1940 Václav Fanderlik The Trail 10 linocuts

Fanderlik, Václav – Cesta / The Trail. Somewhere in England, 1940. Folio (25 × 22.5 cm). Original printed wrappers. Complete with 10 original linocuts loose as issued; list of plates printed on the inside front cover. Edition limited to 500 copies. Presentation inscription by the artist dated “Somewhere in England, 10 January 1941.”

A rare wartime portfolio by Václav V. Fanderlik (1907–1987), Czech artist, educator, Scout leader, and later head of Czechoslovak Scouting in exile. Issued by the Czechoslovak exile community in Britain, the suite comprises ten bold black-and-white linocuts depicting locations along the artist's route from the Balkans and Near East to England: Macedonia, Istanbul, Aleppo, Alexandria, Crete, Marseille, Agde, Béziers, Gibraltar, and finally “Somewhere in England.” The accompanying list of plates pairs each image with quotations from Byron, Kipling, and other literary sources.

Executed in a vigorous expressionist manner, the prints combine architectural landmarks, landscapes, and military-era memories in a visual record of displacement and exile during the Second World War. Produced in an edition of only 500 copies, the portfolio is an uncommon survival of the Czech wartime press in Britain and an early work by a figure who would become one of the leading personalities of Czech Scouting abroad after the Communist coup of 1948.

Very good condition. Warmly inscribed by Fanderlik in Czech to friends and fellow travellers, signed and dated in England in January 1941.

Inv.BX2