BLAMPIED, Edmund

Edmund Blampied (1886 – 1966) was one of the most eminent artists to come from the Channel Islands, He was noted mostly for his etchings and drypoints published at the height of the print boom in the 1920s during the etching revival, but was also a lithographer, caricaturist, cartoonist, book illustrator and artist in oils, watercolours, silhouettes and bronze. In 1903 Blampied left Jersey to study at the Lambeth School of Art, where he was taught by Philip Connard R.A. and Thomas McKeggie. After taking a test and submitting some drawings, in May 1904 Blampied won a £20 London County Council. Blampied’s earliest etchings are dated December 1909, suggesting that he did not begin to learn this technique until the academic year 1909–1910; his teacher at Bolt Court was Walter Seymour. At the end of 1911, while he was developing his skills as an etcher, Blampied became an independent artist with his own studio. Blampied’s etchings were brought to the attention of the art dealers and publishers Ernest Brown and Phillips of the Leicester Galleries. In 1925 the Central School of Arts and Crafts submitted two of Blampied’s lithographs with the work of other students to the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris, the exhibition that gave rise to the term “Art Deco”. The School won a Grand Prix for its works on paper and Blampied was one of 12 students who were awarded a Gold Medal as a collaborateur.