# Ethelbert White

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Ethelbert_White
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Ethelbert_White.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethelbert_White
> Source revision: 1352156108
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

{{Short description|English artist and wood engraver}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
'''Ethelbert White'''  (26 February 1891 - 5 March 1972) was an English artist and [wood engraver](/source/wood_engraver). He was an early member of the [Society of Wood Engravers](/source/Society_of_Wood_Engravers)<ref name=Selborne>Joanna Selborne, ‘The Society of Wood Engravers: the early years’ in ''Craft History 1'' (1988), published by Combined Arts.</ref> and a founding member of the English Wood Engraving Society in 1925.<ref name=Chapman/> He also worked in [oils](/source/oil_painting) and [water colour](/source/watercolour_painting). He was a member of the [Royal Watercolour Society](/source/Royal_Watercolour_Society), and exhibited regularly at the [Royal Academy](/source/Royal_Academy).

==Wood engravings==

White's introduction to wood engraving came in 1920. Hitherto he had worked largely in watercolour. In 1920 Cyril Beaumont, for whom he had produced designs for booklets on the [Russian ballet](/source/Russian_ballet) (''L'Oiseau de Feu'', ''[The Three Cornered Hat](/source/The_Three_Cornered_Hat)'', ''Thamar'' and ''Impressions of the Russian Ballet'', all 1919) and two limited editions (''Eclogues, a Book of Poems'' 1919 and ''The Smile of the Sphinx'' 1920), asked him to produce colour wood engravings for an edition of W. W. Gibson's ''Home'' for his Beaumont Press.<ref>B. T. Jackson,  'The Beaumont Press' in ''Private Library'' (Spring 1975), published by the [Private Libraries Association](/source/Private_Libraries_Association).</ref> White then started to produce independent wood engravings very much in the modern style advocated by [Noel Rooke](/source/Noel_Rooke). These were unusually large in scale.

White's most important book illustrated with wood engravings is ''[The Story of My Heart](/source/The_Story_of_My_Heart)'' by [Richard Jefferies](/source/Richard_Jefferies), published by [Duckworth](/source/Gerald_Duckworth_and_Company) in 1923. Thomas Balston considers this to be the first substantial book illustrated with modern wood engravings to be published in Britain.<ref>Thomas Balston, 'The wood-engravings of Ethelbert White' in ''Image 3'' (Winter 1949-50).</ref> In the same year the [Golden Cockerel Press](/source/Golden_Cockerel_Press) published an edition of [Spenser's](/source/Edmund_Spenser) ''Wedding Songs'' with colour wood engravings by White.

His final set of wood engravings was for [Thoreau's](/source/Henry_Thoreau) ''[Walden](/source/Walden)'', published by [Penguin Books](/source/Penguin_Books) as part of a series of 10 books called the ''Penguin Illustrated Classics'' in 1938. By 1940 he had ceased to produce wood engravings.

==Work in oils and watercolour==
White was very much a member of the art scene in England. He was elected to the [London Group](/source/London_Group) in 1915 and became a member of the [New English Art Club](/source/New_English_Art_Club) in 1921.<ref name=Fine/> He was one of the first artists to become a member of the [Artists' International Association](/source/Artists'_International_Association).<ref name=Chapman/> He was a member of the [Royal Watercolour Society](/source/Royal_Watercolour_Society) and exhibited regularly at the [Royal Academy](/source/Royal_Academy).

He was much in sympathy with British [avant-garde](/source/avant-garde) artists and was influenced by the [Post-Impressionist](/source/Post-Impressionist) painters in France. Hilary Chapman describes him as a pastoralist, "his artistic vision rooted in his genuine delight in nature".<ref name=Chapman/> His work, which became looser and more impressionistic as time progressed, consists of a very large number of oil paintings and watercolours.

==His life and work==
White came from a wealthy background and had no need to sell his work to live. In 1919 he married Elizabeth Crofton Dodwell, better known as Betty, and in the same year studied at [St John's Wood School of Art](/source/St_John's_Wood_School_of_Art) in London. In the early 1920s he bought an original horse-drawn [gypsy](/source/gypsy) caravan which he drove around London; it also became the summer home for the couple as they drove around [Surrey](/source/Surrey) and [Sussex](/source/Sussex). They enjoyed the simple life, but it was the simple life of the rich, as White bought a second home in [Amberley](/source/Amberley%2C_West_Sussex) as a studio for the summer months. They loved parties, and Bertie and Betty were much in demand as entertainers, White on the guitar and Betty singing. They were a very sociable and loving couple. White became president of the [Artists' General Benevolent Institution](/source/Artists'_General_Benevolent_Institution) in 1933.

White was a traditional English landscape artist, and his subject matter was mostly the scenery of [Southern England](/source/Southern_England).<ref name=Fleece/> After his death there were several memorial exhibitions, notably at the [Fine Art Society](/source/Fine_Art_Society) in 1979.<ref name=Fine>Peyton Skipwith, ''Ethelbert White (1891-1972): a Memorial Exhibition'' (London, Fine Art Society, 1979).</ref> A centenary exhibition of his wood engravings was held at the Pallant Gallery in 1991.

==Further reading==
The standard text on White is by Hilary Chapman.<ref name=Chapman>Hilary Chapman, ''Ethelbert White (1891-1972): Painter, Printmaker'' (Bicester, Primrose Hill Press, 2003), {{ISBN|1-901648-34-6}}.</ref> The unusually large scale of his independent engravings can be seen in the portfolio by Simon Lawrence's Fleece Press, published in 1992 in an edition of 200 copies.<ref name=Fleece>Hilary Chapman, ''Ethelbert White's Wood Engravings'' (Netherton, Fleece Press, 1992), {{ISBN|0-948375-31-0}}.</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:White, Ethelbert}}
Category:1891 births
Category:1972 deaths
Category:20th-century English male artists
Category:Alumni of St John's Wood Art School
Category:English wood engravers
Category:People from Amberley, West Sussex
Category:20th-century English engravers
Category:20th-century English illustrators

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Ethelbert White](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethelbert_White) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethelbert_White?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.