Gwenda Morgan (1 February 1908 – 9 January 1991) was a British wood engraver. She lived in the town of Petworth in

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Early life

Morgan was born in Petworth, her father having moved there to work at the ironmongers, Austen & Co, of which he later became proprietor. He was the son of a Welsh-born military farrier.

Education

Following school in Petworth and at Brighton and Hove High School, Morgan, studied at Goldsmiths' College of Art in London from 1926. From 1930 she attended the Grosvenor School of Modern Art in

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where she was taught and strongly influenced by the principal, Iain Macnab.Christopher Sandford, 'Gwenda Morgan: an Engraver of the Countryside.' Studio International, 1950. Volume 140. Page 16. The Grosvenor School was a progressive art school and the championing of wood engraving and linocuts fitted with its democratic approach to the arts.Jeanne Cannizzo, ''A Study in Contrast: Sybil Andrews and Gwenda Morgan''. Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Canada. 2015.

Works

Morgan was commissioned to illustrate a number of books published by private presses. For the Samson Press she produced the frontispiece for ''Duke Hamilton's Wager'' in 1934 and ''Pictures and Rhymes'' in 1936. She illustrated four books for the Golden Cockerel Press, including

Thomas Gray Thomas Gray (26 December 1716 – 30 July 1771) was an English poet, letter-writer, and classics, classical scholar at Cambridge University, being a fellow first of Peterhouse then of Pembroke College, Cambridge, Pembroke College. He is widely ...

's ''

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard ''Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard'' is a poem by Thomas Gray, completed in 1750 and first published in 1751. The poem's origins are unknown, but it was partly inspired by Gray's thoughts following the death of the poet Richard West in 1742 ...

'' (1946) and ''Grimms' Other Tales'' (1956). The main body of her work drew upon the landscape and buildings around Petworth and the neighbouring South Downs. Her work was inspired by that of Macnab, Percy Douglas Bliss and the Sussex-bred Eric Ravilious. Throughout the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

she worked as a Land Girl just outside Petworth. Her record of those years was published by the Whittington Press in 2002 as ''The Diary of a Land Girl, 1939-1945''. Her prints are held in the collections of the

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and the

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in London, the Ashmolean Museum in

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, and the Fitzwilliam Museum in

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, among others. In 2015 an exhibition, "A Study in Contrast: Sybil Andrews and Gwenda Morgan", was held at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria in

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, Canada, comparing and contrasting the fellow Grosvenor School artists. Some of her prints are on permanent display in the Leconfield Hall, Petworth, to which Morgan gave a substantial bequest on her death. Wood engravings from the original Morgan blocks are being sold in aid of the Leconfield Hall. Kevis House Gallery in Petworth hold the largest collection of the artist's work. Three of Morgans engravings are illustrated in the book 'Sussex Landscapes: Chalk, Wood and Water', published for the eponymous exhibition at Pallant House Gallery in 2022/23. The book contains an essay 'Eric Ravilious and Gwenda Morgan. A New Age of Wood Engraving' by Dr. Lydia Miller.

Affiliations

She was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers & Engravers, an Honorary Member of the Society of Wood Engravers, and a Member of the National Society of Painters, Sculptors and Engravers, and she showed work at their annual exhibitions. She also exhibited 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 ...

and at the Redfern Gallery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morgan, Gwenda 1908 births 1991 deaths 20th-century English engravers People from Petworth Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London Alumni of the Grosvenor School of Modern Art 20th-century English women artists British women engravers