Modern British Prints

All original prints are preceded by the creation of a matrix – for example an etching plate, a woodblock or a lithographic plate (or even a lithographic stone - a huge chunk of marble).

MODBRITPRINTS.COM specialises in presenting these objects as a unique record of a moment of creation.

Eric Gill recognised the importance of his own work when he bought back (for the sum of  £200) the blocks that the Golden Cockerel Press had commissioned from him up to 1933.

Many of these he then cut into sculptured silhouettes and filled with gesso, subsequently selling them or giving them to friends as ornaments. Other printmakers sometimes had less regard for their blocks, stones or plates (or their hands were forced by poverty) and re-used them by preparing a new surface, so that the original was lost to them, and to us too.

Everything that is remarkable about printmaking is contained in these objects. Studying them allows the viewer to engage directly with the art of printmaking - its physical process and tactile properties, and to appreciate the art of original rather than mechanical prints. It is the hand, sweat, and the breath of the creator which we experience when we look carefully at how they were made, leading us to glimpse into the aritst's own motivation and conception of the image at hand.

MODBRITPRINTS.COM specialises in the work of Clare Leighton, Eric Gill, Charles Tunnicliffe, Eric Ravilious, Frank Brangwyn, Robert and Frederic Austin, and other luminaries of 20th century printmaking such as Gertrude Hermes, Leon Underwood and Tirzah Garwood.