White produced works such as Somerset landscape (1919), which is offered for £20,000 at The Court Gallery’s exhibition running from September 17-October 24.
The gallery has been cataloguing the Ethelbert White family collection and archive in preparation for a new publication about the artist’s life and work. This selling show, rescheduled from March due to coronavirus restrictions, includes paintings, watercolours and wood engravings from all periods of the artist’s output.
The family intend to use proceeds from the exhibition to fund the publication of The Ethelbert White Anthology later this year.
Modernist influence
Drawing on the influences of European Modernism, White’s works were aesthetically close to Paul and John Nash, fellow members of the London Group which White belonged to during the inter-war period.
He was an early member of the Society of Wood Engravers and he illustrated works such as booklets on the Russian ballet and The Story of My Heart by Richard Jefferies.
White was independently wealthy and enjoyed a good degree of artistic freedom. He and his wife Betty cultivated a bohemian lifestyle, travelling in a gypsy caravan.