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Max �vabinsk� (Czech, 1873-1962), born in Kromer�, was a contemporary and close ally of T. Franti�ek �imon. Both studied at the Prague Academy of Fine Art under Max Pirner, benefiting from the graphics teaching of J. Mar�k and E. Karel. In 1910, while �imon was in Paris, Max �vabinsk� was appointed professor of graphic arts at the Prague Academy. I believe I am correct in saying that up until this time there had not been a dedicated graphic arts atelier at the Academy. Max �vabinsk�, Grossmutter (Grandmother) Etching, 1912 Although Max �vabinsk� was also a painter, he began to devote more and more time to graphics from around 1900. �vabinsk� is regarded as the founder of Czech modern art, introducing the influences of both Max Klinger and the German Symbolists, and �douard Manet and the French Impressionists. Max �vabinsk�, Untitled (Woman preparing for bed) Colour lithograph, 1912 As the lithograph above shows, Max �vabinsk� also absorbed the influence of Bonnard, Vuillard, and the Na

Just over a century ago, on 08/08/08, at 18:25 hours, Wilbur Wright made the first public flight anywhere in the world. It was not in the USA, but in France, at the Hippodrome des Hunaudi�res at Le Mans, within easy reach of Paris. Over the next five months Wright made another nine exhibition flights at the same location, in a Flyer III bi-plane with a Barriquand-Marse motor.          I imagine newspapers at the time published cartoon sketches of these exciting displays (though I haven�t seen any). But who was the first fine artist to record this extraordinary breakthrough for mankind? My guess is the Czech painter and printmaker Tavik Franti�ek �imon (1877-1942).          �imon was born at �eleznice in Bohemia. He studied at the Prague Academy of Fine Arts, where he was in 1928 appointed as Professor of Graphic Arts, a position he took over from his friend Max �vabinsk�.          Franti�ek �imon lived and worked in Paris from 1904 to 1914, when the outbreak of WWII caused him to retu

One of the most interesting things about British art in the 1920s was the blurred distinction that arose between art and design. This can be seen in all kinds of areas, from textiles to advertising to architecture. In the field of pattern papers, the Curwen Press was at the forefront, commissioning designs from artists such as Edward Bawden, Margaret Calkin James, Claude Lovat Fraser, Albert Rutherston, Enid Marx, and Eric Ravilious. Curwen were so proud of these papers that in 1928 they published the delicious A Specimen Book of Pattern Papers Designed for and in Use at the Curwen Press, with an Introduction by Paul Nash. I don't, sadly, have a copy of this extremely rare and costly publication. But I do have a copy of The Woodcut: An Annual for 1927. Like the Specimen Book, this was printed at Curwen and published by the Fleuron. And it contains an essay by Paul Nash (identical with the introduction? I'm not sure, but probably) entitled Woodcut Patterns. It is illustrated wit

Lying on my desk as I write is a modest little hardback volume entitled Change: The Beginning of a Chapter in 12 Volumes , edited by John Hilton & Joseph Thorp. It was printed and published in January 1919 at The Decoy Press, Plaistow, London. Herbert Rooke, The Torch The appearance of the word Plaistow in the address is enough to suggest that this booklet has something to do with the Curwen Press, whose printing works was in Plaistow. And indeed on page 122 of Joanna Selborne�s British Wood-Engraved Book Illustration 1904-1940 a footnote tells us that, �The Decoy Press, Plaistow, was Thorp�s publishing imprint only, not a printing press, used sometimes by the Curwen Press when it was impolitic to use their own imprint.� This was one of those times, for Change was a radical publication, calling for a new post-war order based on socialist and spiritual values. Eric Gill, The Decoy This idealistic publication did not find a ready market�of the announced 12 volumes, only two appeared

Before I get too carried away with all my planned posts on aspects of the British between-the-wars wood engraving revival, here's a reminder of another "revival" - the French etching revival of the second half of the nineteenth century. This was in many ways the creation of a single man - not an artist, but a dealer and publisher. His name was Alfred Cadart. He was born in St Omer in 1828. Alphonse Charles Masson (1814-1898) Portrait of Alfred Cadart Etching, 1874 In 1862 Cadart founded the Soci�t� des Aquafortistes, which lasted until 1867. In 1868 he founded the journal L'Illustration Nouvelle, and in 1870 he restarted his publishing house at 58, rue Neuve-des-Mathurins, publishing etchings at a furious rate until his premature death in 1875, after which his widow took over the business. All of Cadart's enterprises were undertaken in association with the master printer Auguste Del�tre. Advert for Cadart's "petite presse" Cadart didn't just orga

This wood engraving, showing a Bright Young Thing against a background of flames, with one foot in the cradle and the other in the grave, was published in the London Mercury in October 1923, under the title Youth. It is initialled in the block, E.W.  Edward Wadsworth? Ethelbert White? Edward Wolfe? The answer is�none of the above. The E.W. in question is in fact the novelist Evelyn Waugh, five years before the publication of his first novel, Decline and Fall.  Arthur Evelyn St John Waugh (1903-1966) was at this time a dissolute undergraduate at Oxford University, which he would leave the following year without a degree. In September 1924 Waugh enrolled in the Heatherley School of Art, but left before the end of the year to become a schoolmaster (an episode chronicled with exquisite comedy in Decline and Fall). Apparently Waugh initially saw his future in the visual arts rather than the written word. His own art collection in the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, Austin, i

The name of Tirzah Garwood may well seem vaguely familiar, because it is unusual enough to stick in the mind. And I know some readers of this blog will recognize it immediately as the unmarried name of Tirzah Ravilious, who was married from 1930-1942 to the artist Eric Ravilious, and from 1946-1951 to Henry Swanzy. Tirzah Garwood, Yawning Wood engraving, 1929 Eileen Lucy �Tirzah� Garwood was born in 1908 into a conventional middle class background in Eastbourne, East Sussex. Attracted by the artistic life, at 18 she enrolled in a class in wood engraving at the Eastbourne College of Art. The teacher was Eric Ravilious, who was also born in Eastbourne, though by this time he was living either with Douglas Percy Bliss in London or with Edward Bawden in Great Bardfield. Tirzah Garwood, Kensington High Street Wood engraving, 1929 Tirzah�s first wood engraving was made on 24 November 1926. By 1927 she was already exhibiting engravings at the Redfern Gallery, London. Over the next four years