Agnes Miller Parker
(Irvine 1895-1980 Greenock)
Reedbuck, 1929
woodcut on fine wove paper
titled and numbered in pencil lower left ‘Reedbuck 7/50’ and signed & dated in pencil lower right ‘AMillerParker.29.'
image size: 12 x 9 cm.
sheet size 20.2 x 18.5 cm.
in a period reeded frame
Agnes Miller Parker worked in oil and tempera but is known best as an illustrator thanks to a collaboration with H.E. Bates on two iconic wood engraved books published by Victor Gollancz, ‘Through the Woods’ (1936), and ‘Down the River’ (1937).
She studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1911-1917, and in 1918 married the painter, William McCance (1894-1970), with whom she would move to London. In the 1920s, the couples’ output was largely Vorticist. This aesthetic is reflected in the sylised shape of the deer in this rare woodcut, as well as its abstracted background.