GIBBINGS, Robert (1889-1958) Mrs Hezekiah Brown, 1932

Description

One of Fourteen Wood Engravings, from drawings made on Orient Line Cruises by Robert Gibbings
Published by (Waltham Saint Lawrence: Printed at the Golden Cockerel Press for the Orient Line 1932)., 1932

Robert John Gibbings (23 March 1889 – 19 January 1958) was an Irish artist and author who was most noted for his work as a wood engraver and sculptor, and for his books on travel and natural history. Along with Noel Rooke he was one of the founder members of the Society of Wood Engravers in 1920, and was a major influence in the revival of wood engraving in the twentieth century. e was very much at the centre of developments in wood engraving. He was a founder member and leading light of the Society of Wood Engravers, which he set up with Noel Rooke in 1920. In 1922 he contributed two wood engravings to Contemporary English Woodcuts, an anthology of wood engravings produced by Thomas Balston, a director at Duckworth and an enthusiast for the new style of wood engravings. Campbell Dodgson, Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, wrote about him in his introduction to the book: “The ‘Cubist’ or ‘Post-Impressionist’ element is represented by Mr. Gibbings”. The two engravings by Gibbings were ‘Clear Waters’, a strikingly modern nude, and ‘Hamrun’, both examples of his ‘vanishing line’ technique.

In 1923 Gibbings received a commission for a set of wood engravings for The Lives of Gallant Ladies for the Golden Cockerel Press, his most important commission to date at 100 guineas.