Tirzah Garwood's archive

An unseen sketchbook comes to auction

Happy May Day. I am writing this outside, and I hope you are reading it outside too.

Two Women Sitting in a Garden by Eric Ravilious (1903–1942)

Tirzah Garwood – to the right in this painting by her husband, Eric Ravilious – is shelling peas whilst leaning her back against a tree. Such a great, free activity – like hanging washing on a line outside – it’s a timeless task and the doing of it means winter is past and the good days are here. One of the highlights of my winter, and I’m sure lots of other people’s was visiting Tirzah Garwood’s exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery.

As a result of this perhaps, some of her previously unseen work is about to come up for auction. Cheffins will be selling her wood engravings and sketches part of their Art & Design sale on 22^nd May, including ‘The Seasons’ series (see summer below) and her sketchbook from 1927. These were formerly in a private family collection and have been consigned by the granddaughter of artist Frederick Austin, who, along with his brother Robert Sargeant Austin were great friends with Eric Ravilious and Tirzah Garwood, living in Hammersmith together before the war.

Summer by Tirzah Garwood, 1927, estimated to go for £3000-£5000

“We didn’t know about this archive” says Ella Ravilious. “But I was hopeful that more works would come to light as a result of her exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery…It was very moving for the family, in particular my aunt, who is their last surviving child, to see these fantastic pieces especially some of Tirzah’s more informal drawings.”

Working drawings for ‘The Grandmother’ 1929

The informal drawings in the sketchbook include her ideas for decorative tiles, and lots of sketches of dogs. Sketchbooks and scrapbooks are a way of tracing history that get closer to the person than their ‘official’ output might. That’s partly why I like substack too. There are so many great writers on here, and often, you get the unedited version of them. Take Jeanette Winterson who is always so generous with what she writes, or Rachel Johnson, whose new substack takes a scrap of paper from her life, and uses it to trace her history and tell stories. More on scrapbooks very soon…

Until next time,

Daisy

PS I am sending this early as this weekend I will be training for the Hackney Half (if you’d like to sponsor, please kindly donate here. I’m raising funds for the mental health charity, Shout) and celebrating my birthday. Enjoy the long weekend!