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Size:
Height – 35cm x Width – 43.1cm
Exhibited: Ruskin Galleries, Birmingham, 1926; Sheffield City Art Galleries, (on loan; no date given)
These two panels were included in Webb’s first one-man show at the Ruskin Galleries in Birmingham (1926). In the same year he exhibited at the second exhibition of the Artist Craftsmen Group, in Birmingham, alongside Gertler, Meninsky and Roberts. It was during this period that Webb established his reputation as a one of Britain’s most distinctive wood-engravers, etchers and illustrators.
Webb was an exact contemporary of David Jones, with whom he trained at Westminster School of Art (1919-22). These panels bring to mind the celebrated back garden views Jones painted from his parents’ house in the suburbs of Brockley. Webb’s paintings are also contemporary with the linocuts of the Grosvenor school, with which they share a strong linearity.
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Wood engraver, etcher, painter. Born in London, Webb studied at Westminster School of Art. In the 1920s he soon established a reputation as one of Britain’s most interesting engravers. He specialized in landscapes and animal subjects, illustrating a number of books, notably for the Golden Cockerel Press, and published many children’s books. He exhibited at the RA, NEAC, LG, RE, and SWE and his work Is in the collections of the British Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum. Webb taught drawing at Birmingham School of Art, 1922-6, engraving at St Martin’s School of Art and lectured at Westminster School of Art. He lived at Abinger Hammer, Surrey. He was apprenticed to a London firm of lithographers, 1913, while he studied evening classes at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts. He served in the army, 1914-19, and returned to study at Westminster School of Art, 1919-22, under Bernard Meninsky and David Jones. From 1923 to 1926 he was associated with the Artist Craftsmen’s Group and the Modern Group. In 1926 he had his first solo exhibition at the Ruskin Galleries, Birmingham, where he was teaching at the local art school. In 1935 he was elected a member of the Society of Wood Engravers, in 1936 of the RBA, and in 1948 of the RE. Between 1937 and 1954 he illustrated books for The Golden Cockerel Press, including H. G. Wells’ Country of the Blind and The Amazons in 1948. He taught engraving at St. Martin’s School of Art from the end of World War II until his retirement in 1965.
