Monica Poole (1921 - 2003)

Wood engraving
Signed and titled
19.8 x 10.8 cm
From the edition of 175

In the 1940s Monica Poole came across a copy D.H. Lawrence's 'The Man Who Died', illustrated by John Farleigh. Enthralled by the interplay of human and organic forms, she went on to study under Farleigh at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. A talented wood engraver, Poole combined natural forms with unsettling, dreamlike landscapes, adopting a tone reminiscent of the Neo-Romantics. Her gnarled, curving trees and vegetation echo the work of Graham Sutherland, whose illustrations had resonated with her.

By the 1950s the popularity of Neo-Romanticism was beginning to wane. At the same time materials had also become harder to obtain, with only one firm producing the boxwood traditionally needed for wood engraving. As a result of these events combined with a personal tragedy, Poole would seclude herself in Tonbridge, occasionally teaching at the adult education centre. She continued to work but the output was small; only 36 wood-engravings were made between 1977 and 1993. However, by the 1980s artistic fashions had shifted again, and renewed interest in her work resulted in solo exhibitions in London and a major retrospective at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford in 1993.