Brighton Pier by Edward Bawden

Glicée print of colour linocut (1958 first edition).

Unusually for Bawden a second edition of this print was done in 1970: the two are subtly different, particularly in colouring, but the word ‘Palace’ in the second is in white (and not black as it is here). The image is flanked on the one side by the frivolity of the domes of the Royal Pavilion, and on the other by the linearity of Charles Busby’s late Regency architecture. The image, with its lights and fishing boats, captures perfectly what are enduring sides of both formal and informal Brighton.

This print was awarded first prize in the Giles Bequest competition 1958 for colour prints from linoleum and wood.