Covers the entire history of wood engraving, including every major
artist of the genre Accompanies the Scene through Wood: A Century of
Wood Engraving exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum, from 28 March to 12
July 2020 The Ashmolean Museum houses one of the most extensive
collections of wood engravings in the world. The collection effectively
began with the gift in 1964, by Arthur Mitchell, of over 3,000 prints,
including a large group of wood engravings. During the 1980s and 1990s,
it expanded remarkably with acquisitions of large groups of prints,
often as gifts from the artists, resulting in a succession of
monographic exhibitions on some of the most important wood engravers.
They included John Farleigh (1986), John Buckland Wright (1990), Clare
Leighton (1992), Monica Poole (1993) and Anne Desmet (1998). A key point
in this period of expansion was the acquisition of a comprehensive body
of work by Gertrude Hermes and Blair Hughes-Stanton in 1995 from the
artists' family, which resulted in a memorable exhibition organized by
Katharine Eustace. More recently, the Ashmolean has formed a close
partnership with the Society of Wood Engravers (SWE) and has been
keeping the collection up to date by acquiring work by members, both at
the Society's annual exhibition and privately. This exhibition catalog
covers the entire history of wood engraving, including every major
artist of the genre.
