Wednesday’s Wood Engraver

I promised myself earlier this year I would look out for some more women wood engravers. It was not as easy as I thought.  It would seem that wood engraving has remained an art led by English speaking nations and women played a relatively small part in its development.  

However, since the early 20th century, Britain has corrected this, producing a significant number of women wood engravers; such as Joan Hassall, Gertrude Hermes, Clare Leighton, Agnes Miller Parker, Monica Poole and Gwen Raverat, who have become more than notable in the medium.  This was no mean achievement in a culture where women were confined to the home and had no consideration in the apprenticeship system.  

It was only women from a  privileged family who could afford to study at Art College.

Like Mary E. Groom (1903-1958) who studied wood engraving at Leon Underwood’s Art School; with Underwood himself, Blair Hughes-Stanton, Gertrude Hermes and Agnes Miller Parker. Mary Groom was part of the English Wood Engraving Society, a splinter -group of the Society of Wood Engravers. She is best remembered for her engravings in the 1937 edition of Milton’s Paradise Lost.