This is an illustration by the Scottish artist William Johnstone (1897 - 1981) for the poem "The Interrogation" by Edwin Muir (1887-1959).
Johnstone and Muir were close friends for many years and Johnstone had thought about making a set of lithographs with Muir's poems for a long time, but when the images were being produced they were, in most cases, drawn very quickly.
Johnstone was born in Denholm in the Scottish Borders. He worked on the family farm during the First World War, selling up in 1919 to study at Edinburgh College of Art. He went on to the Royal Scottish Academy Schools, winning the Carnegie travelling scholarship in 1925. Most of his professional life was spent teaching in London; he was Principal of Camberwell School of Art from 1938 and Central School of Art from 1947 to 1960. As well as being a highly original painter, he was an influential spokesman for art education and a friend of Hugh MacDiarmid. Johnstone returned to Scotland on his retirement and spent the last two decades of his life painting large abstract works. This short biography with thanks to the National Galleries of Scotland.
This art work is pencil signed below the lithograph image to the left by Johnstone - and the poem is to the right.
It is a loose sheet, unmounted and unframed and comes from a folio that was released in 1981. The folio was editioned at only 50 copies. There were a total of 21 lithographs in the folio - this is a single one that I have - and do not have any other ones. This one has not been folded of put in any of the folios - as it is a separate artist's proof by Johnstone.
The lithographs were all printed at the Printmaker's Workshop in Edinburgh. The twenty poems were hand-set and printed letterpress at Pillans and Wilson, Edinburgh. The design and typography was by James Gardiner Associates, Edinburgh.
Sheet size: 32.5 x 51.5 cm. The sheet is in excellent condition - with no marks or stains. There is no fold as you find in ones put into the folio - so a rarer proof issue. The edges of the paper still has its deckled edge so the sheet has never been trimmed down - and remains as originally printed in 1981. This is reflected in my asking price - which is a fair one for a work by this sought-after Scottish artist.
A complete folio is in the collection of the Tate Gallery in London.
The text of the poem reads as follows: We could have crossed the road but hesitated / And then came the patrol; / The leader conscientious and intent, / The men surly, indifferent. / While we stood by and waited The interrogation began. / He says the whole / Must come out now, who, what we are /, Where we have come from, with what purpose, whose / Country or camp we plot for or betray. / Question on question. We have stood and answered through the standing day / And watched across the road beyond the hedge / The careless lovers in pairs go by, / Hand linked in hand, wandering another star, / So near we could shout to them. We cannot choose / Answer or action here, / Though still the careless lovers saunter by / And the thoughtless field is near. / We are on the very edge,/ Endurance almost done, / And still the interrogation is going on.
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