The Tate website defines linocut thus: “…The lino block consists of a thin layer of linoleum (a canvas backing coated with a preparation of solidified linseed oil) usually mounted on wood. The soft linoleum can be cut away more...
The Tate website defines linocut thus:
“…The lino block consists of a thin layer of linoleum (a canvas backing coated with a preparation of solidified linseed oil) usually mounted on wood. The soft linoleum can be cut away more easily than a wood-block and in any direction (as it has no grain) to produce a raised surface that can be inked and printed. Its slightly textured surface accepts ink evenly. Linoleum was invented in the nineteenth century as a floor covering. It became popular with artists and amateurs for printmaking in the twentieth century…”
It is thought to have been first displayed in the first decade of the twentieth century and its popularity has grown ever since. The artist I am showcasing today is a twentieth century Australian artist who made her name as a skilled exponent of this artistic technique. Let me introduce you to Ethel Louise Spowers, a painter and printmaker.
Ethel Louise Spowers was born on July 11th 1890 at South Yarra, Melbourne. She was the second born of six children of New Zealand-born newspaper proprietor, William George Lucas Spowers and his London-born wife Annie Christina, née Westgarth. She had four sisters, Frances, Cecilia, Rosalind and Myra and a younger brother, Allan. Ethel was brought up in a wealthy and cultured household in a mansion in St Georges Road in the Melbourne suburb of Toorak.
The Kite by Ethel Spowers (1918) Watercolour
Ethel was enrolled at the private Melbourne Church of England Girls Grammar which she matriculated from in 1908. Having completed her schooling, she went with the family on a trip to Europe and Ethel attended an art school in Paris. This introduction to world of art, together with the encouragement from her mother and grandfather, both of who were amateur artists, and who inspired her. In 1911, she enrolled on a six year course in drawing and painting at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School in Melbourne, where she became known for her black and white children’s story illustrations. As a student she was allowed to exhibit annually at the National Gallery of Victoria, and also having become a member of the Arts and Crafts Society of Victoria she began to regularly exhibit in their exhibitions. In 1918, selected members of the Arts and Crafts Society of Victoria were invited to exhibit with the Arts and Crafts Society of New South Wales and it was here that Ethel sold her first work. It was a pen and ink and watercolour painting entitled The Kite. The National Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney purchased it.
School is Out by Ethel Spowers (1936)
In 1920 Spowers held her first solo exhibition at the Decorations Gallery in Melbourne. The exhibition comprised of fifty-four of her works which included black and white drawings, watercolours and two oils, many of which depicted fairy-tale and nursery rhyme themes. In 1921, Ethel Spowers provided the illustrations for Furnley Maurice’s novel Arrows of Longing
The Pigeon Loft by Ethel Spowers (1925)
That same year, the Spowers once again travelled to Europe, this time for an extended stay. During this European voyage of discovery Ethel continued with her artistic studies. Whilst in London she attended the Regent Street Polytechnic, and she and fellow Australian, Mary Reynolds, exhibited their work at the Macrae Gallery. Buoyed with the success of the exhibition Ethel decided to prolong her stay in Europe whilst her parents and siblings went back to Australia.
The Blind by Ethel Spowers (1926)
During her European stay, she also went to Paris, where she enrolled at Academié Ranson. Later, in 1923, whilst in Paris, her friend, Eveline Syme, from back home came to see her. Spowers and Syme were childhood friends who came from rival media families who ran competing newspapers, The Argus and The Age. Eveline Syme and Ethel Spowers both attended life drawing classes at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. In 1924, after three years of living in Europe, Ethel returned home to Melbourne and had her work exhibited at the Victorian Artists’ Society as well as having a solo exhibition at the New Gallery in Melbourne in 1925 and 1927. It was around this time that Ethel Spowers became interested in Japanese woodblock printing, The prints are made by carving an image on a wooden block, applying ink or paint, and pressing it on paper or fabric. She began to experiment with this art form.
The Plough by Ethel Spowers (1928) Lino-cut
Claude Flight was one of the leading artists to experiment with and make popular the linoleum cutting and printing technique. He initially studied art at the Heatherley School of Fine Art from 1913-1914 and exhibited at the Royal Academy, Paris , the Royal Society of British Artists. and the Redfern. He taught at the Grosvenor School of Modern Art from 1926.
Ethel Spowers first became aware of Claude Flight’s ideas through her good friend, Eveline Syme, who in 1928 had bought a copy of Flight’s groundbreaking book Lino?cuts. A hand?book of linoleum?cut colour printing, which was published in 1927. Spowers and Syme were captivated with this new form of art. Ethel Spowers was familiar with woodcut printing but she wanted to learn more, and so, a few months later, she and her friend had enrolled on a course run by Claude Flight at the Grosvenor School of Art, London.
The Enchanted Brds by Ethel Spowers (1927) Watercolour
Claude Flight educated them in the art of colour printing without a linear key block and were inspired by his encouragement to encapsulate the speed and movement of contemporary urban life simply, by simplified form, bold colour and rhythmic patterns. Eveline and Ethel learnt quickly and absorbed all Flight had to tell them and quickly developed their own distinctive new styles and subject matter.
Speed, a lino-cut by Claude Flight
Whereas, at the time, Flight was interested in depicting the modern age through transport and industry, Ethel Spowers preferred to depict scenes of children and family life including picnics, urban street scenes and children at play. Her bold and simplistic works oozed vibrancy.
Melbourne from the River by Ethel Spowers (c.1924)
Once back in Australia, Ethel Spowers set about promoting the lino-cut medium as she fervently believed that it was a modern medium for a modern age, and she and Syme, along with Dorrit Black staged a group exhibition of their lino-cut works at the Everyman’s Lending Library in Melbourne in 1930. Ethel also demonstrated the technique at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition, held in Melbourne, in October 1935.
The Rain Cloud by Ethel Spowers (1931)
The London art scene took notice of Spowers’ work and the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the British Museum, bought works of hers in 1930. The following year Ethel Spowers returned to London and once again enrolled at the Grosvenor School of Modern Art to study with Claude Flight. While in Australia, Spowers continued to promote this modernist art style through the media and lectures. She became a founding member of Contemporary Group in Melbourne and acted as an agent for Claude Flight and his circle in Australia. Ethel Spowers was a leading light of this group and was continually having to defend this modernist art style against its more traditionalist disparagers. In an article in the Australasian in April 1930 she pleaded with all lovers of art to be tolerant to new ideas and not to condemn without understanding. She also gained a teaching post at the Swinburne Technical College, Melbourne in the mid-1930s.
Resting Models by Ethel Spowers (c.1934)
In the late 1930s Ethel Spowers stopped practicing art after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Her health steadily deteriorated and she died on May 5th 1947 after a long illness. She was aged 56 and was buried at Fawkner Memorial Park in northwestern Melbourne.
