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Size:
Height – 14cm
Width – 9cm
Literature: Llewellyn, Sacha, and Paul Liss. Portrait of an Artist. Liss Llewellyn, 2021, p.318.
This pen and ink drawing by Geoffrey Rhoades was the original design for his self- portrait wood engraving of 1941. When Rhoades left the Slade School of Fine Art, (where he was a student from 1919-1923) Henry Tonks said: “You’ve something I haven’t ‚Äì imagination‚Äù. During the Second World War, he lived close to and was friends with the group of artists, including Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden, who moved to Great Bardfield in Essex.
The wood engraving dates to 1941 when Rhoades moved with his family to Bran End, near Dunmow, Essex. A trial proof of an early state in the final block the experimental shadows in the background has been entirely removed.
Painter in oil, watercolour, pen and ink and sepia, and teacher. Born in London, Rhoades studied painting at Clapham Art School 1915-7, then after World War I service in the Mercantile Marine attended the Slade School of Fine Art under Henry Tonks 1919-23. His landsapes, figure studies and flower paintings reflect his love of natural history and interest in the classical world. When Rhoades left the Slade Tonks said: “You’ve something I haven’t – imagination,” and Rhoades’ inner life did nourish his work throughout his career. His pictures are unmistakeably English in their understatedness. In the mid-1920s Rhoades completed murals and other work for the owners of Stoke Rochford House, in Lincolnshire. He then held a series of teaching posts, notably at the Ruskin School of Drawing, Oxford, 1953-72. He exhibited at the NEAC, RI and Goupil Gallery and had one-man shows at Maltzahn Gallery, Ashmolean Museum, Mall Galleries and Sally Hunter Fine Art, 1987. The Tate Gallery, Ashmolean Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum and provincial galleries hold his work. Lived at Cuddington, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.
