5 May 2016

Tirzah 20

The Aunt or Kensington High Street 1929 has Tirzah herself in the lefthand corner with a briefcase with TG on it. Robert Harling wrote in 1987: ‘The wry amusement she derived from the vagaries of the English class system, first encountered head-on in her upper-middle-class parents’ thumbs-down attitude to the humbler background of Eric Ravilious, was clearly evident in her wood engravings. Here were the social quirks and oddities which are apt to mystify, disconcert and occasionally infuriate foreigners. I thoroughly enjoyed the scenes depicted as well as the authority of her engravings. When I voiced these views, Tirzah laughed merrily and agreed that they possibly – possibly, mark you! – held a grain or so of truth.’  She was 21 when she did these wood engravings…