‘August’ by Charles Haslewood Shannon (1863-1937)*
Original Woodcut
Title in plate ‘Pincio Roma’ and initials ‘CS 1904’
Published 4th October, 1904 by Macmillan & Co for ‘The Artist Engraver’.
Measures 18 by 13 cms. Good Condition. Unframed
* Shannon initially trained as a wood engraver at the City and Guilds Technical Art School in Lambeth, London and it was here that he met his partner Charles Ricketts. Together the two artists set up ‘Vale Press’ in 1888, named after their house in Chelsea, formerly the residence of James Whistler. Shannon was keen on lithography at a time when it was losing favour in England. The Vale Press produced art journals and books, including their own magazine The Dial’ and Oscar Wilde’s 'A House of Pomegranates' (1891) and 'The Sphinx' (1894). Whistler remained an influence on Shannon’s work and career, he being elected a member of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers of which Whistler was Chairman. As well as lithographs and woodcuts, Shannon achieved success with his portrait studies, some of which are in the National Portrait Gallery, London. Shannon was elected an A.R.A. in 1911 and R.A. in 1920 and with Ricketts, formed a substantial art collection including works of Egyptian and Classical antiquities, Persian ceramics, Japanese prints, and drawings by Titian, Tintoretto and Rembrandt, the majority of which was eventually left to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Tragically, Shannon became disabled in 1928 after a fall while hanging a picture, the resulting neurological damage causing severe amnesia which effectively ended his career. He died in 1937 at Kew, London.