Tirzah Garwood: beyond Ravilious – James Russell

A moving, beautifully illustrated lecture exploring the life and work of Tirzah Garwood (1908-51).

The name of Eric Ravilious has become familiar over the past decade, but few people are aware that his wife, Tirzah Garwood, was a talented and original artist in her own right.  A witty observer of the human condition, the youthful Garwood became established as a wood engraver of rare ability.  After marrying Ravilious and becoming a devoted mother to three children, she took up paper marbling, quickly achieving renown for the dazzling originality of her decorative papers.  In her early thirties she suffered the double blow of a breast cancer diagnosis and her husband’s death on active service in World War 2.  Undaunted, she remarried and took up oil painting, producing in a few short years a series of strange, beautiful paintings.  Until now, few of these have been seen outside the family.