Signed l.r.: R.Gibbings

Pencil on xylonite sheet with hand-colouring in crayon, 30 by 20.5 cm (12 by 8 ins)

Gibbings, a central figure in the British wood-engraving revival of the early twentieth century, also has a claim to be one of the first artists to attempt drawing under water. By the 1930s Gibbings had developed an extensive knowledge of marine life and became dissatisfied with merely making observational drawings or engravings from dead specimens or photographic sources. He wrote in 1938 “… it was my ambition to get on closer terms with the fish, and to meet them on their own level … to make drawings under the water.” To achieve this Gibbings alighted on a material called xylonite, a celluloid-like material which (unlike paper) was waterproof. The present work is one such example, the pencil drawing made under water with later hand-colouring to further convey the experience of the scene. Published in his landmark book … the present work has the following caption under the illustration: “The central clump of coral was ten feet high and yellow, the low shrubby growth in the foreground coloured…the fish metallic gold and mauve.”

Above: Robert Gibbings about to embark on a deep water dive (c.mid to late 1930s)