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Joseph Webb

1908 - 1962

The Glory Hole, Lincoln by Joseph Webb
 

The Glory Hole, Lincoln   1932

  Original etching.
Signed and inscribed in pencil.
Ref: Guichard 38, undescribed first state.
S 267 x 384 mm; P 202 x 253 mm; I 199 x 248 mm
£275
 
Original Joseph Webb etching.

Very rare first state proof. Very good impression printed with plate tone. Signed and inscribed in pencil “Lincoln, Glory Hole, 1st state” and “to my dear friend Margaret. Aug 1933. Joseph Webb 1933”.

“For The Glory Hole, Lincoln, Webb sat on the banks of Brayford Pool on the River Witham in the city centre to draw the riverside properties, the towpath and the remarkable four-storey Tudor house known as High Bridge. It is one of the few remaining medieval bridges with houses in Britain. ‘Glory Hole’ refers to the Norman stone arch beneath which the artist made up a distant view of the city.” (Joseph Webb, the lights that flit across my brain, R. Meyrick, Aberystwyth, 2007, pp.23-24).

The work of Joseph Webb is regarded by many as the last flowering of the Griggs and Palmer tradition. Webb had a great admiration for the work of F.L. Griggs whom he visited at Chipping Campden in 1929, but his work is distinguished from that of Griggs by the sense of power and mystery with which it is invariably imbued. Sadly, he was dogged by ill health throughout his life and the outset of his career coincided with the collapse of the print market; consequently, Joseph Webb was never to reap the rewards which his precocious ability deserved. It is only in relatively recent years that Webb has begun to receive the recognition he has long deserved as one of the finest and most important printmakers of his generation.

On laid paper with full margins. Numerous short tears at outer edges of sheet supported with acid-free paper tape. Heavy brown time tone to sheet. Evidence of previous mounting at extreme corners of sheet.