Ethelbert White

Ethelbert White (26 February 1891 - 5 March 1972) was an English artist and wood engraver. He was an early member of the Society of Wood Engravers and a founding member of the English Wood Engraving Society in 1925. White then started to produce independent wood engravings very much in the modern style advocated by Noel Rooke. These were unusually large in scale.

White's most important book illustrated with wood engravings is The Story of My Heart by Richard Jefferies, published by Duckworth in 1923. Thomas Balston considers this to be the first substantial book illustrated with modern wood engravings to be published in Britain. In the same year the Golden Cockerel Press published an edition of Spenser's Wedding Songs with colour wood engravings by White.

His final set of wood engravings was for Thoreau's Walden, published by Penguin Books as part of a series of 10 books called the Penguin Illustrated Classics in 1938. By 1940 he had ceased to produce wood engravings.

Work in oils and watercolour White was very much a member of the art scene in England. He was elected to the London Group in 1915 and became a member of the New English Art Club in 1921. A centenary exhibition of his wood engravings was held at the Pallant Gallery in 1991.