SKU: 11106
Robert Austin
(1895 - 1973)
The Angelus, 1922, original copper plate
£4,400
Robert Austin (1895 - 1973)
£1,290
The original copper plate (cancelled), 5 3/4 x 4 in. (14.7 x 10 cm.)
(9 1/2 x 7 1/2 in. (24 x 19 cm.) framed)
Size:
Height – 14.7cm
Width – 10cm
1 in stock
Provenance: The Artist’s Family.
Austin’s engraving Belfry Steps, (CD 109), was published in 1935, the same year as Portrait of Noel Edwards and Summer Night – as
a composition it has all of the qualities of economy and dynamism that
made Austin one of the greatest exponents of line engraving of his
generation. Campbell Dodgson, Keeper of Prints and Drawings
at the British Museum, who compiled the standard reference work on
Austin, compared him to Albrecht Dürer, noting that Austin had more
than a touch of that master in him (Dodgson, Robert Austin, exhibition
catalogue,Twenty-One Gallery, London, 1930).
Printmaker and draughtsman, born in Leicester. He studied at the School of Art there and at the Royal College of Art, 1914-16 and 1919-22, winning the Rome Scholarship for engraving in the latter year. He taught engraving at the Royal College of Art, 1927-44, becoming Professor in the Department of Graphic Design, 1948-55. Showed with RWS, of which he was a member and President; RE, of which he was a member; and the RA, to which he was elected in 1949. Austin was a meticulous craftsman-engraver and a vigorous draughtsman, as his series of drawings of Women’s Auxiliary Air Force and ballooning activities done during World War II shows. The Tate Gallery holds his work.
The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, organised an exhibition of his work in 1980.
More recently he was the subject of two shows at the Fine Art Society plc (2001 and 2002), the latter organised in conjunction with Liss Fine Art Ltd.
