Description
Hand-coloured woodcut illustrating the poem 'Living sepulchers', the fifth illustration in a book of poems by British poet and novelist Richard Aldington (1892-1926), published by Beaumont Press, London, 1919. This illustration is on p. 21. The image depicts four huge rats running in and out of the trenches. The poem describes it graphically: '...But the ghastly scurrying of huge rats/ Swollen with feeding upon men's flesh/ Filled me with shrinking dread.' The work is taken from one of a series of black-and-white sketches that Nash inscribed with colour notes. These sketches are held in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. There are copies of this book without the hand-colouring at the Minories, Colchester and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. 'Images of war' was Aldington's second volume of poetry.
Details
Accession Number
ART20002.005
Physical Description
Medium: hand-coloured woodcut on paper; edition: 37/200
Measurement
sheet: 18.8 cm x 12.4 cm
Medium
hand-coloured woodcut on paper; edition: 37/200
Credit Line
Purchased 1984
Copyright
Copyright expired - public domain
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