Margaret Pilkington | |
|---|---|
| Born | 25 November 1891 |
| Died | 2 August 1974 |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | |
| Known for | Wood engraving |
| Relatives | Richard Evans (1778–1864) (great-grandfather)[1]Charles Pilkington andRichard Pilkington (uncles)[1] |
| Awards | OBE (1956) |
Margaret Pilkington (25 November 1891 – 2 August 1974) was a Britishwood-engraver who was active at the beginning of the twentieth century. She was a pupil ofNoel Rooke at theCentral School of Art and Design and was a member of theSociety of Wood Engravers[2] and theRed Rose Guild. She was awarded theOBE in 1956.
Pilkington was born into a wealthy family, the Pilkingtons of thePilkington Glassworks andPilkington Tile Company. In 1913 she went to study at theSlade School of Fine Art,London where she was taught wood engraving byLucien Pissarro.[3] In 1914 she went on to theCentral School of Art and Design,London to study wood engraving underNoel Rooke.
From early in her life she promoted a number of social projects, girls' clubs, a Pioneer Club for professional girls and women, and, most notably, the Red Rose Guild.[4]
In 1920 she organised an exhibition for designer craftsmen in Manchester and from this the guild developed. Early members and exhibitors includedEthel Mairet,Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie,Bernard Leach andMuriel Bell.[5] The guild was a sponsor of the fledgling Craft Centre of Great Britain when it was founded in 1947.[6]
In 1925 she was invited to become a member of the Council of theWhitworth Art Gallery. She became more and more involved with the Gallery, running it for a period, and was an honorary director for over 20 years.
She spent a great deal of time with her sister Dorothy, neither of whom married. She was always worried about the disparity between her wealth and the economic distress that she saw around her.[6] Much of her life, and money, was devoted to charitable works in the Manchester area. One lasting legacy lies in the purchase by the sisters ofAlderley Woods in 1943 in memory of their parents; they presented the woods to theNational Trust. Dorothy died in 1971, and Margaret in 1974.
Noel Rooke's students at theCentral School were prominent in those very early years of the wood engraving revival, as members of theSociety of Wood Engravers, as contributors to books and as illustrators of books. Pilkington exhibited in the first exhibition of the Society of Wood Engravers in 1920, and continued to do so until 1931. She became a member of the society in 1921.
In 1919 Malcolm Salaman included her wood engravings in hisStudio anthology.[7] In 1922 she contributed a wood engraving toContemporary English Woodcuts, an anthology of wood engravings produced by Thomas Balston, a director atDuckworth and an enthusiast for the new style of wood engravings.Campbell Dodgson, Keeper of Prints and Drawings at theBritish Museum, wrote about her in his introduction to the book:Miss Gribble and Miss Pilkington are among the other women artists who practise wood engraving with zeal and success.[8]
She produced some 110 wood engravings, 41 of which were for the four books that she illustrated, three written by her father, Lawrence Pilkington, the last by a friend. In 1924 she produced 15 wood engravings for a book of poetry by her father,An Alpine Valley and other poems. In 1926 she engraved the frontispiece forTattlefold and in 1928 another frontispiece forThe Chimneys of Tattleton. In that year she also engraved 24 illustrations forHills and Highways by her childhood friendKatharine Chorley.
Her work is represented in several national collections, including the Central School[9] and the Whitworth.[10]
Pilkington's output is quite limited when compared to many of her contemporaries, and her importance lies not in her production or artistic merit, but in her encouragement to and patronage of her fellow practitioners. She was Secretary of theSociety of Wood Engravers from 1924 and revived the moribund society in 1949.[2] She was chairman from 1952 to 1967. She bought regularly at the annual exhibitions of the society and donated the wood engravings to the Whitworth.[10]
Her influence is best summed up in her obituary byTrenchard Cox, director of theVictoria and Albert Museum:Her generous outlook on human affairs, her wide knowledge and discriminating taste, were reflected in every part of the museum (the Whitworth) which she made so much her own.[11]
| Professional and academic associations | ||
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| Preceded by Leonard Cohen | President of theManchester Literary and Philosophical Society 1964–66 | Succeeded by Horace Hayhurst |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
