CLARE LEIGHTON’S WOOD ENGRAVINGS OF ENGLISH COUNTRY LIFE BETWEEN THE WARS Caroline Mesrobian Hickman A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Art. Chapel Hill 2011 Approved by: Dr. Arthur Marks Dr. Ross Barrett Dr. John Bowles Dr. Timothy Riggs Dr. Dorothy Verkerk © 2011 Caroline Mesrobian Hickman ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT CAROLINE MESROBIAN HICKMAN: Clare Leighton’s Wood Engravings of English Country Life between the Wars (Under the direction of Arthur Marks) Clare Leighton’s wood engravings of interwar English country life portray a rural culture barely touched by modernity, a domesticated landscape in which robust farm workers maintain a close relationship with the soil and its associated values of simplicity, stability, and diligence. Void of references to the hardships of rural life during a period of sustained agricultural depression and unprecedented rural commodification, the prints speak to a sense of order, permanence, peace, and purpose. At once imaginative and scrupulously accurate depictions of rural labor and craft, they nourish nostalgia and the preservationist impulse to record dying traditions. This study seeks to contextualize the images in their original purpose as book illustrations. A close reading of the books for which Leighton created the engravings shows that the text serves to idealize country life while also speaking to the disorders and anxieties of the turbulent ’30s. The Farmer’s Year (1933), Four Hedges (1935), and Country Matters (1937), mediate her various publishers’ senses of the market and differing viewpoints with her personal and wider concerns. All voice a deep sense of loss for traditional modes of living that fulfill a range of criteria for the country life genre, yet each addresses distinct concerns relevant to changing cultural interests and anxieties in a period of uneasy peace between the world wars. The landscape becomes a stage against which can be expressed deep-seated communal and personal reaction to the destructive iii elements of mechanization as well as for advocating her strong humanitarian beliefs and modernist interests. Moving past debates about national identity, tradition and modernism, she sets out a basic doctrine for a peaceful, communal existence that rises above issues of race, class, and national interest: renewing an organic, symbiotic connection with nature and tending to the land, a creatively singular vision enabled by a sustained engagement with modernist formal means. iv To my husband, Harrison Hickman; my son, Ralfe Hickman; and my parents, Carol and Ralfe Mesrobian, for their unwavering support and encouragement and To Betty and Douglas Duffy, champions of Clare Leighton’s art, who introduced me to her work v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many friends, colleagues, and advisors have encouraged and guided me in my research and writing on Clare Leighton over the years, and I remain indebted to each of them for their sustained support and interest. Foremost is Dr. Arthur Marks, my dissertation advisor, who stuck steadfastly with the project over an extended period of time. Dissertation committee members Ross Barrett, John Bowles, Timothy Riggs, and Dorothy Verkerk, as well as advisory members Allan Life and Charles McNamara all provided extended wise counsel. David Leighton, Clare Leighton’s nephew and the executor of her estate, generously gave of his time and expertise whenever I had questions and kindly granted me permission to quote extensively from her papers that were microfilmed by the Archives of American Art, as well as from other archival collections, and to reproduce numerous examples of her work as illustrations for this study. Moreover, I am truly indebted to him for taking time to read the manuscript draft and to offer his gracious, thoughtful guidance. My thanks also to the staffs of the archival collections cited at the end of this study; their quick, professional responses to my inquiries and requests are greatly appreciated. I also thank numerous librarians at Washington, DC institutions, especially the Library of Congress, Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery, American University, US Department of Labor, and National Gallery of Art, and vi at UNC-Chapel Hill, for their expertise and assistance in locating and making available frequently hard-to-find publications. Former fellow UNC-Chapel Hill art department graduate students Linda Docherty, Brandon Brame Fortune, and Nancy Witherell offered invaluable advice and perspectives and ongoing friendships. Anne Wake steadily encouraged me and kept up with my progress. Timothy Dickinson’s encyclopedic grasp of Leighton’s times helped open my art historian’s focus to wider perspectives. Ben Margolis provided helpful technical assistance. Foremost, my family, including my husband, Harrison Hickman; our son, Ralfe; my parents, Carol and Ralfe Mesrobian; my sister, Catherine Mesrobian Smith; and her husband, Frank Smith, deserve my deep gratitude for their sustained interest, encouragement, and support for this project. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS …………………………………………………………… x INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………………………. 1 Chapter I. SHAPING A VISION OF THE COUNTRYSIDE …..………………... 30 Early Life, Art and Engraving Training; Early Prints ………..... 31 Early Publication and Commissions for Journals and Books …. 47 The Critical Response …………………………………………. 69 II. THE FARMER’S YEAR: PATRIOTISM, POLITICS, AND THE GREAT WAR …...………………………………………. 79 Overview ………………………………………………………. 81 The Rural Laborer, Nostalgia, and National Ideals …...………. 83 Leighton’s Country Life Publishers as Cultural Agents …..…... 94 Redemptive, Disfigured, and Pastoral Landscapes ……………104 The Critical Response ………………….…...…………………130 III. FOUR HEDGES : MEDIATING TRADITION AND MODERNISM .. 135 Overview …………………………………….…………………137 The Garden as Symbol of National Identity …………………...139 Four Hedges ’ Egalitarian Vision ………………….…………...141 viii Bridging Tradition and Modernism ……………………………157 The Critical Response ………………………………………….179 IV. COUNTRY MATTERS : PORTRAYING TRADITIONAL RURAL LIFE IN A COMMODIFIED LANDSCAPE ………………….186 Maintaining a Historicist Vision of the Countryside ...………...190 Constructing an Image of the Pre-industrial Rural Worker: Blacksmith and Chair Bodger …………………………196 Validating the Tramp …………………………………………. 204 Perspectives on Social Standing and Otherness ………………. 215 Visions of the Future of the Countryside and the Wider Community …………………………………………… 222 The Critical Response ………………………………………… 228 V. EPILOGUE: LEIGHTON’S INDEPENDENTLY PRODUCED ENGRAVINGS OF WORKING PEOPLE AND THE NATURAL WORLD …………………………………………. 231 ILLUSTRATIONS ………………………………………………………………….... 253 SOURCES CONSULTED …………………………………………….……………… 432 ix LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Permission to reproduce Clare Leighton’s works kindly granted by The Estate of Clare Leighton Figure Page Chapter One 1.1. Clare Leighton Roland Leighton , 1916, dust jacket illustration for Boy of My Heart (1916), by Marie Leighton ………………………… 253 1.2. Clare Leighton, Uncle Jack Leighton , 1916, pastel crayon ……………... 254 1.3. Clare Leighton , 1932, photograph, from Wood-Engraving and Wood Cuts (1932), by Clare Leighton ……………………...………… 255 1.4. Clare Leighton, Bird Study , c. 1935, pencil on paper, for Four Hedges (1935), courtesy The Mint Museums of Art, Charlotte, NC ………….. 256 1.5. Clare Leighton, Botanical Study , c. 1935, pencil on paper, for Four Hedges (1935), courtesy The Mint Museums of Art, Charlotte, NC .... 257 1.6. Clare Leighton, Blackbird on Nest , c. 1935, wood engraving, from Four Hedges (1935) ………………………………………………… 258 1.7. Clare Leighton, Study for Dare to Call the Flowers My Own , c. 1941, pencil and gouache on paper, for By Light of Sun (1941), by Elsie Symington, courtesy The Mint Museums of Art, Charlotte, NC ……... 259 1.8. Clare Leighton, Proof for Dare to Call the Flowers My Own , wood engraving, 1941, for By Light of Sun (1941), by Elsie Symington, courtesy The Mint Museums of Art, Charlotte, NC ………………….. 260 1.9. Clare Leighton, Dare to Call the Flowers My Own , wood engraving, 1941, from By Light of Sun (1941), by Elsie Symington …….………. 261 1.10. Clare Leighton, The Malthouse , 1923, wood engraving ……..………… 262 1.11. Clare Leighton, Barges , 1924, wood engraving ………………………... 263 1.12. Clare Leighton, The Calf Auction , 1924, wood engraving ……………... 264 1.13. Ordnance Survey Map of Bishop’s Stortford, 1896, courtesy Elphin Watkin ………………………………………………………… 265 x 1.14. Stanley Spencer, Mending Cowls, Cookham , 1915, Tate Gallery ……… 266 1.15. Clare Leighton, Washing Boat, Toulon , 1925, wood engraving ………... 267 1.16. Clare Leighton, Dawn in the Train to Mostar , 1926, wood engraving … 268 1.17. Clare Leighton, Dalmatian Spinners , 1926, wood engraving ………….. 269 1.18. Clare Leighton, Jugo-slav Gipsies , 1927, wood engraving …………….. 270 1.19. Golda Meir Visiting with H. N. Brailsford of the British Labour Party , 1930, photograph, courtesy The University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee Libraries Digital Collections…………………..………….. 271 1.20. C. R. W. Nevinson, The Workers , or Strikers on Tower Hill , 1919, lithograph ………………………………………………………….….. 272 1.21. Clare Leighton, In Normandy , 1926, wood engraving, commission for the New Leader (19 March 1926) …………..………………..…… 273 1.22. Clare Leighton, Ernst Toller , 1925, wood engraving, commission for the New Leader (11 Dec. 1925) …………………………………... 274 1.23. Clare