The Impressed Image
Gallery Featured Print
John Copley Manchester 1875 -1950 London
Painter and printmaker, born in Manchester he studied at the Manchester School of Art
and at the Royal Academy of Art. He was influenced by Ford Madox Brown and took up lithography, making 251 prints
between 1906 and 1938. He helped Jpseph Pennell set up the Senefelder Club in 1909 and became honorary secretary
from 1910-16. He married the artist Ethel Gabain, and spent a long spell in Italy from 1925 to escape the cold
British climate which was aggrvating a heart condition. He also etched, but fitfully from 1917 to 1923 producing
only 24 plates.
From 1927 his output becomes increasingly centred on etching as increasing ill health made it difficult to manage
heavy lithographic stones, producing 131 further plates up till 1950. He exhibited extensively at Cooling Galleries
, Goupil Gallery and RBA, also with NS, NEAC and abroad. , for which he won principal awards at an international
exhibition at Chicago Art Institute in 1930. Although often regarded as semi-reclusive and a semi-invalid, Copley
was an enthusiastic supporter of the social side of art, keeping abreast of developments, had a profound knowledge
of art technique and history, and was a perceptive critic.
These lithographs are typical - ranging from the grand design to the small carefully observed human moment. Editions are
usually small - 20 is the average, and much of his output was overlooked by the general public in his lifetime.
Garton & Cooke held an exhibition and sold a large batch of prints in 1985, but there still seems to be a sizeable
reservoir of both Gabain and Copleys work in circulation.
The Scribes disputing with Jesus
Lithograph 1923, Wright 192
No. 8 from the edition of 20
335x455mm
Madonna Nutrice
Lithograph No. 4 from the edition of 25
135x153mm
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