From £280 to £20,000… a print for every pocket

Tucked away in Bruton Place, Scolar Fine Art are, until June 6, staging an impressive and diverse show of 20th century British prints. Accompanied by a fully-illustrated colour catalogue, the 134 images range in price from £280 for the 1929 wood engraving Everyman by David Jones (1895-1974) to £20,000 for the extremely rare George and Rufus, a linocut on linen, produced in 1933 by Ben Nicholson (1894-1982).

In between this wide price gap are fine impressions such as Edward Wadsworth’s (1889-1949) woodcuts of c.1914 Harbour of Flushing (£9000), Street Singers (£3000), The Open Window (£9000) and Invention/Mudros (£3200), a group of linocuts (£1500-8500) by Sybil Andrews (1898-1992), including the 1930 Rush Hour (£5500), John Minton’s (1917-1957) lithograph of 1943 Thames-side (£2850) and David Hockney’s (b.1937) etching and aquatint Rue de Seine (£12,500).


FOUNDED in 1880, the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers (RE) Annual Exhibition is always worthy of a viewing with their current show, which runs through to May 26 at the Bankside Gallery in Blackfriars, having a slightly international flavour.

As part of Greece in Britain 2003, works by seven Greek printmakers, all of whom are professors or assistant professors at Athens or Thessalonika Schools of Art, form the centrepiece to the British members’ offerings.

The Greek style is certainly varied, ranging from Vicky Tsalamata’s images inspired by classical Greek tomb seals, to Tonia Nicoladou who uses imaginative techniques to express her ideas on the theme of water.


THE amusing, stylised figure subjects of RE member Anita Klein (born 1960) are, of course, represented in the Bankside show, but a much broader range of her work can be found until May 18 at the Greenwich Printmakers at 1a Greenwich Market.

While the RE has had many distinguished artists among its membership, including Frank Brangwyn (1867-1956), Alfred East (1849-1913), William Lee-Hankey (1869-1952) and James Tissot (1836-1902), there are many who are lesser-known but nonetheless highly talented.


ONE such name is Charles Herbert Arthur Chaplin (1907-1987), a group of whose etchings and engravings (£50-325) can be found at Hilary Chapman Fine Prints in the Fulham Road. Chaplin, who, until the late 1940s mostly worked in etching before turning much more to line engraving, worked to a crisp, meticulous style, his subject matter being predominantly rural and animals.

Among the images on sale are the drypoint of 1928 Hill Top (£150), his 1950 diploma work on election as an Associate Fellow of the RE, Stoat (£295) and Going for a Song (£300), an engraving of 1967 depicting an antiquated piece of farm machinery.

Hilary Chapman has also just published a modest Spring list giving details of 24 works ranging in price from £110 for the signed etching Richmond, Yorks by Albany E Howarth (1872-1936), to £550 for the colour woodcut Bridge (after Frank Brangwyn) by Yoshijiro Urushibara (1888-1953).


A MUCH grander Summer catalogue has been issued by West End book and print dealers Henry Sotheran, which offers goodies such as a selection of hand-coloured lithographs (£300-1350) from John Gould’s (1804-1881) Birds of Great Britain (1862-73), a set of six mythological engravings (£1500) by Bernard Picard (1673-1733) and Lioness (£2375), Elisabeth Frink’s (1930-1993) colour-printed lithograph produced in 1967 in an edition of 25.


WHILE not a selling exhibition, A Ramble on Copper: Two Centuries of Scottish Etching 1750-1950, taking place until June 28 at The Fleming Collection in Berkeley Street, is well worthy of viewing.