BIRDS FROM THE SATURDAY BOOK by Agnes Miller Parker. These were engraved in 1941 at the height of the Blitz during the Second World War for ‘The Saturday Book’ an annual miscellany featuring poetry and essays on a range of arts. They were accompanied by descriptions of birds by the 18th century naturalist Gilbert White from his Natural History of Selborne. There seem to be parallels with the attitudes of the current moment as people seek solace in the natural world, and notice the beauty of birds in their gardens and on country walks. Leonard Russell, author of the Saturday Book, wrote: ‘If anything it looks backward, and nostalgia for small pre-war pleasures emerges from the pages: for days by the sea, for country drives and birds, beasts and flowers.’ Agnes Miller Parker’s wood-engravings are so characterful: we feel not so much like we are watching the birds, but that they are watching us; somehow sentient beings, conscious of our eyes on them and ready to take to the wing. In almost every case they are paired with plant life: Fieldfare with berries, kite with fit cones, lapwing with grasses at the water’s edge. There is a powerful dynamic between positive and negative space, between the sinewy curves of the bird’s form and the white of the page. Of course Thomas Bewick’s little vignettes of birds and animals were an important point of reference for Miller Parker and other printmakers of the time, but she completely makes the form her own. AMP never created illustrations for a published edition of White’s Natural History but I feel these must be in the book I am working on, which also includes Eric Ravilious, Gertrude Hermes and Clare Leighton, amongst many others. #birds #nature #illustration #woodengraving #printmakjng #saturdaybook #agnesmillerparker (at Brighton and Hove) https://www.instagram.com/p/CMEf8-CFYCt/?igshid=15967oibdycur
