Biography

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 the only woman to join fellow artists including Eric Gill, Noel Rooke and Lucien Pissarro in founding the Society of Wood Engravers. Gwendolen and her husband, artist Jacques Raverat, lived in Vence in the South of France until Jacques died in 1925. Gwendolen returned to London and worked as a wood engraver, a book illustrator and an art critic. In 1952, five years before her death, her memoir of her extraordinary childhood Period Piece, 1952 was published.