The Art of the Woodcut

Masterworks from the 1920s

This survey of woodcut illustration as practiced in the 1920s abounds in outstanding works by artists from around the world. Nearly 200 illustrations — rendered in two-color images as well as in an eight-page full-color insert — include landscapes and street scenes, portraits, and book illustrations by Rockwell Kent, Rudolph Ruzicka, William Zorach, Eric Gill, and other artists.
Organized by country, the book reviews the work of artists from several European nations, as well as Japan and the United States. An informative narrative offers artistic and historical perspectives on the naturalistic themes that dominated woodcut illustrations of the early twentieth century. In addition to pictures from books by Thackeray, Shakespeare, and Hardy, these woodcuts include depictions of people, animals, and landscapes, such as a country church, saints, peasants at work, ships in a harbor, a Spanish courtyard, and other striking images.