Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Not currently on display at the V&A
On short term loan out for exhibition

and the two knights sat and looked at each other without speaking

Screenprint
1970 (printed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

At the end of the 1960s, disillusioned with London life, Peter Blake moved with his wife, artist Jann Haworth, and their daughter to Wellow, a small village near Bath. On the spring solistice of 1975, Blake and Haworth founded the Brotherhood of Ruralists with fellow artists Ann and Graham Arnold, David Inshaw and Annie and Graham Ovenden. Blake said of the Ruralist mission:

Simply, our aims are the continuation of a certain kind of English painting; we admire Samuel Palmer, Stanley Spencer, Thomas Hardy, Elgar, cricket, English Landscape, the Pre-Raphaelites, etc… Our aims are to paint about love, beauty, joy, sentiment and magic. We still believe in painting with oil paint on canvas, putting the picture in the frame and hopefully, that someone will like it, buy it and hang it on their wall to enjoy it.

Blake’s Ruralist paintings are dominated by literary subjects drawn from English literature, particularly the works of William Shakespeare and Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Titleand the two knights sat and looked at each other without speaking (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
printer's ink, paper, screenprint
Brief description
Print by Peter Blake from a suite illustrating 'Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There'. 1970.
Physical description
Screenprint on paper
Dimensions
  • Sheet height: 653mm
  • Sheet width: 507mm
  • Printed image height: 245mm
  • Printed image width: 180mm
Production typeLimited edition
Marks and inscriptions
  • and the two knights sat and looked at each other without speaking (printed beneath the image)
  • 12/100 (in pencil after printed inscription)
  • Peter Blake (in pencil underneath image on right side)
Credit line
The Institute of Contemporary Prints, Tate Gallery
Object history
This series of prints are from the suite made in 1970 illustrating 'Alice in Wonderland', reproducing watercolours made by the artist over about 2 years prior to printing. They were printed by Kelpra Studio, London, in an edition of 100.
Production
Printed in an edition of 100
Subjects depicted
Literary references
  • Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
  • Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There
Summary
At the end of the 1960s, disillusioned with London life, Peter Blake moved with his wife, artist Jann Haworth, and their daughter to Wellow, a small village near Bath. On the spring solistice of 1975, Blake and Haworth founded the Brotherhood of Ruralists with fellow artists Ann and Graham Arnold, David Inshaw and Annie and Graham Ovenden. Blake said of the Ruralist mission:

Simply, our aims are the continuation of a certain kind of English painting; we admire Samuel Palmer, Stanley Spencer, Thomas Hardy, Elgar, cricket, English Landscape, the Pre-Raphaelites, etc… Our aims are to paint about love, beauty, joy, sentiment and magic. We still believe in painting with oil paint on canvas, putting the picture in the frame and hopefully, that someone will like it, buy it and hang it on their wall to enjoy it.

Blake’s Ruralist paintings are dominated by literary subjects drawn from English literature, particularly the works of William Shakespeare and Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Associated objects
Bibliographic reference
Taken from Departmental Circulation Registers: 1976-1977
Collection
Accession number
CIRC.118-1976

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
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