William Biscombe Gardner (1847 – 23 February 1919,

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Rocks. T ...

) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

painter and

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 ...

. Working in both watercolour and oils, he exhibited widely in London in the late 19th century at venues such as the Royal Academy and the

Grosvenor Gallery The Grosvenor Gallery was an art gallery in London founded in 1877 by Sir Coutts Lindsay and his wife Blanche. Its first directors were J. Comyns Carr and Charles Hallé. The gallery proved crucial to the Aesthetic Movement because it prov ...

. From 1896 he lived at Thirlestane Court. He illustrated a number of books featuring the British landscape (see below), notably ''Kent'', ''Canterbury'', and ''The Peak Country''. He also drew scenes from the Welsh

Elan Valley The Elan Valley ( cy, Cwm Elan) is a river valley situated to the west of Rhayader, in Powys, Wales, sometimes known as the "Welsh Lake District". It covers of lake and countryside. The valley contains the Elan Valley Reservoirs and Elan Villa ...

in the 1890s, before it was flooded to form the

Elan Valley Reservoirs The Elan Valley Reservoirs are a chain of man-made lakes created from damming the Elan and Claerwen rivers within the Elan Valley in Mid Wales. The reservoirs, which were built by the Birmingham Corporation Water Department, provide clean drin ...

, which appeared in two books by Grant Allen (see "illustrated Books" below). However, it was as a superlative wood-engraver that he was mainly known in his lifetime. He "raised the art of wood-engraving to a very high pitch of excellence" remarked the ''

Kent and Sussex Courier The ''Kent and Sussex Courier'' is an English regional newspaper, published in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent. The paper was the result of an amalgamation of a number of Kent and East Sussex local newspapers, and hence has always been published in ...

'' in 1916. His prints (sometimes large) were widely published in many British magazines of the day such as ''

The Pall Mall Gazette ''The Pall Mall Gazette'' was an evening newspaper founded in London on 7 February 1865 by George Murray Smith; its first editor was Frederick Greenwood. In 1921, '' The Globe'' merged into ''The Pall Mall Gazette'', which itself was absorbed in ...

'', ''

The Illustrated London News ''The Illustrated London News'' appeared first on Saturday 14 May 1842, as the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine. Founded by Herbert Ingram, it appeared weekly until 1971, then less frequently thereafter, and ceased publication i ...

'', ''

The English Illustrated Magazine ''The English Illustrated Magazine'' was a monthly publication that ran for 359 issues between October 1883 and August 1913. Features included travel, topography, and a large amount of fiction and were contributed by writers such as Thomas Hardy, ...

'' and ''

The Magazine of Art ''The Magazine of Art'' was an illustrated monthly British journal devoted to the visual arts, published from May 1878 to July 1904 in London and New York City by Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co. It included reviews of exhibitions, articles about art ...

''. He was a firm advocate of traditional

wood-engraving 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 ...

considering it to be the most versatile in comparison to the more conventional methods of

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an in ...

and

etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...

, or more recent methods including "process illustration".
Appleton's Popular Science Monthly
', November 1896, pp. 139–40.

Selected paintings

*''Apple Blossom''. *''Chiddingstone from the corner of the churchyard''. *''The Deserted Cottage, Penbury''. *''A Game of Ball''. *''Packing the Golden Hops''. *''The Pantiles, Tunbridge Wells''. *''The Question of the Day''. *''Their Old Home' Pembury nr Tunbridge Wells''. __NOTOC__

Illustrated books

*Allen, Grant. ''Drowning for Liverpool : Lake Vyrnwy and the end of old LLanwyddyn, 1887–89''. *Allen, Grant. ''A submerged village – Llanwddyn'' (Mar 1890) *Gardner, W. Biscombe. ''Dickens country – watercolours'' (London: Adam & Charles Black) *Gardner, W. Biscombe. ''The garden of England; Kent by brush and Pen'' (J. Salmon Ltd, 1995). *Morris, J E.
The Peak Country
' (London: Adam & Charles Black, 1914). *Shore, W. Teignmouth.
Canterbury
(Adam & Charles Black, April 1907). *Shore, W. Teignmouth. ''Kent'' (London: Adam & Charles Black, 1907). *Home, Gordon. ''Canterbury'' (A & C Black, 1911)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gardner, William Biscombe 19th-century English painters English male painters 20th-century English painters Landscape artists English illustrators English watercolourists English engravers English wood engravers 1847 births 1919 deaths 20th-century British printmakers 20th-century English male artists 19th-century English male artists 20th-century engravers