Guy Malet

1900 - 1973

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The Edge of the Wood c.1928

Original linocut, printed in colours.

Extremely rare original linocut.

The artist’s own exhibition proof – good, strong impression.

£600

Olympia Circus c.1928

Original drypoint.

Extremely rare artist’s proof impression of this unpublished drypoint.
Inscribed in pencil by the artist “Artist’s proof. Olympia Circus. Guy Malet”.
The artist’s own exhibition proof.

£360

Avignon c.1928

Original etching.

Rare proof impression numbered ‘3’ from the projected edition of 50 signed proofs.
It is thought unlikely that this edition was ever printed in full.

Guy Malet produced only a handful of etchings as an experiment in technique early in his career as a printmaker and all of these are now rare.

SOLD

Cope’s Mountain, Sligo c.1928

Original linocut, printed in green ink.

Unique working proof printed in green ink from the main outline cut or 'key block' alone.

SOLD

Terrace Gardens, Richmond c.1928

Original linocut, printed in colours.

Excellent signed proof impression with fresh, unfaded colours. Numbered from the only edition of 25 signed proofs - a large number of the proofs from this edition were destroyed by water and this print is now very rare.

SOLD

Stairway c.1930

Original linocut, printed in colours.

Excellent proof impression with strong, unfaded colours. One of the artist’s own two exhibition proofs, mounted on its original display card, as prepared by the artist himself.

SOLD

Dinan c.1931

Original linocut, printed in two colours.

Very good, evenly printed proof impression with strong, unfaded colours.
The artist’s own exhibition proof, mounted on its original backboard.
A particularly good example printed in dark green and olive green/ochre inks.
Provenance: The studio of Guy Malet.

SOLD

African Dancer c.1930

Original linocut, printed in warm brown ink.

Extremely rare original linocut.
Outstanding proof impression. The artist’s own exhibition proof, with full margins carrying the artist’s pencil annotations.

SOLD

Old Hastings c.1930

Original wood engraving.

Outstanding proof impression from the only edition of 40 signed and numbered proofs.

SOLD

Guy Warre Malet was one of the most skilled printmakers to emerge from the Grosvenor School of Modern Art. A pupil and lifelong friend of Iain Macnab, Guy Malet is best known today for his highly accomplished wood engravings, primarily due to the extreme rarity of his linocuts.

Guy Malet was one of the outstanding British exponents of white-line wood engraving between the two world wars. Malet had learned the techniques of wood engraving from Iain Macnab whilst at the Grosvenor School of Modern Art in 1927. However, Guy Malet rapidly developed a distinctive style of his own, choosing viewpoints which allowed him to express all aspects of a given scene in one image, as though describing an entire small world all of its own.

Aside from his well-known activities as a wood engraver, Guy Malet made a number of modernistic linocuts of the sort for which the Grosvenor Scool is now most famed. It was the artists who gathered at the Grosvenor School of Modern Art who first established the art of linocut in this country, developing the medium into a major and dramatic new art form. Their highly innovative work has now acquired an unique place in the history of British printmaking and has yet to be surpassed in its creative use of the linocut medium. However, the original linocuts of the highly talented printmaker Guy Malet are now amongst the most scarce of all Grosvenor School linocuts today. Although printed in editions of up to 50 impressions, the vast majority of Malet’s linocuts were destroyed by water, in a domestic flood. [more]