RAVERAT, Gwen (1885-1957) ~ Duckpond.
Original wood engraving on Japanese paper, titled and signed by the artist in pencil. 10.2 x 11.3 cms. Mounted and framed. One of an edition of 60.
Grand-daughter of Charles Darwin, the intellectual and artistic Gwen Raverat studied at the Slade between 1908 and 1910 taking to wood engravings while she was there after one of her cousins sent her some tools.
The Duckpond has a French quality to it and Selbourne and Newman point to the countryside around her father-in-law’s properties in Le Havre and Prunoy in Burgundy as the source of this idealised view. At this point she had something in common with Lucien Pissarro with whom she exhibited a the first annual exhibition of the Society of Wood Engravers in November 1920, the year of this engraving.