Etching, 2nd state of three, signed in pencil with initials 25.5cm x 21cm (10in x 8.25in)
Footnote
Note: Frederick Landseer Maur Griggs R.A., R.E. was one of the leading etchers and illustrators of the twentieth century whose meticulous technique and eye for architectural detail was unparalleled. Griggs studied at the Slade School of Art before going on to work as an architectural draftsman at C.E. Mallow's architecture firm from 1896 to 1898 where he was especially valued by leading architects of the Arts and Crafts fraternity for his skills in persepctive. In 1903 Griggs settled in the village of Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds, the centre of William Morris's Arts and Crafts Movement. Griggs was heavily influenced by the movement and his passion for locality and knowledge of vernacular architecture can be seen in this collection of etchings which feature rural townscapes depicted to such a high level of detail that every crumbling brick can be seen, transporting the viewer to a bygone age. Griggs worked within the English Romantic tradition and his etchings have a similar nostalgia to Samuel Palmer's pastoral landscapes but instead visualise the grandeur of England's historic architecture leading critics to describe his atmospheric compositions as ''poetic''. Figures in The Almonry wander in a landscape dominated by monumental Gothic facades, pointed arches and spires which reach skyward out of the frame while other etchings like Sellenger are unpopulated, leaving the crumbling buildings preseved in a tranquil silence. These etchings reflect a desire to preserve the gothic and medieval architecture of England's communities which Griggs feared to be endangered as a result of the Reformation of the sixteenth century, the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century and the First World War of the twentieth century.
Griggs's highly wrought etchings were initially printed commercially but after finding the results unsatisfactory he designed his own etching press in 1921 to prove his plates which were then printed on paper selected to complement the subject matter of each individual composition. This high level of craftsmanship identified Griggs as one of the leading figures in the British Etching Revival resulting in him being one of the few etchers awarded full membership at the Royal Academy in 1931. Griggs was also a member of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings which aimed to repair buildings with the ultimate goal of saving them from demolition and etchings like Memory of Clavering highlight Griggs's sensitivity to the endangered place of British architecture in the modern world. Memory of Clavering exemplifies the visionary technique Griggs later developed as the copper etching was executed fifteen years after he visited the town in Essex with friends in 1919. One friend later stated in a letter to R. L. Hine that during the visit Griggs only made "one or two very rough but decisive sketches on the backs…of old letters which he had in his pocket'' affirming his remarkable ability to immortalise a town in such realistic detail from memory.