- Also known as
-
Edward Wadsworth
-
primary name: Wadsworth, Edward Alexander
- Details
- individual; painter/draughtsman; printmaker; British; Male
- Life dates
- 1889-1949
- Biography
- Wood and copper engraver, tempera painter of nautical, landscape and still life subjects; vorticist and later surrealist painter. Born in Cleckheaton, Yorkshire and educated at Fettes College, Edinburgh. Studied engineering in Munich, 1906-7 and part-time at the painting school set up by Henry Knirr (1862-1944). In 1908 he studied under Charles Stephenson at Bradford School of Art, winning a scholarship to the Slade School of Fine Art, 1908-12. He was associated with Wyndham Lewis and the Vorticist Group and produced work for the 'Blast' magazine. During WWI he served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and was involved in designing camouflage for allied shipping, then producing a series of dazzle-ship woodcuts. His first solo exhibition of woodcuts and drawings was held at the Society of Wood Engravers in 1920 with an exhibition of his paintings at the Leicester Galleries, 1923. He was a member of: the London Group, 1914, Group X, 1920, the New English Art Club, 1921 and Unit One in 1933. Between the inter-war years he exhibited at Arthur Tooth and Sons and the Mayor Gallery. He was elected ARA in 1943.He travelled extensively on the continent, contributed to the Parisian journal 'Abstraction-Creation', created murals for the liner Queen Mary and published a series of books. He died in London. The Tate Gallery held a memorial exhibition in 1951 and a centenary show was held at Bradford City Art Gallery. His work is held by the Tate Gallery, V&A Museum, provincial galleries as well as by the British Museum.
- Bibliography
- Barbara Wadsworth, 'EW a painter's life', 1989 (contains a catalogue of his prints)
- Colnaghi, exhibition catalogue 1974 (by Mark Glazebrook) - this was used as the standard reference for the prints until the publication of Barbara Wadsworth's biography, which has superseded it
- which is now superseded by the catalogue by Jeremy Greenwood of 2002
