Edward Bawden CBE RA

(Essex 1903-1989)

 

Campion & Columbine, 1947

 

woodcut

signed in pencil, lower right ‘Edward Bawden’, and titled lower left ‘Campion & Columbine’

25 x 18 cm.

 

 

Columbine, deep purple and one of Ophelia’s flowers, was a mainstay of Tudor gardens and embroidery, and later became known as ‘Granny’s Bonnet’ (think of an 18th century lady’s nightcap).

 

But here they are in black and white, in a linocut reproduced as a lithograph by Edward Bawden in 1947, every bit as evocative in monochrome. His sense of structure and line come to the fore.