Paul Hambleton Landacre (July 9, 1893,
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus (, ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the List of United States ...
– June 3, 1963,
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
) was an American artist based in Los Angeles. His artistic innovations and technical virtuosity gained wood engraving a foothold as a high art form in twentieth-century America. Landacre's linocuts and wood engravings of landscapes, still lifes, nudes, and abstractions are acclaimed for the beauty of their designs and a mastery of materials. He used the finest inks and imported handmade Japanese papers and, with a few exceptions, printed his wood engravings in his studio on a nineteenth-century Washington Hand Press, which is now in the collection of the
International Printing Museum
The International Printing Museum has one of the largest collections of antique printing presses in the United States. It offers educational programs for school groups at the museum, and also has a Ben-Franklin-type printing press on a trailer tha ...
in Carson, California.
Early life in Columbus, Ohio, and San Diego, California
Paul Hambleton Landacre was born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1893, into a family of scientists. His father Walter graduated college with a degree in analytical chemistry and worked as an analytical and consulting chemist. His uncle Frank received a doctorate from the University of Chicago, became a full professor of anatomy at Ohio State University, and President of the Ohio Academy of Science. Landacre's mother, Clara Jane Hambleton, also came from a well-educated and scientifically-minded family largely of Quaker descent. Her brother, James Chace Hambleton, was a naturalist who served as the first president of the Audubon Society in Columbus, Ohio.
During his sophomore year at
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...
, Landacre suffered a debilitating streptococcus infection that left his right leg permanently stiffened and his dreams of becoming an Olympic track and field athlete shattered. In 1917, after an extended hospitalization, he left Ohio to convalesce in the more healthful climate outside San Diego where his father and step-mother had recently relocated. Landacre met his future wife, Margaret McCreery, in San Diego where they both worked in the advertising industry. Also a transplanted Midwesterner (born in Missouri in 1891), McCreery wrote advertising copy and advanced her prospects by moving to downtown Los Angeles. Landacre soon followed. They were married in July 1925 in Laguna Beach. McCreery played an instrumental, behind-the-scenes role in her husband's successful transition to becoming a professional printmaker of national renown. In the turbulent wake of his wife's death in 1963, Paul declared that "everything I did in my work and everything I thought or said was as much or more of Margaret's as it was mine."
Career in Los Angeles
Although he took a few life-drawing classes at the
Otis Art Institute
Otis College of Art and Design is a Private university, private Art school, art and design school in Los Angeles, California, United States. Established in 1918, it was the city's first independent professional school of art. The main campus is l ...
between 1923 and 1925, Landacre largely taught himself the art of printmaking. He experimented with the technically demanding art of carving linoleum blocks and, eventually, woodblocks for both wood engravings and woodcuts. His fascination with printmaking and his ambition to make a place for himself in the world of fine art coalesced in the late 1920s when he met
Jake Zeitlin. Zeitlin's antiquarian bookshop in Los Angeles—a cultural hub that survived into the 1980s—included a small gallery space for the showing of artworks, primarily prints and drawings, and it is there in 1929 that Landacre's first prints were exhibited. In early 1930 Zeitlin gave Landacre his first significant solo exhibition in southern California. Zeitlin's ever-widening circle of artists embraced
Edward Weston
Edward Henry Weston (March 24, 1886 – January 1, 1958) was an American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers" and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." Over the course ...
, a photographer, and
Henrietta Shore
Henrietta Mary Shore (January 22, 1880 – May 17, 1963) was a Canadian-born artist who was a pioneer of modernism. She lived a large part of her life in the United States, most notably California.
Early life
Shore was born in Toronto, Canada, to ...
, a painter and printmaker, each of whom shared the modernist vision that so captivated Landacre. In early 1934, Zeitlin, together with screenwriter and Hollywood insider
Delmer Daves
Delmer Lawrence Daves (July 24, 1904 – August 17, 1977) was an American screenwriter, film director and film producer. He worked in many Film genre, genres, including film noir and war film, warfare, but he is best known for his Western (genre ...
, organized the Paul Landacre Association. Its thirteen original members included a cross section of local cultural and industrial elites who reflected the vigor, wealth, and cosmopolitan nature of early modern Los Angeles. Each member committed $100 annually to purchase Landacre's new works. Between 1934 and 1940, the years of the Association's sponsorship, Landacre "reached artistic maturity and produced a succession of award-winning prints ...."
Well-connected to the New York art scene, Zeitlin handled the work of many American artists represented by
Carl Zigrosser
Carl Zigrosser (1891–1975) was an art dealer best known for founding and running the New York Weyhe Gallery in the 1920s and 1930s, and as Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Philadelphia Museum of Art between 1940 and 1963. In the 1910s, ...
, director of the Weyhe Gallery in Manhattan and, later, curator of prints at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. By 1936 Zigrosser considered Landacre to be "one of the few graphic artists worth watching" in America, and included him among his portraits of 24 contemporary American printmakers in his seminal work, "The Artist in America" (Knopf 1942).
Rockwell Kent
Rockwell Kent (June 21, 1882 – March 13, 1971) was an American painter, printmaker, illustrator, writer, sailor, adventurer and voyager.
Biography
Rockwell Kent was born in Tarrytown, New York. Kent was of English American, English descent. ...
also praised Landacre as, without exception, the finest wood engraver in America. Elected an associate member of the
National Academy of Design
The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Frederick Styles Agate, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, an ...
in 1939 and a full Academician in 1946, Landacre was honored in 1947 with a solo exhibition of his wood engravings at the
Smithsonian Museum
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, education and research centers, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded on August 10, 1846, it operates as a trus ...
, its graphic arts division under the curatorial leadership of
Jacob Kainen. Los Angeles printer and book designer Harry Ward Ritchie (
Ward Ritchie
Harry "Ward" Ritchie (Los Angeles, California June 15, 1905Laguna Beach, California January 24, 1996) was an American printer, book designer, book collector and writer of around 100 books. He was part of the "Golden Age" of fine printing that took ...
) also recognized Landacre's extraordinary gifts and between 1932 and 1957 collaborated with him on some 25 printing projects. Often, Ritchie commissioned Landacre to conceive decorative wood engravings for privately distributed books of small format and limited edition.
Of national and local appeal, many of Landacre's linoleum cuts and wood engravings were inspired by the American Far West, including the hills and mountains of Big Sur, Palm Springs, Monterey, and Berkeley. "California Hills and Other Wood Engravings by Paul Landacre" (Los Angeles: Bruce McCallister, 1931), a limited-edition folio comprising 15 of Landacre's early works printed from the original blocks, was awarded recognition as one of the "Fifty Books of the Year" for 1931. In rapid succession, three books featuring his wood engraved designs also garnered such recognition: "The Boar and the Shibboleth" (1933), "A Gil Blas in California" (1933), and "XV Poems for the Heath Broom" (1934). In the 1950s, the AIGA recognized "A Natural History of Western Trees" (1953) and "Books West Southwest, Essays on Writers, Their Books and Their Land" (1957) as "Fifty Books of the Year", and they became the fifth and sixth books with Landacre designs to win the prestigious award. For "Trees" Landacre contributed more than 200 ink drawings on scratchboard.
Landacre achieved a singular, mature style lauded for its formal beauty—meticulously carved fine lines, delicate cross hatching, and flecking—elements in white which strikingly contrast with velvety blacks. His prints, including the early linocuts, gained early and lasting critical recognition, were awarded numerous prizes, and are found in more than a hundred and fifty public collections throughout the United States.
Landacre died in 1963, soon after, and emotionally resulting from, the death of his wife who had been an essential working companion for 38 years, even helping the artist late in his life pull impressions from the formidable Washington Hand Press.
City of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument
In March 1932, the artist and his wife purchased a rustic one-bedroom bungalow at 2006 El Moran Street where they lived for the remainder of their lives. The modest home was perched near the top of an impossibly steep and winding Peru Street.
The neighborhood tract was known as the ''Semi-Tropic Spiritualists' Association'' in an area of Echo Park formerly known as Edendale, an historic district near downtown Los Angeles. Conservationist
Charles J. Fisher successfully applied for landmark status, and in March 2006, the Landacres's hillside home was declared City of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 839.
Legacy
*Landacre's papers and many of his original blocks and prints are housed at the
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
The William Andrews Clark Memorial Library (Clark Library), is a library affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles. It holds books and manuscripts with particularly many regarding English literature and history from the 17th-19th ...
at
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
.
*
Jake Milgram Wien, a cultural historian and independent curator, is author of ''Paul Landacre: California Hills, Hollywood & the World Beyond''--the two-volume catalogue raisonne of Paul Landacre's prints, drawings, and paintings. The catalogue was published by Abbeville Press in February 2025. With 350 catalogue entries and upwards of 1000 illustrations, the volumes include a life chronology, a comprehensive listing of the artist's solo exhibitions, key reprints of hard-to-find archival documents pertaining to the artist and his wife, and a selected bibliography.
*Paul and Margaret Landacre's Cabin in
Echo Park
Echo Park is a neighborhood in the east-Central Los Angeles, central region of Los Angeles, California. Located to the northwest of Downtown Los Angeles, Downtown, it is bordered by Silver Lake, Los Angeles, Silver Lake to the west and Chinato ...
is now a
Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument
Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments are sites which have been designated by the Los Angeles, California, Cultural Heritage Commission as worthy of preservation based on architectural, historic and cultural criteria.
History
The Historic-Cul ...
Works illustrated
*''California Hills and Other Wood Engravings by Paul Landacre'' (edition of 500, 1931)
*''The Boar and the Shibboleth'' by
Edward Doro
Edward Doro (February 3, 1909 – 1987) was an American poet.
Life
Doro was born in Dickinson, North Dakota, the son of a Californian banker. He studied at the University of Southern California (B.A., 1929) and the University of Pennsylvania (M.A ...
(edition of 500, 1933)
*''A Gil Blas in California'' by
Alexandre Dumas, père
Alexandre Dumas (born Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas , was a French novelist and playwright.
His works have been translated into many languages and he is one of the mos ...
(1934)
*''XV Poems for the Heath Broom'' by
Ward Ritchie
Harry "Ward" Ritchie (Los Angeles, California June 15, 1905Laguna Beach, California January 24, 1996) was an American printer, book designer, book collector and writer of around 100 books. He was part of the "Golden Age" of fine printing that took ...
aka Peter Lum Quince (edition of 50, 1934)
*''Farewell Thou Busy World'' by
John Hodgdon Bradley (1935)
*''The Year's At The Spring'' by
Ward Ritchie
Harry "Ward" Ritchie (Los Angeles, California June 15, 1905Laguna Beach, California January 24, 1996) was an American printer, book designer, book collector and writer of around 100 books. He was part of the "Golden Age" of fine printing that took ...
aka Peter Lum Quince (edition of 150, 1938)
*''Flowering Earth'' by
Donald Culross Peattie
Donald Culross Peattie (June 21, 1898 – November 16, 1964) was an American botanist, naturalist and author. He was described by Joseph Wood Krutch as "perhaps the most widely read of all contemporary American nature writers" during his heyday ...
(1939)
*''The Road of a Naturalist'' by
Donald Culross Peattie
Donald Culross Peattie (June 21, 1898 – November 16, 1964) was an American botanist, naturalist and author. He was described by Joseph Wood Krutch as "perhaps the most widely read of all contemporary American nature writers" during his heyday ...
(1941)
*''Tales of Soldiers and Civilians'' by
Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842 – ) was an American short story writer, journalist, poet, and American Civil War veteran. His book '' The Devil's Dictionary'' was named one of "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" by the ...
(Limited Editions Club, edition of 1500, 1943; also trade edition, 1943)
*''Immortal Village'' by
Donald Culross Peattie
Donald Culross Peattie (June 21, 1898 – November 16, 1964) was an American botanist, naturalist and author. He was described by Joseph Wood Krutch as "perhaps the most widely read of all contemporary American nature writers" during his heyday ...
(1945)
*''A Natural History of Trees of Eastern and Central North America'' by
Donald Culross Peattie
Donald Culross Peattie (June 21, 1898 – November 16, 1964) was an American botanist, naturalist and author. He was described by Joseph Wood Krutch as "perhaps the most widely read of all contemporary American nature writers" during his heyday ...
(1950; 2nd ed 1966; reprint as trade paperback with introduction by Robert Finch, 1991)
*''A Natural History of Western Trees'' by
Donald Culross Peattie
Donald Culross Peattie (June 21, 1898 – November 16, 1964) was an American botanist, naturalist and author. He was described by Joseph Wood Krutch as "perhaps the most widely read of all contemporary American nature writers" during his heyday ...
(1953; reprint as trade paperback with introduction by Robert Finch, 1991)
*''The Great Chain of Life'' by
Joseph Wood Krutch (1957)
*''De Rerum Natura
n the Nature of Things' by
Titus Lucretius Carus (Limited Editions Club, edition of 1500, 1957; also trade edition, 1957)
*''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life'' by
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...
(Limited Editions Club, edition of 1500, 1963; also trade edition, 1963)
Works reproduced in
*''The Artist in America'', Carl Zigrosser (New York: Knopf, 1942).
*''Prints by California Artists'' edited by T. V. Roelof-Lanner (Crest of Hollywood Fine Arts Publishers, 1954)
*''Paul Landacre: A Life and a Legacy'', Anthony L. Lehman (Los Angeles: Dawson's Book Shop, 1983).
*''Graphic Excursions: American Prints in Black and White, 1900-1950, Selections From the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams'', The American Federation of Arts (New York: David R. Godine, 1991).
*''Paul Landacre and the Ward Ritchie Press'', Ward Ritchie, ''Matrix'' 15 (Winter 1995), a journal printed and published in an edition of 950 copies by The Whittington Press, England.
*''Pressed in Time: American Prints 1905-1950'', Jessica Todd Smith and Kevin M. Murphy (San Marino, California: Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, 2007).
*''L.A.'s Early Moderns'', Victoria Dailey, Natalie Shivers, Michael Dawson, and William Deverell (Los Angeles: Balcony Press, 2003).
*''The Best of Both Worlds: Finely Printed Livres d'Artistes, 1910-2010'', Jerry Kelly, Riva Castleman, and Anne H. Hoy, with a Preface by Peter Strauss (Boston: David R. Godine, 2011).
Notes
References
*Anthony L. Lehman (1983), ''Paul Landacre: A Life and a Legacy'', Dawson's Book Shop.
*Sally Ruth Bourrie (1983), ''Paul Landacre: Prints and Drawings'', Los Angeles County Museum of Art exhibition catalogue.
Jake Milgram Wien (2016), ''Paul Landacre's World'', The Magazine ANTIQUES 183, no. 4 (July/August 2016), pp. 116–123.''Paul Landacre's Artistic Journey: An Interview with Jake Milgram Wien'', BLOCK AND BURIN, no. 67 (Spring 2022), pp. 18–29.
External links
-
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...
Paul Landacre Wood Engravings* http://www.artnet.com/artists/paul-landacre/biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Landacre, Paul
American wood engravers
American printmakers
1893 births
1963 deaths
Otis College of Art and Design alumni
Artists from Columbus, Ohio
People from Echo Park, Los Angeles
20th-century American engravers