Gerald Coles - 1958 Woodcut Signed Limited Edition, Head

Description

Gerald Coles - Original 1958 Woodcut. From a set of limited edition woodcuts, one of which is contained in the British Museum collection - which can be seen here. Signed and dated lower left corner, numbered 4/100. On Japan paper. In fine condition.

Size

Size: 16.3 x 14cm (6.4" x 5.5")
Sheet: 20 x 16cm (7.9" x 6.3")

Collection Information

Gerald Anthony Coles (British, 1929-2004) From an extensive collection of his work we acquired. A talented portraitist he expertly captures mood and emotion with an understated yet elegant understanding of the human form. Favouring the dark and the sensual he uses dark and largely monochromatic tones and experiments with a variety of media and substrate including woodcut, oil/acrylics and monotype (whereby the image is painted onto the printing block creating a unique impression). He has works in the British Museum collection of a very similar style which can be seen here.Everything is signed unless otherwise stated.

For our full collection see here Disclaimer: We have offered our best guess as to the media and substrates used but due to the variety and originality of his work we cannot guarantee these are accurate. Similarly his date inscriptions are often hard to decipher so dates are only a best guess

Gerald Coles was a stained-glass designer, printmaker and painter; born 21 May 1929, brought up in Luton, where he studied at Luton School of Art 1943-45, and stained-glass techniques in the studio of Hugh Easton 1945-47, went to the Slade School of Fine Art 1951-54 ( taught by avant-garde artists such as Graham Sutherland and Henry Moore and won the Slade Painting Prize 1953); awarded French Government Scholarship to study stained glass in the cathedrals of France in 1959, another scholarship from the Worshipful Company of Glaziers and Painters of Glass to Germany and Austria in 1960-61; in 1975 was elected Associate of the British Society of Master Glass-Stainers; for over 20 years assisted Hugh Easton on many important memorial and heraldic glass commissions, including the Battle of Britain Memorial in Westminster Abbey, the Clothworkers Hall, City Temple, as well as working on memorial windows abroad including the United States, South Africa, India and Australia; ceased working due to ill-health in 1980; died 30 November 2004; donated two of his own works to the Museum in 1959 and bequeathed a group of his woodcuts, monotypes and drawings to the Museum after his death in 2004.

Sulis Fine Art historian Olivia Nichols has written an Artist Spotlight piece on Gerald Coles which you can read here