Eric Brindley Slater (1896 – 13 March 1963) was an English printmaker.Official website biography
/ref>

Biography

Eric Slater was a colour

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...

artist who had an international reputation in the 1920s and 1930s.Exhibition showcases famous Seaford artist Eric Slater
, ''

Sussex Express Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

'', 6 May 2012 The son of a

silversmith A silversmith is a metalworker who crafts objects from silver. The terms ''silversmith'' and ''goldsmith'' are not exact synonyms, as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are (or were, at least) largely the same but differed in that t ...

, he was born in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, England, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, located mainly in the London Borough of Camden, with a small part in the London Borough of Barnet. It borders Highgate and Golders Green to the north, Belsiz ...

, London. When he was eight, his father died and he moved with his mother to

East Sussex East Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Kent to the north-east, West Sussex to the west, Surrey to the north-west, and the English Channel to the south. The largest settlement ...

, first to

Bexhill-on-Sea Bexhill-on-Sea (often shortened to Bexhill) is a seaside town and civil parish in the Rother District in the county of East Sussex in South East England. It is located along the Sussex Coast and between the towns of Hastings, England, Hastings ...

, then to

Winchelsea Winchelsea () is a town in the county of East Sussex, England, located between the High Weald and the Romney Marsh, approximately south west of Rye and north east of Hastings. The current town, which was founded in 1288, replaced an earli ...

, and finally, in 1929, to Seaford. He attended the

Hastings School of Art The Hastings School of Art was an art school in Hastings, England, located at the Brassey Institute on the top two floors of the library building at Claremont. Information This Part refers to Hastings School of Art Hastings UK Its former stude ...

. Notable for their beautifully observed skies, many of Slater's prints are inspired by the

South Downs The South Downs are a range of chalk hills in the south-eastern coastal counties of England that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the ...

and the coastline near his home. His printmaking was revered during his relatively short career, and much admired by

Campbell Dodgson Campbell Dodgson (13 August 1867 – 11 July 1948) was a British art historian and museum curator. He was the Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum in 1912–32. Biography Student Campbell Dodgson was the eighth and last child of ...

, then Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

. Slater was a member of the Society of Graver Printers in Colour and the Society of Print Makers of California. His work was exhibited in England (by the New Society of Artists), Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Austria and South Africa, but he stopped making woodcuts soon after the death of his mother in 1938. By the time Slater died in 1963, he had sunk into obscurity. With no close surviving relatives, a priest organised his burial in Seaford. An exhibition of his landscapes was held at the

Towner Gallery Towner Eastbourne (formerly Towner Art Gallery) is an art gallery located in Eastbourne, East Sussex, on the south coast of England. The gallery hosts one of the most significant public art collections in the Southern England, South of England ...

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. It is also a non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, bor ...

, East Sussex, in 2012 – the first public display of his work for 70 years. Exhibitions in Seaford and Lewes followed in 2013, that year being the 50th anniversary of Slater's death, and Slater's work continues to be exhibited and publicised. Slater's prints are held by the

and the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

, and can also be found in national museums in Canada and New Zealand. The Towner exhibition helped revive interest in his work and the output of other British artists who used Japanese techniques to make colour woodcuts – a printing method introduced to the UK by

Frank Morley Fletcher Frank Morley Fletcher (1866–1949), often referred to as F. Morley Fletcher, was an English painter and printmaker known primarily for his role in introducing Japanese colored woodcut printing as an important genre in Western art. Frank Flet ...

(1866–1949) in the 1890s. A book about Slater by James Trollope, called ''Slater's Sussex'', has been published in association with the Towner Gallery. Slater was taught the Japanese woodcut technique by his Sussex neighbour Arthur Rigden Read (1879–1955). The work of both artists was shown at the

Hastings Museum and Art Gallery Hastings Museum & Art Gallery is a museum and art gallery located in, Hastings, East Sussex, England. Established in 1892, it originally resided in the Brassey Institute (now the town's library), but moved to its current location in 1927. it ...

in 2017 in an exhibition called A Sussex Wave from Japan.www,hmag.org.uk

References

External links

Official website"The Hokusai of Sussex" - October 2021 article in ''The New Statesman'' magazineSlater's work
on the BBC's ''

Antiques Roadshow ''Antiques Roadshow'' is a British television programme broadcast by the BBC in which antiques appraisers travel to various regions of the United Kingdom (and occasionally in other countries) to appraise antiques brought in by local people ( ...

''
Meridian Gallery blog page

Television news video clip about Eric Slater
{{DEFAULTSORT:Slater, Eric 1896 births 1963 deaths English printmakers People from Hampstead People from Seaford, East Sussex