A Spanish courtyard

Sydney Lee (1866-1949) spent some time in his father's cotton mills, but soon enrolled at the local Manchester School of Art where he studied sculpture and relief modelling and became interested in print-making using metal and wood. The School's Director of Design was Walter Crane, who encouraged Lee's interest in Japanese prints. In 1892 Lee moved to London; and in 1893 he married Edith Mary Elgar. After their extended honeymoon in Italy, Lee enrolled in Paris at the Académie Colarossi (1894).

In 1895 he and his wife settled in Holland Park Road, London. In 1900 Lee exhibited his first painting at the Royal Academy of Arts (he exhibited there frequently thereafter). From 1903 he exhibited at the New English Art Club, and was a member from 1906 to 1920. In 1905 he was elected an associate of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers, and became a fellow in 1915. He was also an active member of the Society of Graver-Printers in Colour. From 1906 he taught wood-engraving at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, London.

After the First World War, Lee became a founder member of the Society of Wood Engravers (1920). He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1922, and a full Royal Academician in 1930. He served as the Academy's treasurer from 1932 to 1940, and in the elections of December 1938 to become its president he was defeated by a narrow majority of two votes in favour of the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens. In 1934 Lee became a member of the Council of Art and Industry.

In 2013 a small exhibition was held at the Royal Academy to accompany the publication of Robert Meyrick, Sydney Lee: A catalogue raisonné of the prints. The title of the exhibition, 'rich in the patina and atmosphere of history' nicely applies to this charming wood-engraving, made on one of Lee's frequent jaunts to Spain and Italy. The courtyard subject matter is deliberately low key, as are the people gathered there, but Lee's sensibility to the texture of building faces and ability to convey it perfectly in his chosen medium is evident. The best praise of this print comes, however, from Malcolm Salaman, The Woodcut of Today at Home and Abroad:

The Spanish Courtyard.. is, I venture to think, Mr Lee's masterpiece... It is a very large print, intended for wall decoration rather than the treasured retreat of the portfolio, and peculiarly telling for this purpose is the splendid balance of sunlight and shadow, with the subtle tone-gradations derived from the exquisite finesse with which he has differentiated the textures, such as the stone column on the left, and the animation of the scene with the figures so boldly silhouetted against the sunny facade of the hotel. This large block Mr Lee engraved out of doors direct from the actual scene after, according to his custom, first planning out the main features of his design. (Salaman, p. 56).

See:

Robert Meyrick, Sydney Lee, Prints: a Catalogue Raisonné (London: Royal Academy, 2013), no. (London, 2013), no. 160.

Malcolm Salaman, The Woodcut of Today at Home and Abroad (London, 1927).

Wikipedia, 'Sydney Lee (engraver)', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Lee_(engraver)

Mark Stocker  Curator, Historical International Art   August 2018