Cheffins
Lot 281
Boy Birdsnesting, 1927signed 'E.Ravilious' (lower right)wood engraving, unframed16 x 25cm (sheet)A prodigiously talented watercolourist, designer and lithographer, Eric Ravilious is perhaps most celebrated for his remarkable wood engravings and is credited as one of the most critical figures in the revival of the medium during the 1920s.The popularity of wood engraving has waxed and waned since its inception in 1768 by British naturalist and illustrator, Thomas Bewick. Using tools traditionally used for metal engraving, Bewick’s wood engravings were admired for their extraordinary precision and meticulous detail. Widely used as a method of mass-producing images during the 19th century, by the end of the century, however, the practice of wood engraving was becoming supplanted by the more efficient and less labour-intensive process of photography.The resurgence of wood engraving was initiated in the 1920s with the foundation of the Society of Wood Engravers by artists including Gwen Raverat, Eric Gill, Lucien Pissarro, Robert Gibbings, Clifford Webb and Noel Rooke. In 1926, Ravilious received his first major wood engraving commission - a series of vignettes, marginalia and illustrations for Martin Armstrong’s Desert. On the strength of this project, Ravilious gained the attention of Robert Gibbings who recommended him for membership to the Society of Wood Engravers and invited him to illustrate the Golden Cockerel Press publication, Ballad Upon a Wedding, by John Suckling. Following this, Ravilious was once again commissioned by Gibbings to illustrate Nicholas Breton’s The twelve months (sic) in 1927. Between 1929 and 1935 Ravilious would contribute to four further Cockerel publications: The Atrocities of the Pirates, Consequences, The Hansom Cab and the Pigeons and Twelfth Night. Ravilious continued to work primarily in wood engraving until the late 1930s, before abandoning the practice in favour of watercolour painting.As demonstrated by the present lots, Ravilious’ wood engravings are as much valued for their technical dexterity as they are for their wonderfully imaginative and deftly observed compositions. The present lot is an alternative version of a plate illustrating April in The Twelve Moneths (sic) commissioned by Robert Gibbings for the Golden Cockerel PressLengths of adhesive tape attached to the top, left and right hand edges, where the sheet has previously been attached to the mount. The top and right hand edges fairly irregular, the top edge with some losses and creases. There is a network of creases along the right hand edge and a large, but fairly shallow, dogear crease at the lower right corner. There is a similar crease at the top left corner, a smaller, but deeper dogear at the top right corner, and some other light handling creases throughout. The margins display some scattered foxing and overall age toning. The image is mostly clean, though there are some navy blue marks to the boy's shorts, face and the branch nearest to his right hand
