Edgar Holloway

Original Edgar Holloway etching.

Excellent signed proof impression in the second state of the plate. One of 50 proofs from the only numbered edition of this etching.

In this second and completed state of the plate, Edgar Holloway has made the important introduction of a pilgrim-like figure to the right of the blaze of light, an essential element of this work in which the rays of light suggest the vision of the Virgin Mary which led to the foundation of the present abbey. Meyrick is incorrect in stating that the sky is lightened in this second state; in fact, it is darkened relative to the first state with the addition of further etched work beyond the left of the abbey and amongst the trees above its battlements.

“The original monastery foundations of Llanthony Priory in the Vale of Ewyas date back to the 12th century but Llanthony Prima was ransacked after 100 years. (The monks were the moved on to Gloucestershire where they founded Llanthony Secunda.) Four miles up the valley the Reverend Joseph Leycester Lyne (Father Ignatius, the Anglican clergyman, established the modern abbey in 1870 in a field where he later claimed to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary. His monastery, designed by Charles Buckeridge in the popular gothic revival style, came to be known as Llanthony Tertia. Llanthony is an abbreviation of the welsh 'Llandewi nant Honddu' - the Church of St David on the Honddu stream. Father Ignatius died in 1908 and the monastery was not used until 1924 when Eric Gill sought the permission of the Benedictine monks on Caldey Island to establish a community of craftsmen at Capel-y-finn. A small number of craftsmen joined him from the Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic, Ditchling but he was never to establish a guild at Capel.” (R. Meyrick, The Etchings and Engravings of Edgar Holloway, Scolar Press, 1996, p.82).

On cream laid paper with full margins and deckle edge. Excellent original condition.