Gwenda Morgan (1 February 1908 – 1991) was a British

wood engraver Wood engraving is a printmaking technique, in which an artist works an image or ''matrix'' of images into a block of wood. Functionally a variety of woodcut, it uses relief printing, where the artist applies ink to the face of the block and pr ...

. She lived in the town of

Petworth Petworth is a small town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Chichester (district), Chichester District of West Sussex, England. It is located at the junction of the A272 road, A272 east–west road from Heathfield, East Sussex ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ar ...

Early life

Morgan was born in Petworth, her father having moved there to work at the ironmongers, Austen & Co, of which he later became proprietor. He was the son of a Welsh-born military farrier.

Education

Following school in Petworth and at

Brighton and Hove High School Brighton Girls, formerly Brighton and Hove High School, is an independent day school for girls aged 4 to 18 in the city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England. Brighton Girls GDST is ISI rated ‘Excellent’. The school was founded in 1876 ...

, Morgan, studied at Goldsmiths' College of Art in London from 1926. From 1930 she attended the

Grosvenor School of Modern Art The Grosvenor School of Modern Art was a private British art school An art school is an educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, including fine art – especially illustration, painting, photography, sculpture, and ...

Pimlico Pimlico () is an area of Central London in the City of Westminster, built as a southern extension to neighbouring Belgravia. It is known for its garden squares and distinctive Regency architecture. Pimlico is demarcated to the north by London V ...

where she was taught and strongly influenced by the principal,

Iain Macnab Iain Macnab of Barachastlain (21 October 1890 – 24 December 1967) was a Scottish Wood engraving, wood-engraver and painter. As a prominent teacher he was influential in the development of the British school of wood-engraving. His pictures ...

.Christopher Sandford, 'Gwenda Morgan: an Engraver of the Countryside.' Studio International, 1950. Volume 140. Page 16. The Grosvenor School was a progressive art school and the championing of wood engraving and linocuts fitted with its democratic approach to the arts.Jeanne Cannizzo, ''A Study in Contrast: Sybil Andrews and Gwenda Morgan''. Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Canada. 2015.

Works

Morgan was commissioned to illustrate a number of books published by

private press Private press publishing, with respect to books, is an endeavor performed by craft-based expert or aspiring artisans, either amateur or professional, who, among other things, print and build books, typically by hand, with emphasis on design, gra ...

es. For the Samson Press she produced the frontispiece for ''Duke Hamilton's Wager'' in 1934 and ''Pictures and Rhymes'' in 1936. She illustrated four books for the

Golden Cockerel Press The Golden Cockerel Press was an English fine press operating between 1920 and 1961. History The private press made handmade limited editions of classic works. The type was hand-set and the books were printed on handmade paper, and sometimes ...

, including

Thomas Gray Thomas Gray (26 December 1716 – 30 July 1771) was an English poet, letter-writer, classics, classical scholar, and professor at Pembroke College, Cambridge, Pembroke College, Cambridge. He is widely known for his ''Elegy Written in a Country ...

's ''

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard ''Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard'' is a poem by Thomas Gray, completed in 1750 and first published in 1751. The poem's origins are unknown, but it was partly inspired by Gray's thoughts following the death of the poet Richard West in 1742 ...

'' (1946) and ''Grimms' Other Tales'' (1956). The main body of her work drew upon the landscape and buildings around Petworth and the neighbouring

South Downs The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the Eastbourne Downland Estate, East Sussex, in the east. ...

. Her work was inspired by that of Macnab, Percy Douglas Bliss and the Sussex-bred

Eric Ravilious Eric William Ravilious (22 July 1903 – 2 September 1942) was a British painter, designer, book illustrator and wood-engraver. He grew up in Sussex, and is particularly known for his watercolours of the South Downs and other English landsca ...

. Throughout the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

she worked as a Land Girl just outside Petworth. Her record of those years was published by the

Whittington Press Whittington Court is an Elizabethan manor house, five miles east of Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, England. Adjacent to the house is the Whittington parish church which dates from the 12th century and now dedicated to St Bartholomew. The ori ...

in 2002 as ''The Diary of a Land Girl, 1939-1945''. Her prints are held in the collections of the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

and the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

in London, the

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, and the

Fitzwilliam Museum The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Vis ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, among others. In 2015 an exhibition, "A Study in Contrast:

Sybil Andrews Sybil Andrews (19 April 1898 – 21 December 1992) was an English-Canadian artist who specialised in printmaking and is best known for her modernist linocuts. Life in England Born in 1898 in Bury St Edmunds, Andrews was unable to go straigh ...

and Gwenda Morgan", was held at the

Art Gallery of Greater Victoria The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (AGGV) is an art museum located in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Situated in Rockland, Victoria, the museum occupies a building complex; made up of the Spencer Mansion, and the Exhibition Galleries. The ...

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. Th ...

, Canada, comparing and contrasting the fellow Grosvenor School artists. Some of her prints are on permanent display in the

Leconfield Hall Leconfield Hall, formerly Petworth Town Hall, is a municipal building in the Market Square in Petworth, West Sussex, England. The building, which is now used as a cinema, is a Grade II* listed building. History The building was commissioned to ...

, Petworth, to which Morgan gave a substantial bequest on her death. Wood engravings from the original Morgan blocks are being sold in aid of the Leconfield Hall. Kevis House Gallery in Petworth hold the largest collection of the artist's work. Three of Morgans engravings are illustrated in the book 'Sussex Landscapes: Chalk, Wood and Water', published for the eponymous exhibition at

Pallant House Gallery Pallant House Gallery is an art gallery in Chichester, West Sussex, England. It houses one of the best collections of 20th-century British art in the world. History The Gallery's collection is founded on works left to the city of Chichester by ...

in 2022/23. The book contains an essay'Eric Ravilious and Gwenda Morgan. A New Age of Wood Engraving' by Dr. Lydia Miller.

Affiliations

She was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers & Engravers, an Honorary Member of the

Society of Wood Engravers The Society of Wood Engravers (SWE) is a UK-based artists’ exhibiting society, formed in 1920, one of its founder-members being Eric Gill. It was originally restricted to artist-engravers printing with oil-based inks in a press, distinct from ...

, and a Member of the National Society of Painters, Sculptors and Engravers, and she showed work at their annual exhibitions. She also exhibited at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

and at the

Redfern Gallery The Redfern Gallery is an exhibition space in the West End of London specialising in contemporary British art. It was founded by Arthur Knyvett-Lee and Anthony Maxtone Graham in 1923 as an artists' cooperative on the top floor of Redfern Hous ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morgan, Gwenda 1908 births 1991 deaths English engravers People from Petworth Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London Alumni of the Grosvenor School of Modern Art 20th-century English women artists Women engravers 20th-century engravers