Blair Hughes-Stanton

Blair Rowlands Hughes-Stanton (22 February 1902 – 6 June 1981) was a major figure in the English wood-engraving revival in the twentieth century.

He was the son of the artist Sir Herbert Hughes-Stanton.

There he came under the influence of Leon Underwood and, in 1921, he moved to Underwood's Brook Green School.

In 1922 he joined the Royal Academy Schools, but Underwood remained the dominant influence on him.

At Brook Green the American wood engraver Marion Mitchell introduced him to wood-engraving, which set the direction of his life.

He exhibited with the Society of Wood Engravers, but was more in sympathy with the philosophy of the English Wood Engraving Society, of which he was a founding member in 1925.

Underwood and he were kindred spirits, to such an extent that, in 1925, Underwood left Hughes-Stanton in charge of the Brook Green School when he went to America.

Hughes-Stanton met Eric Kennington, who introduced him to T. E. Lawrence.

In 1925 he fell in love with Gertrude Hermes, a fellow student at Brook Green and another member of the Underwood inner circle.

Hughes-Stanton was commissioned to engrave ten tail-pieces for the monumental limited edition of The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926).

Some extra special copies had a full-page engraving by Hughes-Stanton for the dedicatory poem to "S.A.".

In 1926 he sold his copy of The Seven Pillars of Wisdom for £100 and married her.

They had two children, Judith (born 1927) and Simon (born 1928).

Other commissions followed and, in the next few years, he illustrated with wood engravings three tall folios for the Cresset Press – The Pilgrim's Progress (1928), The Apocrypha (1929) and D. H. Lawrence's Birds, Beasts and Flowers (1930).

He co-directed the Gregynog Press from 1930 to 1933 with his wife, Gertrude Hermes.

At the age of 13 Hughes-Stanton, unable to face the prospect of home life with his three sisters, joined the Royal Navy training ship HMS Conway.

At the age of 19 he switched direction completely after a conversation with his father, the Royal Academician Sir Herbert Hughes-Stanton, and joined the Byam Shaw School of Art.

In 1930 Hughes-Stanton and Hermes, along with William McCance and Agnes Miller Parker, were appointed in various capacities to the artistic and business management of the Gregynog Press.

In 1930 Hughes-Stanton had started an affair with Ida Affleck Graves, who offered him "Lawrentian sex".

Hughes-Stanton produced his characteristic wood engravings for Comus by John Milton in 1931, Erewhon by Samuel Butler in 1932 and The Revelation of Saint John the Divine, Four Poems by Milton and The Lamentations of Jeremiah, all of which appeared in 1933.

Relations were strained in a number of areas.

Some of the board at Gregynog felt that Hughes-Stanton's wood engravings were too erotic, and his personal conduct was upsetting Margaret and Gwendoline Davies, who owned the press.

In March 1932 Hermes left Hughes-Stanton and moved back to London, where she stayed with Leon Underwood.

Hughes-Stanton left the press in September 1933.

When Hughes-Stanton left the Gregynog Press he returned to London with Ida Affleck Graves.

Hermes had divorced him, and Graves's husband, Herbert Marks, had left her for Isobel Powys, removing their two children.

Marks would not contemplate divorce, however, because of his social position, and gave Graves a weekly allowance of £4 a week provided that she took the blame for the separation.

Hughes-Stanton and Graves had two children – Corin (born 1933) and Kristin (born 1935).

The couple moved to Higham, near Colchester, and founded the Gemini Press.

Hughes-Stanton wrote in his first prospectus, "I have founded the Gemini Press to be able, when occasion arises and unhampered by any outside prejudices, to make books in which there is a real fusion between contemporary writer and artist."

In 1934 the press produced Epithalamion by Ida Graves, with 23 full-page wood engravings by Hughes-Stanton.

The book is a celebration of their physical and spiritual wedding, even though they were unable to marry.

Only half the edition was sold at the time of publication, partly because of the depression, but also a lack of business competence.

In 1935 the press produced its second and final illustrated book, Pastoral, or Virtue Requited by H.H.M. (Herbert Marks).

They needed the money, but it must have been galling for the couple.

This period was a time of financial hardship for the couple, and commissions dried up completely at times.

They moved to a late mediaeval timber house in Stratford Saint Mary, which they spent years restoring.

By 1939 their relationship was almost at an end.

Hughes-Stanton produced a number of books, more or less significant, during this period.

In 1970 Hughes-Stanton offered the remaining 25 sets of Japan Vellum sheets and 125 sets of Basingwerk sheets to the Basilisk Press.