Elyse Ashe Lord

1885 - 1971

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[Vase of Flowers] c.1935

Original colour drypoint.

Excellent impression with rich burr to the drypoint line and intense colour, from the only edition of 75 signed and numbered proofs. Printed in green, red and black inks.

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Javanese Puppet c.1926

Original pencil drawing, together with three original drypoints (one of which has additional colour wood block printing).

Unique series of progressive states from the original pencil drawing, through the first black ink proof from the drypoint plate, to the trial sanguine ink proof, and finally the multiple printed proof using the pink, green, orange, and yellow colour wood blocks.

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Elyse Ashe Lord developed her unique artistic style exclusively around oriental subject matter. Her art was inspired by both Chinese art and various aspects of oriental culture. Although E.A.Lord never actually travelled to China, she used Chinese paintings, embroideries and wall hangings, together with objects from surrounding Eastern countries, as the sources for her images. The highly individual style which Elyse Lord created reflects both this source material and the influences of Art Deco and early 1920’s fashion.

In particular, Elyse Lord is unusual in combining the technique of drypoint with woodcut colour printing. She uses the drypoint design almost as the Japanese would have used a key block in multiple block colour printing. The colours would then be added by over-printing the drypoint design using colour-inked wood blocks, precisely as displayed by this unique series of progressive proofs. Elyse Lord would always supervise the difficult process of printing her plates and blocks, in person.

N.B.:- Elyse Ashe Lord was born Elise Müller in 1885, and not 1895 or 1900 as tends to be usually reported. Gladys Engel Lang and Kurt Lang reported that she claimed to have married at 18, but that her marriage certificate gives her age as 23 (c. 1908). Growing hostilities between England and Germany around this time caused many people to hide their German parentage and the Langs say that Lord was no exception. [more]