GREENWOOD, John Frederic

1885 - 1954

John Frederic Greenwood was born at Rochdale, Lancashire on 13 June 1885, son of Robinson Greenwood (24 February 1848-25 March 1922), a schoolmaster, and his wife Anne née Nuttall, who married at Rochdale on 4 August 1877. In 1891, 5-year-old John was living at Falinge Fold, Spotland, Rochdale with his parents, 43-year-old Robinson and 46-year-old Anne with three siblings, Marianne 12, Charles Martyn 10 and Sarah Alice 8, all born in Rochdale. John was educated privately and studied at both Shipley and Bradford Schools of Art and at the Royal College of Art in Kensington, London 1908-1911. In 1911, a 25-year-old art student, lodging at 54 Chesilton Road, Fulham, London, the home of 48-year-old John Case and his family. He married at North Bierley, Yorkshire in 1913, Laura Josephine Teale (22 June 1889-4 March 1972) and they had two daughters. After teaching at Batley School of Art he joined the staff of the Design Department at Battersea Polytechnic 1912-1927, he then became Head of Design of the Bradford College of Art until in 1938, when appointed Head of the Design School at Leeds College of Art, retiring at the end of 1948. A wood and a copper engraver, etcher, and illustrator and in 1921 his first wood engraving was exhibited with the Society of Wood Engravers, but in 1926, with several other artists including Percy Bliss {1900-1984), Gertrude Hermes (1901-1983), Blair Hughes-stanton and Leon Underwood (1890-1975), became involved with Gordon Craig's rival group, the English Wood Engraving Society. Greenwood exhibited at the Ipswich Fine Art Society in 1923, two wood engravings 'The Actor Manager' and 'Judith' and exhibited both in the UK and internationally. Greenwood's style is heralded as among the finest to represent the English landscape and its architecture. Malcolm Salaman in 'Art of the Woodcut: Masterworks from the 1920s' wrote, "Mr. John F. Greenwood's reputation as an engraver of the English country, sensitively observed and finely planned on the block, is well established, and his interesting woodcut series of the Cambridge Colleges shows his pictorial sympathies with buildings hallowed by associations." Greenwood illustrated 'Twenty-Four Woodcuts of Cambridge' and 'A Short History of Ely Castle', and his prints were included in several compilations about the modern woodcut craft. Greenwood was a member of the Royal Society of British Artists, and the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers. In 1939 he was living at Sedbergh Park, Ilkely with his wife Laura and their two children and John Frederic Greenwood was of 53 The Grove, Ilkley, Yorkshire, when he died at The Raikeswood Hospital, Skipton, Yorkshire on 28 April 1954. He signed his works 'John F. Greenwood'.

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Works by This Artist