Wiston River

 

Frank Morley Fletcher

  1866 - 1949 (biography)

c. 1911  

color woodcut 

8 3/8 x 14 5/8" image 

pencil, lower right 

42 of 100  

pencil titled and editioned, lower left margin 

 

antique-white Japan laid 

published 

artist 

21876 

$2,500.00 

Wiston River is a bucolic landscape portraying the countryside of West Sussex. The image implies quiet and reflection, animals graze on expansive pastureland, trees and shrubs cast long reflections upon a placid river, and a lone boy, hanging on to the small wooden bridge, awaits a tug on his fishing line. There are numerous color variations within the edition but the composition is pulled together by various hues of green. Nancy E. Green commented about Fletcher’s color woodcuts: “Muted colors are often contrasted with saturated bright greens and turquoise; in this he paid homage to Puvis de Chavannes, the French artist Fletcher admired (above all others) for his selection of beautiful tones and colors for the spiritual harmony found in all his works.”