There was obviously some healthy competition between JBW and the influential English engraver, type-designer, and sculptor Eric Gill (1882-1940). On receiving a copy of JBW’s Sonnets of Keats, Gill stated: ‘Engravings like yours is essentially the making of light rather than the imitation of light and shade and I would rather see the forms glowing with their own internal combustion than merely appearing to be lit by candles.’ JBW later wrote to Sandford and commented that Gill’s Byzantine mannerisms gave a coldness to his erotic stuff (something that Gill admitted himself) completely destroying any real erotic feeling. Eroticism, JBW claimed, was not in what was drawn but the way it was drawn. Here is one of Gill’s ‘cold’ nudes.

Eric Gill, Engravings: A Selection. Bristol: Douglas Cleverdon, 1929. Special NE 642 G5 A4 1929.       [+]

http://www.library.otago.ac.nz/exhibitions/jbw/cabinet18.html

Eve

Creator Gill, Eric 1882-1940

Date 1935

Medium wood engraving

Published Source Book-plate for Jacob Weiss