25. Edmund Blampied
(1886-1966)

Blessing the Waters

(click on image to print)
Blampied, Blessing the Waters

Blessing the Waters

Drypoint, 1926, 215 x 307 mm., Dodgson N.D. (subsequent). Fine impression, with burr and plate tone, on Whatman laid paper with full margins, signed and numbered in pencil from the edition of 100. Blampied is unusual among British etchers for having been born and grown up on the Channel Island of Jersey, speaking the local language rather than English. Although he worked in England as a book and magazine illustrator and cartoonist (he was quite good), his etchings and drypoints concern themselves almost entirely with matters in and around Jersey. The Blessing of the Waters is an ancient ceremony, performed on the day of Epiphany, that began probably in Greece, where it involved young men diving into the water to retrieve a cross that had been cast into the sea. The fact that there are several ships in this image makes it likely that something similar is about to happen here.