The Princess & the Swans (from 'The Bird Talisman')
About this artwork
Gwendolen Raverat trained as a painter and taught herself to engrave in wood. As a girl, she idolised the wood engraver Thomas Bewick (1753–1828) and wished she could have been his wife, so that he might ‘just sometimes, let me draw and engrave a little tailpiece for him’. Raverat’s robust style is related to the fact that she often worked in woodcut as well as wood engraving, though always on a small scale. This tiny image is loaded with the significance of the story it illustrates, of a princess with a ring that allows her to talk to birds
Published November 2023
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artist:Gwendolen Raverat (1885 - 1957) English
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title:The Princess & the Swans (from 'The Bird Talisman')
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date created:1939
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materials:Colour wood engraving on paper
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measurements:12.80 x 11.30 cm (paper 24.00 x 14.80 cm)
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object type:
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credit line:Purchased 1978
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accession number:GMA 2041
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gallery:
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subject:
Gwendolen Raverat
Gwendolen Raverat
Gwendolen Raverat was born in Cambridge, and was a leading artist in reviving wood engraving in the early 20th century. Raverat studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London where she developed her own painterly style of wood engraving. Her first engravings date from 1908, and in 1920 she was...