The sculptor and printmaker Gertrude Hermes was born in Kent in 1901. While studying at Leon Underwood's School of Painting and Sculpture in the 1920s, she began to make experimental woodcuts, inspired by Brancusi, Gaudier-Brzeska and Underwood's collection of African wooden sculpture. As a co-founder of the English Wood Engraving Society in 1925, Hermes became a key figure in the revival of wood engraving in the early 20th century, rescuing the medium from its reputation as a genteel feminine pursuit. Her complex and sometimes surreal compositions were often inspired by her love for the natural world and she illustrated a number of Penguin Classics. After a stint as a draughtsperson during the Second World War, Hermes declared herself 'heartily sick of black-and-white' and started working with linocut and colour, a shift that coincided with her growing reputation as a sculptor. As a new exhibition of Hermes's work opens at the RA, the curator Annette Wickham explores her long and fascinating career. AUTHOR: Annette Wickham is Curator of Works on Paper at the Royal Academy of Arts. SELLING POINTS: . Gertrude Hermes was one of the first 20th-century female Royal Academicians and a respected wood engraver and sculptor . This book is the latest in a series of studies of the Royal Academy's collection 50 colour illustrations
