Gwenda Morgan

Gwenda Morgan (1 February 1908 – 9 January 1991) was a British wood engraver. She lived in the town of Petworth in West Sussex.

Early life

Morgan was born in Petworth, her father having moved there to work at the ironmongers, Austen & Co, of which he later became proprietor. and at Brighton and Hove High School, Morgan studied at Goldsmiths' College of Art in London from 1926. From 1930 she attended the Grosvenor School of Modern Art in Pimlico where she was taught and strongly influenced by the principal, Iain Macnab. The Grosvenor School was a progressive art school and the championing of wood engraving and linocuts fitted with its democratic approach to the arts.

Works Morgan was commissioned to illustrate a number of books published by private presses. For the Samson Press she produced the frontispiece for Duke Hamilton's Wager in 1934 and Pictures and Rhymes in 1936. these are her best known works.

The main body of her work drew upon the landscape and buildings around Petworth and the neighbouring South Downs. Her work was inspired by that of Macnab, Percy Douglas Bliss and the Sussex-bred Eric Ravilious.