Barbara Greg (30 April 1900 – 1983) was a British artist who illustrated a number of books.

Biography

Greg was born in

Styal Styal (, like ''style'') is a village and civil parish in Cheshire, England; it is sited on the River Bollin. The village is located north-northwest of Wilmslow and southeast of Manchester Airport. History Styal village grew during the early ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

and was educated at

Bedales School Bedales School is a coeducational boarding and day public school, in the village of Steep, near the market town of Petersfield in Hampshire, England. It was founded in 1893 by Amy Garrett Badley and John Haden Badley in reaction to the li ...

. She studied at the

Slade School of 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 ...

in London between 1919 and 1923 where she was taught by her future husband, the artist Norman Janes, whom she married in 1925. During this time she also took

wood engraving Wood engraving is a printmaking technique, in which an artist works an image 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 prints using relatively l ...

classes at the

Central School of Arts and Crafts The Central School of Art and Design was a art school, school of fine arts, 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 ...

and later, in 1926 and 1927, studied at the

Westminster School of Art The Westminster School of Art was an art school in Westminster, London. History The Westminster School of Art was located at 18 Tufton Street, Deans Yard, Westminster, and was part of the old Royal Architectural Museum. H. M. Bateman descri ...

. Greg's interest in wood engraving as a technique may have resulted from seeing her grandfathers' collection of works by

Thomas Bewick Thomas Bewick (c. 11 August 1753 – 8 November 1828) was an English wood engraving, wood-engraver and natural history author. Early in his career he took on all kinds of work such as engraving cutlery, making the wood blocks for advertisements, ...

. She first exhibited a wood engraving in 1924 at 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. Membership is restricted to artists who use wood engraving, as distinct from the separate discipline of ...

and continued to do so on a regular basis until 1976. Greg produced wood cut, or sometimes lino cut, designs for book dust jackets and endpapers, for calendars and also decorated piano rolls, often with musical subjects. She illustrated several books mostly with natural history or countryside themes and contributed illustrations to the magazine '' Country Life''. Greg exhibited on a regular basis at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

, with the

New English Art Club The New English Art Club (NEAC) is a society for contemporary artists that was founded in London, England, in 1886 as an alternative venue to the Royal Academy. The NEAC holds an annual exhibition of paintings and drawings at the Mall Galleries ...

, the

Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers The Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers (RE), known until 1991 as the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers, is a leading art institution based in London, England. The Royal Society of Painter-Etchers, as it was originally styled, was ...

, the

Royal Hibernian Academy The Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts (RHA) is an artist-based and artist-oriented institution in Ireland, founded in Dublin in 1823. Like many other Irish institutions, such as the Royal Irish Academy, the academy retained the word "Royal" after mo ...

and the

Royal Watercolour Society The Royal Watercolour Society is a British institution of painters working in watercolours. The Society is a centre of excellence for water-based media on paper, which allows for a diverse and interesting range of approaches to the medium of wa ...

. She was elected a member of the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts in 1925 and became an associate member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers in 1940 and a full member in 1946. In 1952 she became a full member of the Society of Wood Engravers. Greg lived in London and died in hospital at Enfield in north London in 1983.

Books illustrated

Books illustrated by Greg;- * ''A Fisherman's Log'' by GL Ashley Dodd, (Constable, 1929) * ''Enigmas of Natural History'' by EL Grant Watson, (Cresset Press) * ''More Enigmas of Natural History'' by EL Grant Watson, (Cresset Press, 1937) * ''The Poachers Handbook'' by I Niall, (Heinemann, 1951) * ''Fresh Woods'' by I Niall, (Heinemann, 1951) * ''Pastures New'' by I Niall, (Heinemann, 1952) * ''Letter to a Musical Boy'' by M. Bruxner (OUP, 1958)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Greg, Barbara 1900 births 1983 deaths 20th-century English painters 20th-century English women artists Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Alumni of the Westminster School of Art British women illustrators English illustrators English women painters English wood engravers People educated at Bedales School Artists from Cheshire People from the Borough of Cheshire East British women engravers 20th-century British engravers 20th-century British women painters