Richard Fozard (1925-2000)
PRINTS IN THE PASTORAL TRADITION

Richard Fozards fine engravings and etchings present a potent vision of landscape.
He was an individual and a spiritual Artist in the tradition of Samuel Palmer.
In 1821, Dr Thompsons edition of Virgil was published; this included a series of tiny pastoral wood engraved illustrations by William Blake which were to inspire numerous acolytes of Blakes own era, particularly notable amongst whom were Palmer (1805-1881) and Edward Calvert (1799-1883). In his youthful, visionary, gum and wash drawings and paintings (c.1825-35) of rural Shoreham, in Kent, Palmer offered a paradisiacal view of rural England, fecund with ripening crops an idyll dominated by the cycle of the farming year minutely observed and fluidly depicted but showing none of its real hardships. Calverts engravings seem to combine a love of the English landscape with a nostalgic appreciation of classical antiquity. His line engraving The Bride (1828), in which a maiden naked like a Greek goddess - leads a lamb along a grassy path in an undulating English landscape exemplifies his approach.
This genre of visionary art was enthusiastically revived by Frederick Griggs (1876-1938) and others in the 1920s; decades later, Richard Fozard was to plough this same furrow bringing to it his own deeply ingrained love of landscape, acute observations of rural life in both England (particularly Wensleydale, Northumbria and Cornwall) and Italy, practised drawing skills, and a unique, Spiritual, poetic vision of the world around him.
Haunting Etchings such as Winter Wood Gatherers, Anticoli, Italy, 1978, (catalogue no. 39) display particularly strong resonances of Palmer. In this work a lone figure, viewed from behind in the dark of a silent wood, loads sticks onto the pannier of a donkey while a wild pig roots at his feet; in the distance, picked out in dusky twilight, is another solitary figure set against the background of a gently rounded Palmer-esque Hill. Another tiny but highly atmospheric etching of the same year,
Evening Natter, Anticoli, Italy(catalogue no. 42) combines elements of Palmer and Calvert with its luminous moonlit view of a darkly shuttered house before which is a charming vignette, seemingly, of the satyr Pan and an anonymous dark companion, herding a flock of goats along a path.In the foreground is a more prosaic but no less intriguing view of five men in Homburg hats, huddled in intimate conversation, whilst two sturdy women pass by taking unleavened bread to be baked in the villages communal oven(as Fozard explains in a pencil note beneath the image).

The pull of the Sea
Fozards career as an artist-printmaker began in 1939 when, at 14 years of age, he entered the
litho-art studio of the Gilchrist Brothers (process engravers) who paid for him to take evening classes in design and life drawing.
With the onset of the Second World War, the firms work changed and he took work on the land, returning to his childhood love: the Yorkshire Dales.
There he worked on the Dig for Victorycampaign with gardeners at Country-House estates. Bothy life, he wrote, Ëœwas Heaven, to enjoy the peace of growing things and the true wealth of ordered Country life, living away from the industrial smoke.
In 1943 he was called up from work at the Harewood House estate to serve in the Armed Forces and, until 1946, saw out the War in the Royal Navy. During this period, he travelled to Australia, Hong Kong and Japan and developed a life-long love of the sea while, at the same time, maintaining his drawing skills by taking a correspondence art course.
I would labour at exercises in tropical heat,he wrote, and provide a service to illustrate and write messmatesletters to girlfriends.
Here the subtle imagination was much valued to heal the distance of longing hearts.Fozards understanding and appreciation of Boats and the Mariners life is strongly evidenced in numerous, vigorous and accurately drawn pen and ink sketches of fishing and rowing boats. His fine engraving Fishermens Cottages by Bedruthen Steps, Cornwall, 1986, (catalogue no. 25) depicts a blustery day on a cliff-edged coast. Before a rickety brick and wood terrace of cottages (reminiscent of early Sutherland etchings of similarly dilapidated structures) children and a dog play with a ball while a woman tries to prevent her washing blowing off the line.
In a particularly outstanding engraving, wistfully titled: A Greenwich scrapyard. Dreams of Past Glories, 1988 (catalogue no. 17), a bare-chested docker at work on an old hull is described with just a few deft burin strokes defining the contours of biceps and the curve of his belly.

The impact of Italy
In 1946, once the War was over, Fozard was able to leave the Navy and became a full-time student in painting and illustration in his home Town, at Leeds College of Art.
In 1949 he went on to Londons Royal College of Art to study engraving under Professor Robert Austin PRE (1895-1973) whose tuition emphasized strong draughtmanship and composition above all other considerations.
Fozard absorbed Austins principles as doctrines on which, throughout his life, his entire Artistic practice was based. In 1952 he graduated with the RCA Diploma and Silver Medal and the following year, having won the Prix de Rome scholarship in printmaking, he went to Rome and spent Three years exploring the ancient Mediterranean coastline, discovering the masters of the Renaissance and wintering in the mountain villages of the central Apennines. This experience was to have a profound impact on his work.
One particular Italian village: Anticoli, Corrado, recurs frequently in numerous vibrant etchings, engravings and fine pen drawings which describe, through almost inconsequential but beautifully observed details, the bustle and business of peasant life in 1950s Italy.
An etching entitled Piazza Anticoli, of 1956, (catalogue no. 44) commissioned by the Print Collectors Club of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, is a particularly fine example. Here, an everyday snapshotof village life an assortment of people and animals casually criss-crossing the main square - is rendered with evident love and empathetic feeling both for his subject and for the process of transforming these acutely observed fleeting moments into timeless, absorbing images.
In the engraving Children at play,Anticoli, Italy, 1979 (catalogue no. 93), a woman bearing a water jug makes stately progress along a narrow street lined with tall tenements, while a man riding a donkey disappears around a corner; the starched white school pinafores of a group of children contrast vividly with the dark squares of closed window shutters. A Lady of Anticoli, Corrado, Italy, undated, (catalogue no.33) is a moving portrait of an aged crone with an infinitely sad expression, whose features appear as if hewn from the rugged rock of her hillside home.
In the last decade of his life, Fozard produced few new prints (and it should be noted that dates on his prints referred only to the moment of printing, not necessarily to the date of production) but made a series of large monochrome reed-pen and ink drawings which offer definitive, striking examples of his skill as a draughtsman and of his enduring love for the Hills and Countryside of Italy. The drawing Hills around Anticoli with Dove Tower,1989 (catalogue no. 29), is a spectacular drawing of a charming brick-built tower behind which spreads a panoramic vista of rugged hills peppered with olive trees and tiny donkeys picked out under the fierce heat of the midday sun. Each tree is distinctly delineated with lively pen marks and each casts its own distinct shadow. Piazza Anticoli 1988 (catalogue no. 30) is perhaps even more impressive - a real tour de force. It depicts dozens of figures traversing the old town square the locals going about their business and enjoying the sunlight and the shade of a tree which casts strong shadows onto ancient shuttered tenements. In the left foreground a donkey ambles by, bearing large bundles of sticks. In the right foreground is a cafà table set with a bottle of wine and two glasses, at which, in the shade, sits a moustachioed man reading the daily newspaper Il Giornale In the middle distance, a group of women collect water from a pump, filling amphorae which they balance on their heads for the journey home. Young, big-hipped women stop to exchange news while a statuesque aged signora, her stance exuding the dignity of honest toil, makes her way slowly across the square, water jug carefully balanced. Children run about in play; one tiny girl in a plain white shift stops to watch a dog and a pig chasing a chicken. A priest briskly crosses the piazza, his long black robe flapping in the breeze. In this particular drawing, Fozard seems to draw together figures and structural elements from many of his earlier Italian-themed etchings and engravings and unites them into one large, complex but exuberantly vibrant composition.

The teaching years and Hayters influence
In 1956 he returned to London to a job as printer and demonstrator in the Royal College of Arts printmaking department headed, at the time, by Julian Trevelyan (1910-88) at whose inspiration Fozard developed an enthusiasm for intaglio colour printing.
That same year he was also elected an Associate of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers. Around this same time too, Fozard collaborated with SW Hayter (1901-88) and others in Paris, editioning for many artists and galleries.
Whilst Fozards own work was always strongly representational in Nature, a more abstract quality of line in certain works reveals the influence of Hayter and Trevelyan.
The black and white engraving and aquatint Strong Winds brought us together Light Airs carry our Thoughts(catalogue no. 27), for example, delineates a shoreline of rugged rocks and wheeling gulls in a swirling, blustery sky. Within this naturalistic depiction are echoes of Hayter-esque jaggedly zig-zagging forms and the angular gulls seem to meld into the forms of rocks which, in turn, are echoed by the shapes of fast-moving clouds.By Bedruthen Steps, Cornwall, 1986, (catalogue no. 96) shares similarly Hayter-like qualities.
In 1961 he moved to Hornsey College of Art, later to be merged with Middlesex Polytechnic, lecturing Three days per week until 1986.
As a Teacher, he always emphasised the primacy of good draughtsmanship and, as a printmaker, he was a seasoned and patient master of his Craft whose students were inspired by the experience of watching him ink, wipe and print an intaglio plate.
During this period he continued to work on his own drawings, paintings, etchings and engravings many of which focussed evocatively on Rural England and the crafts of farming, such as Dry stone walling, Northumbria,1981 (catalogue no.60); First (sheep) Dip of the Year,Riding Farm, Northumberland, 1988 (catalogue no.12); and ËœEvening No.1.Fishermen, circling crane. Northumbria, 1981 (catalogue no. 13).
The Colleges printmaking department at that time was housed at Alexandra Palace and, tragically, many of Fozards finest etching and engraving plates were lost there, in the early 1980s, when the department was gutted by fire. Many of the prints which survive him are uneditioned artists proofs or state proofs and, in many cases, are the only extant examples of particular images. From 1986 until his death in 2000, his circumstances were gradually reduced with a cut in his part-time teaching hours from three days per week to a few days per term. When I first met him, in 1991, he was working from a cosy, if immensely cluttered, studio in Vauxhall, south London. Although it was against the studios rules, he often slept there, surrounded by his own drawings and engravings as well as postcards of Renaissance masterpieces which he had taped over all the walls.

Richard Fozard was a gifted artist whose work celebrated the joys of a simpler lifestyle than many of us, today, will ever experience. Born in the interwar years, at the height of the revival of the romantic rural tradition, this was a heritage which his own art espoused with single-minded conviction. By 1925, the year of his birth, the revival of that peculiarly English tradition - a visionary art combining observation of landscape with a spiritual, poetic response to it was at its height. At this time too, the market for etchings and engravings, often depicting detailed rural scenes and exemplified by the work of Artists including Anthony Gross (1905-84),Paul Drury (1903-87), Charles Tunnicliffe (1901-82) and Graham Sutherland (1903-80), had never been stronger. This was a heyday for printmaking, when etchers were able to make a substantial living, purely on the sales of original prints, which were in popular demand and achieved high prices. Sadly, the Great Depression of the late 1920s marked the end of this halcyon period for British Printmaking. Had Fozard been born just twenty years earlier, he would doubtless have been making prints during this boom time and would have achieved the success and financial security which he deserved but never achieved. This exhibition is the first major retrospective survey of his collected works: etchings, copper engravings, woodcuts, pen and ink drawings and watercolours ever to be held. It will offer a unique opportunity to assess the strength of his works and to celebrate his artistic vision and accomplishments, establishing him as a notable, individual figure in that special tradition of English, poetic, pastoral art.

BY Anne Desmet RE

Anne Desmet is a practising artist-printmaker and is also editor of Printmaking Today the quarterly journal of contemporary international graphic art.

RICHARD FOZARD AN APPRECIATION Biography
Born 2nd June 1925 to Arthur Fozard & Hetty Emily Endicott
,in Leeds, Yorkshire.
Youngest of Family of Three Boys.
( Charles & David both Died in their 20s)
General Education in Council schools.
Turned down a scholarship to further education and at 14 years began work at Gilchrist Bros. Leeds process engravers, in their design studio.
Though technically interesting work it was sadly limited in creative designing.
However, one useful condition of employment was that apprentices had to attend
evening classes at the Art College Leeds for `life drawing and design'.
This introduced me to the dichotomy between fine and commercial art.
The Second World War changed all this, bringing the welcome opportunity
to live and work on land, in fresh air, which was more to my Nature.
At 18 years, service call up papers for the Royal Navy.
Here, helped to keep my sanity by making drawings,sketches,paintings of places of call,as well as illustrating and sometimes ghost writing of mess mates' letters home.
1946 8 On demobilization had enough `evidence of study' to qualify for
ex serviceman's grant, so attended Leeds Art College.1949 50
A place at the Royal College of Art, Engraving Department, leaving with 2nd class Diploma and Silver Medal. Spent a year away for more sea and fresh air, working on coast, reflecting on next move.
1951 3 Applied for and got the ROME Scholarship in Engraving.
This opportunity allowed for fuller satisfaction of enquiry at first hand of the
"Greats" of the Italian Renaissance.
Felt the vocation of teaching was not for me at this time, but accepted work
as craft demonstrator/printer in Royal College of Art's `new' printmaking
department. Here a fruitful five years which allowed me to work at the many
levels of autographic print production, and the very important aspects of
publishing and editioning.
The late 1950s through the early 1960s saw a renewed vigor internationally.
A particularly influential cause of all this was the interest and thirst for
colour and the use of mixed techniques.
The Art Schools provided part time lectureships created by this breath of life in print.
WORKSHOPS and Publishing Houses such as Editions Alecto also brought me Editioning work and an opportunity to reassess the whole Hierarchy from Printer and Publisher to Gallery dealers.
A useful and enjoyable experience was the collaboration between Artist and Craftsmen which We at the RCA were able to witness as many international names visited the workshop.
Since 1959 have held a part time lectureship at Middlesex Polytechnic and
undertaken my own work at the Shaftesbury Art Studio, whilst giving attention
to more important philosophical studies.

Richard Fozard London, August 1978

Dick Fozard is a craftsman of print. His experience as a fine Art Printer of other artists' work and as an artist himself combines skills which are not often found together,
Fine art prints are frequently produced in collaboration
an Artist works with a Master Printer who is able to technically produce the visual image.
Only more recently have Artists themselves spent the time and patience necessary to work in the printmaking media.
The words `original print' have come to assume a truer meaning in this way, though the time honored role of the Edition Printer is still an important function today.
To understand and successfully translate an Artist's design into another medium necessitates intimate knowledge of the craft involved.
Intaglio printmaking is a complex and varied method of producing and reproducing images. Incised marks on metal plates, attained through cutting or biting of acid, are characteristically different from drawn marks on paper.
The processes by which such incised marks are transferred again to paper also involves particular techniques
Were an Artist to begin to produce his own Etchings or Engravings he would at first have to learn the craft.
In no other way could he hope to grasp the complete Tool of the medium in _ order to turn it to his fullest creative expression.
Because of the time and experience needed to Master the techniques it is not surprising that a collaborative method has developed.
Attainment of the craft becomes an End in itself.
However, an excellent Edition Printer of `fine Art' prints must be sensitive to the artist and his work before the delicate union between technique and creativity can be achieved.
It is this blend of talent which Dick has acquired through years of experience that he is an Artist can only lend weight to his craft.
Extensive travel in his service with the navy and in Italy on the Rome Scholarship enabled Dick to make much of the first hand enquiry which forms the basis of his own Imagery.
His work is full of a love of Sea and Air, and a curiosity for Human nature.
Many of his prints illustrate portions of stories and seem like visual fables or parables.
There is no doubt as to the strength of the lines cut into either wood or metal.


RICHARD FOZARD

Richard, Dick, Fozard sometimes referred to as 'The Fozz'
walked His Passage through Life contemplating essentials.
He seemed to step straight out of the world of the Old Testament.
He preached Morality based on "the Conscience of Humanity,
the underlying forces of Nature" & the ability of Art to express them.
His use of the English language ranked logic as secondary to Poetic relationships.
His Tutorial Reports, Testimonials Letters were a treat.
When in the course of life He saw an episode that transgressed what he perceived to be the boundaries of Morality,
the perpetrator could 'expect' a written comment of disapproval in His highly decorative script & high tone of Universal Relationships.
If the matter of concern sprang from a person in authority, His contempt was non violently expressed but where observed withering,& where People Gain! His Respect His Loyalty was Cast it Indestructibly.

His chosen Career' was Art. He began work at 14 in the Litho art studio of Gilchrist Bros., process engravers who paid for him to take evening studies in design and life drawing.
When, owing to the War the firm's work changed and he took work on the land at Harewood House and was enabled to return to his childhood love,
the Yorkshire Dales, 'Fresh Air and Natures pace of the seasons,drawing and Painting'.

There he worked with gardeners at Country House Estates, they being turned over to 'Dig for Victory'. "Bothy life was Heaven, to enjoy the peace of growing things and the true wealth of ordered country life, living away from the industrial smoke".

During the 1939 45 War "the Muses prompted me to study my chosen Art career in the school of Life, for my curiosity in the truth of what is the mystery of`People intrigued me and lead to Draw Mankind in all Fields of Human Endeavour, developing an awareness of a basic Dichotomy between Town and Country life."

He was called up from work on Lord Lascelles Harwood House estate to do National Service in the Royal Navy. as a Cook.
The Sea was his Second love. He traveled with the service to Australia, Hong Kong and Japan.
"Art ever restored his peace of mind. Taking correspondence Art course kept me practicing useful disciplines whilst 'Jolly Jack' slept during his time off, oblivious to heat/sweat, creaking decks and the rhythmic snores from hammocks that creaked in harmony to the swell of the Waves and the throb of powerful engines.
I would labour at exercises in tropical heat and provide a service to illustrate and write messmates' letters to Girl Friends etc. Here the subtle imagination was much valued to heal the distance of longing hearts."

In 1946 he was demobilized & began "in Earnest" as a full time Student at Leeds College of Art, Painting and Illustration.
From there He went on to the Royal College of Art, London to study engraving under
Professor Robert AUSTIN R.A., where "draughtmanship & Pictorial design were paramount.
Freelance work developed in applied designs for fashion and children's books for Oddhams Press."
Realizing he knew nothing of Europe he applied for,and won, the Prix de Rom in print in 1953.

For Three years he studied "the origins of the Ancient Antique World throughout the Mediterranean Sea Board, stimulated by the Renaissance Greats, returning to winter in the mountain villages of the central Appenines".

In 1956 he was appointed to the Print Making Staff of the Royal College of Art as Printer and Demonstrator,
where Julian TREVELLYAN was the new Head of Department.
He met "Artists famous and new,collaborating with Lacourier-Frelaut & William Stanley Hayter in Paris,
Editioning for many Artists & Galleries with the `60s print boom the activity was at its height!"

In 1961 he took stock and put all his Eggs in one Basket lecturing 3 days a week at Hornsey College of Art, later to be merged with Middlesex Polytechnic/University. During this time he continued his own work drawing and painting and as an etcher/engraver.
His work as an Etcher is Exceptional. He addressed his subject matter, people, wide open spaces, absolutely directly reflecting all he had learnt in his studies and travels. No fashionable trends diverted the seriousness of his work or the authenticity of his perceptions.
His works have a quality and resonance that can only gather admiration as time passes.

As a teacher he was Memorable, not only for his use of words and allusion to past work, but to watch him taking a print was an education in itself.
His `technical demonstration' took on new meaning and the life of the Creation of the work taken forward in the making of the print.
As a colleague I countless times advised students to watch him at the press and countless times I did so myself.

At one time the Art Schools in this country provided teaching work for Artists, that made Art schools the envy of the world.
Students met so many Artists starting on or continuing their careers, sharing their ideas.
Over the past 25 years these situations, for part time staff, have radically reduced as staff/student ratios extended.
Fine Art education remains very good but the `experience' has changed as staff have been shed.
It was those staff on part time who suffered most. Dick, like others, had his time cut and cut, till from a living at 3 days a week is was barely a trickle.
Gradually his circumstances diminished. He never complained. He went on working, believing in his Subject, helping so many with such a lack of pretension.

He continued to study,work and promote his subject by demonstrating at popular craft festivals, Oxford, North and border Counties. He helped inspire innumerable people.

He was a far from conventional member of staff. As memory is drawn back across the experience of his being a friend and colleague, his Eccentric management of time, his `walk abouts' promoting the question `where's Dick?' raise a chuckle in the heart, if not always convenient for management.

His Sailors Gait has taken him off to wander among the stars.
His vision of life held with undentable confidence that made him a marvelous certainty, remains with his works to give strength to others.
Men and Women up an down these Islands across the World, ex students, colleagues, friends, family, will smile with pleasure when they picture his dear Eccentricity, remember with gratitude the warmth of his Heart, unpretentious great Talents.