thank you!
The work is so beautiful isn't it? Gertrude Hermes is my favourite, if I had to choose, as her work is so distinctive. What I have learned already about them has sent me off down somany rabbit holes! Thank you very much for reading it.
Joy of joys - a beautiful piece and a new discovery in Substack for me. I am going to ‘hang in here’ Deborah. The awfulness of all that is happening in our world to darken the mind and eye is too much even for a ‘tough’ warrior woman like me…
I’m looking forward to getting to know you …thanks so much.
What a lovely message to receive, thank you. It is all very hard at the moment and I agree it is a challenge to stay positive. Researching these posts helps me not to dwell on what is happening and I really want to write about things that bring me joy, and hopefully to others too. I m very glad you found my posts and hope you enjoy dipping into the others!
You’re welcome…in appreciation and gratitude
I loved that video of the engraving process start to finish, and was astonished by the beauty of the engravings from the book. It's not only the carving that impresses, it's also that the light of the paper is stunning. Thank you for bringing them forward here and for enlarging them so we can see the detail.
Dear Dudley, I have just spotted my reply to you didn't post - I am sorry, I must have done something daft. I loved watching the engraving films. It is such a concentrated process and they carve into the light with such delicacy. I hope all is going well in the studio.
Such a fascinating article Deborah, especially in the light of my visit to see the Tirzah Garwood exhibition last week. It was her woodcuts I loved the best and was in awe of how small they actually were and how much exquisite detail they contained. I loved the recent TV adaptation of Miss Austen too.
Her wood engravings are exquisite, aren't they? Her work is so witty too. Thank you very much, Gina.
This is brilliant stuff Deborah and totally fascinating. I love wood cuts and you have brought these women to life - Gwen Raverat and Clare Leighton I knew about but not the others. Thank you so much.
Thank you very much, Liz. I love all their work and each is so distinctive. I have been doing some more digging and each is remarkable.
How delighted I was to see Clare Leighton and her work among the six featured artists you selected! Though there was a substantial age difference, she and my mother, Elizabeth Hewlett Capehart, an artist in her own right, were close friends, and I had the great good fortune to inherit several of Leighton's magnificent prints. I also have a children's book she wrote and illustrated, The Wood That Came Back, and the biography she wrote about her mother, Tempestuous Petticoat: The Story of an Invincible Edwardian, which I highly recommend. Thank you!
What a wonderful message to receive, thank you! I shall return to Clare Leighton, but there is so much to learn about her extraordinary work and life, I need to spend more time. I didn't know about her mother and will look up the children's book too. I have two tiny prints, but they are much treasured. Did your mother make wood engravings too or was she a painter? I presume this was in America?
My mother was born and largely brought up in the US, except for a few years when she was a toddler and her father, a US naval career officer, was seconded to the Brazilian government for a few years and she lived with her parent in Rio. (Long but interesting story, though, in true American fashion, this is probably TMI!)
My mother probably did do woodblock prints at some point, but I don't have any of her blocks. She did, however, love to do linoleum block prints, so I do have some of those. She received her art education at Bennington College in Vermont and at the fabled Black Mountain College in North Carolina. She was also a gifted draftswoman (if that is a word), sculptor, and watercolor painter.
Her own mother, Elizabeth Scudder Capehart, was also a gifted artist and I have a number of her works, too.
Finally, though it seems as though your interests lies in female print artists, you might want to look into the life story (and art) of another (distant) family relation, Janet Scudder, a sculptor, who had a truly remarkable, little reported-on life. If you are interested, I can send you the various links I've assembled on her.
I write this from cold and snowy midcoast Maine, where I now live in a beautiful rural corner of the state, in a tiny village, after years of living in large cities, including New York (where I was born and raised), Paris, Tokyo, and San Francisco.
I haven't been to the UK for several years now; I was last there about half a dozen years ago when I made a trip to Scotland--wonderful experience and I long to return.
Thank you very much for your reply and how wonderful to come from such a lineage of women artists.
I am fascinated by women artists, particularly from the last century as so much of their work has been neglected. I want their work to be known and appreciated. I love print ( as a lino artist myself) but as as also painters and other disciplines. My own art has led me down this area of research and I have been so interested in the parallels.
I would love to learn about Janet Scudder if it isn't too much trouble.
I have never visited Maine, though would dearly love to, as I have read so many books from that region. I briefly visited Boston and Parts of New England a few years ago and wish I could return.
Wow, these images really show the range of styles possible in woodcuts. Thanks for sharing them. I love your linocut birds too.
The size of Jane Austen's table, and the idea of her having to write at it on small sheets of paper in the family room with distractions and conversations around her, emphasises her achievement. I feel quite spoilt with my computer, and selection of A5 and A4 notebooks, spread out on a big table in the spare room!
Thank you, Jacqueline, I am so pleased you enjoyed the wood engravings.
As I write, my papers are spread all about me and simply cannot imagine working on such a tiny desk. To have produced the novels she did, in such constrained circumstances, really does make her achievement all the more remarkable.