Paul Drury R.E. (1903–1987) was one of the fabled Class of ’21; the group of young printmakers who studied at Goldsmith’s in the 1920s and who revolutionised etching in Britain in the inter-war years. Drury, Graham Sutherland (1903–1980), Edward Bouverie Hoyton (1900–1988) William Larkins (1901-1974), and to a lesser extent Robin Tanner (1904–1988), became close friends making their work in close proximity, often sitting side-by-side, and with similar interests and goals.

Taught by Frederick Marriott R.E. (1860-1941), Malcolm Osborne C.B.E. R.A. P.P.R.E. (1880-1963) and Stanley Anderson C.B.E. R.A. R.E. (1884-1966) they benefitted from an extraordinary technical grounding in print-making. This was bolstered in Drury and Sutherland’s case by extra direction from the great Frederick Griggs (1876-1938) who they visited and befriended in the Cotswolds. The young printmakers, however, decisively broke from the tradition of their masters which had descended from the great print-makers of the later nineteenth century, most notably Whistler. The catalyst was Samuel Palmer. Larkins, having found a Palmer print in a book shop in the Charing Cross Rd (as you did in 1920s London), took it back to the Goldsmiths and they all fell under its spell.

Palmer, on the one hand, instilled a belief in the expressive potential of etching and on the other inspired them to heavily work the etching plate to create light and luminescence. Throughout the ’20s, Drury, Sutherland, Hoyton and Tanner pursued distinctly Palmer-esque imagery and effects. The results were a refined evocation of the English countryside combining close observation with an idealised sense of place. The best examples in Drury’s work are Evening (No.16), Nicols Farm (No.17), March Morning (No.19) and his great masterpieces After Work (No.11) and September (No.14).

Unlike his peers, Drury simultaneously pursued portrait etching, for which, given his technical ability, fluent draughtsmanship and sensitivity to character, he had a natural flair. These portraits were rarely made as commissions but as ends in themselves with few becoming published editions. Drury’s ability to convey psychology and the introspection of his sitters parallels the tone of his pastoral landscapes.

Drury was elected an Associate of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers in 1927 and a full member in 1932. After WWII, having taught in a number of art schools, he returned to Goldsmiths to teach. From 1965 he was Principal, succeeding Malcolm Osborne’s generation of etchers as one of the most influential teachers of printmaking in the middle of the twentieth century.

Further reading …

Robin Garton, The Catalogue Raisonne of the Prints of Paul Drury, Garton & Co., 1992.
Jolyon Drury, Revelation to Revolution: The Legacy of Samuel Palmer, Published by the author, 2006.

NOTE: These works are sold mounted but not framed. Frames can be supplied for £70+vat.