Gertrude Hermes was born in Bickley, Kent. She studied at the Leon Underwood School of Painting and Sculpture where she met her husband, Blair Hughes-Stanton, and like him began engraving. During their brief marriage they worked at the Gregynog Press in Wales. She occasionally taught engraving at St Martin’s School of Art, Central School of Art and Design and the Royal College of Art, London. Her vision was austere, of what has been called ‘benign severity’. She never compromised it. In a series of major engravings made over 20 years between 1933 and 1953, she married modernist language to the apprehension of psychological depth with a thematic consistency. In the late 1930s her sculptural work was shown at British Pavilions at International Exhibitions and World Fairs, and her engravings were selected for the Venice Biennale in 1940, but as Britain did not exhibit that year, the exhibition was instead shown at the Wallace Collection, London .

Out of the Wood: British Woodcuts and Wood Engravings 1890 - 1945, The British Council 1991

Further reading
The Wood-Engravings of Gertrude Hermes, Scolar Press, Aldershot 1993. Edited and with an introduction by Judith Russell. Essays by Simon Brett and Bryan Robertson.

 

Glossary

  • Design

    The arrangement of elements or details in an artefact or a work of art.

  • Engraving

    An intaglio process whereby lines are cut into a metal or wood plate using an engraving tool (a burin), which is pushed in front of the hand to achieve a sharp controlled incision capable of great delicacy. This technique requires a great deal of control and is not suited to spontaneous mark-making.

  • Painting

    Work of art made with paint on a surface. Often the surface, also called a support, is a tightly stretched piece of canvas, paper or a wooden panel. Painting involves a wide range of techniques and materials, along with the artist's intellectual concerns effecting the content of a work.

  • Sculpture

    A three-dimensional work of art. Such works may be carved, modelled, constructed, or cast. Sculptures can also be described as assemblage, in the round, relief, and made in a huge variety of media. Contemporary practice also includes live elements, as in Gilbert & George 'Living Sculpture' as well as broadcast work, radio or sound sculpture.

See in

  • Art Project