Laurence Robert Binyon

Artist, poet, art-historian, and critic, Laurence Binyon was a committed academic. He became the leading specialist in Chinese and Japanese colour prints and was a noted authority on the works of William Blake and his followers. In his personal art he was torn between poetry and painting as a means of expression and this small print, his only woodcut, reveals his great interest in the affinity of poetry with the visual arts.

In many ways Laurence Binyon and his work provide the bridge linking all three periods of this catalogue together. The origins of his art stem from his academic works on William Blake and his followers; the Pre-Raphaelite overtones of this particular work reveal an essentially Victorian style; whilst today Binyon is best known for his poems inspired by the First World War and for his connections with the composer Elgar.