Margaret Pilkington (25 November 1891 – 2 August 1974) 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 p ...

who was active at the beginning of the twentieth century. She was a pupil of

Noel Rooke Noel Rooke (1881–1953) was a British wood-engraver and artist. His ideas and teaching made a major contribution to the revival of British wood-engraving in the twentieth century. Biography Rooke was born in Acton, London and he would remain in ...

at the

Central School of Art and Design The Central School of Art and Design was a public school of fine and applied arts in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1896 by the London County Council as the Central School of Arts and Cr ...

and was a 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 ...

Joanna Selborne, ‘The Society of Wood Engravers: the early years’ in ''Craft History 1'' (1988), published by Combined Arts. and the Red Rose Guild. She was awarded the OBE in 1956.

Background

Pilkington was born into a wealthy family, the Pilkingtons of the Pilkington Glassworks and Pilkington Tile Company. In 1913 she went to study at the

Slade School of Fine Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

where she was taught wood engraving by

Lucien Pissarro Lucien Pissarro (20 February 1863 – 10 July 1944) was a landscape painter, printmaker, wood engraver and designer and printer of fine books. His landscape paintings employ techniques of Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism, but he also exhib ...

. In 1914 she went on to the

to study wood engraving under

Charitable activities

From early in her life she promoted a number of social projects, girls' clubs, a Pioneer Club for professional girls and women, and, most notably, the Red Rose Guild. In 1920 she organised an exhibition for designer craftsmen in Manchester and from this the guild developed. Early members and exhibitors included

Ethel Mairet Ethel Mary Partridge, Ethel Mary Mairet RDI, or Ethel Mary Coomaraswamy (17 February 1872 – 18 November 1952) was a British hand loom weaver, significant in the development of the craft during the first half of the twentieth century. Early l ...

, Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie,

Bernard Leach Bernard Howell Leach (5 January 1887 – 6 May 1979), was a British studio potter and art teacher. He is regarded as the "Father of British studio pottery". Biography Early years (Japan) Leach was born in Hong Kong. His mother Eleanor (née ...

et al. The guild was a sponsor of the fledgling Craft Centre of Great Britain when it was founded in 1947.David Blamires, Patricia Jaffé and Sarah Hyde, ''Margaret Pilkington 1891-1974'' (Buxton, Hermit Press, 1995), . In 1925 she was invited to become a member of the Council of the

Whitworth Art Gallery The Whitworth is an art gallery in Manchester, England, containing about 55,000 items in its collection. The gallery is located in Whitworth Park and is part of the University of Manchester. In 2015, the Whitworth reopened after it was transfor ...

. She became more and more involved with the Gallery, running it for a period, and was an honorary director for over 20 years. She spent a great deal of time with her sister Dorothy, neither of whom married. She was always worried about the disparity between her wealth and the economic distress that she saw around her. Much of her life, and money, was devoted to charitable works in the Manchester area. One lasting legacy lies in the purchase by the sisters of Alderley Woods in 1943 in memory of their parents; they presented the woods to the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

. Dorothy died in 1971, and Margaret in 1974.

Wood engravings

Noel Rooke's students at the

Central School A central school was a selective secondary education school with a focus on technical and commercial skills in the English education system. It was positioned between the more academic grammar schools and the ordinary elementary schools where m ...

were prominent in those very early years of the wood engraving revival, as members of the

, as contributors to books and as illustrators of books. Pilkington exhibited in the first exhibition of the Society of Wood Engravers in 1920, and continued to do so until 1931. She became a member of the society in 1921. In 1919 Malcolm Salaman included her wood engravings in his

Studio A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design ...

anthology. In 1922 she contributed a wood engraving to ''Contemporary English Woodcuts'', an anthology of wood engravings produced by Thomas Balston, a director at

Duckworth Duckworth may refer to: * Duckworth (surname), people with the surname ''Duckworth'' * Duckworth (''DuckTales''), fictional butler from the television series ''DuckTales'' * Duckworth Books, a British publishing house * , a frigate * Duckworth, W ...

and an enthusiast for the new style of wood engravings.

Campbell Dodgson Campbell Dodgson, CBE DLitt Hon RE (13 August 1867 – 11 July 1948) was a British art historian and museum curator. He was the Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum in 1912–32. Biography Student Campbell Dodgson was the eight ...

, Keeper of Prints and Drawings at 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 ...

, wrote about her in his introduction to the book: '' Miss Gribble and Miss Pilkington are among the other women artists who practise wood engraving with zeal and success.'' She produced some 110 wood engravings, 41 of which were for the four books that she illustrated, three written by her father, Lawrence Pilkington, the last by a friend. In 1924 she produced 15 wood engravings for a book of poetry by her father, ''An Alpine Valley and other poems''. In 1926 she engraved the frontispiece for ''Tattlefold'' and in 1928 another frontispiece for ''The Chimneys of Tattleton''. In that year she also engraved 24 illustrations for ''Hills and Highways'' by her childhood friend Katharine Chorley. Her work is represented in several national collections, including the Central School and the Whitworth.

Overview

Pilkington's output is quite limited when compared to many of her contemporaries, and her importance lies not in her production or artistic merit, but in her encouragement to and patronage of her fellow practitioners. She was Secretary of the

from 1924 and revived the moribund society in 1949. She was chairman from 1952 to 1967. She bought regularly at the annual exhibitions of the society and donated the wood engravings to the Whitworth.A. C. Sewter, ''Modern British Woodcuts and Wood-engravings in the Collection of the Whitworth Art Gallery'' (Manchester, Whitworth Art Gallery, 1962). Her influence is best summed up in her obituary by

Trenchard Cox Sir George Trenchard Cox (1905–1995) was a British museum director. Early years Cox was born on 31 July 1905 in London to barrister William Pallett Cox and Marion. He was educated at Eton College and then at King's College, Cambridge, where h ...

, director 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 ...

: ''Her generous outlook on human affairs, her wide knowledge and discriminating taste, were reflected in every part of the museum (the Whitworth) which she made so much her own''.The Times. 7 August 1974

References

External links

Margaret Pilkington Papers

John Rylands Library The John Rylands Research Institute and Library is a late-Victorian neo-Gothic building on Deansgate in Manchester, England. It is part of the University of Manchester. The library, which opened to the public in 1900, was founded by Enriquet ...

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pilkington, Margaret 1891 births 1974 deaths 20th-century British women artists Alumni of the Central School of Art and Design Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art British illustrators English wood engravers Women engravers Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society 20th-century engravers