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Crawhall, Joseph.
Four Loose sheets of pencil and ink sketches.
Publisher:
Stock Code: 11072
Four single sheets, of which two approx 23 cm x 15, one 19.5 cm x 18 and one 25 cm x 18 with a portion approx 8.5 x 5.5 excised form one corner. Many of the individual images are helpfully labelled in pencil in a later hand noting in which of Crawhall’s works they appear as woodcuts, including 13 familiar scenes from “Impresses Quaint”. Some of the images are unidentified, perhaps indicating that they were never worked up into blocks. Two sheets are marked with watercolour stains, mainly affecting blank margins, and a couple of images are scored through in pencil, all of which may well be expected from artwork in progress. Overall the sheets though have survived remarkably well. “Impresses Quaint” is a collection of Crawhall’s witty and macabre woodcuts in his unmistakable artfully naive, vernacular style, including some of his earliest and latest pieces, and was his last published work. The images on these sheets feature several which were used as woodcuts in this volume. Joseph Crawhall II the Newcastle artist, rope-maker, and antiquarian had an instantly recognisable and unique anachronistic style, ushering in the chapbook revival of the 1890s. Despite his historical influences Crawhall’s bold and graphic style still feels relatively modern a hundred years later. £300.00