Viewing Tirzah Garwood: Beyond Ravilious at Dulwich Picture Gallery

The late, great artist and designer Eileen Lucy ‘Tirzah’ Garwood, who died aged 42 in 1951, is considered by some to be one of the most original figures in twentieth century British art, yet in her lifetime, and in the decades that have passed since her death, she has often been forsaken, outshone by her husband, the painter Eric Ravilious – who was killed in a plane crash aged 39, leaving Garwood to raise their three children alone – until her own death less than a decade later, to breast cancer.

Yet – as this new retrospective at Dulwich Picture Gallery demonstrates – Garwood was an exceptional artist in her own right. It is the first time much of her extensive oeuvre has been seen in public: some 80 of Garwood’s oeuvre are showcased here, including surrealist oil paintings, early wood engravings, satirical sketches rendered in pencil and experiments with paper – her marbled papers were sought after at the time, and some are now in the V&A collections.

“She has a lot of fans,” says James Russell, the exhibition’s curator, told the Guardian, “most people haven’t had the opportunity to see even the tiniest amount of what she made.” Russell’s hope is that this extraordinary artist and her singularity as a creative will pique the interest of a new generation. Garwood is at last moving out of her husband’s shadow – it’s only a shame she isn’t still here to see it herself.