Ethelbert White (1891-1972) was a celebrated wood engraver. He was born at Isleworth, Middlesex in 1891. He was linked with C.R.W. Nevinson and Mark Gertler through his pre-First World War studies at St John's Wood Art School and was elected to the London Group in 1915.
White was an early member of the Society of Wood Engravers and a founding member of the English Wood Engraving Society in 1925.
He started making woodcuts in the 1920s and worked with this medium only up until the 1940s. Wood engravings are customarily very small - and White's ones are an unusual larger scale.
Much of his work features attractive pastoral imagery of the English landscape. He had a great love of the countryside and led a rather Bohemian life, travelling the country with his wife in summer months in a gypsy caravan from his base at Amberley in Sussex. White also travelled widely in Ireland, France and Spain.
This fine early wood engraving is a harder to find architectural work by White showing a view of the Pont Neuf in Paris. It dates to around 1925 and comes from a limited edition of only 50 impressions. The rarity of this work is reflected in my asking price.
TECHNIQUE: Wood engraving is at once the simplest and yet one of the most exquisite forms of printmaking. First, the reversed design is engraved into the mirror-smooth surface of a block of hard wood.
The artist cuts or engraves into the wood to form the image. All the cut-away details forming channels in the wood do not get any ink and remain white when printed; the remaining proud, top surface which gets inked with a roller comes out black. Most wood engravings are closely worked and relatively small because the tools used are finely pointed and the work is often intricate and time-consuming.
This impression is signed in pencil below, and also titled and with edition number. It is in good condition and comes framed in a vintage frame.
The image size is: 15.5 x 21.5 cm. The frame is 42 x 57.5 cm
Another impression is in the collection of the Yale Centre for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut. But you certainly do not come across impressions for sale very often.
The print will be sent to you with Parcelforce24. This will cost about £24.95 to post and to include insurance in transit.