This should be a good adventure for a UK visual arts expert or
Shakespeare buff, or both! I don't think the answer is a google search
away, but I think the answers and the search will be rewarding (I
would do some of the legwork myself, but am stranded far from
information.)

I am looking for information on a painter or group of painters that
were, or are, responsible for the covers of some (or all?) of the
Arden Shakespeare editions. My "lead" is a note I remember seeing in
their edition of _Romeo and Juliet_; the cover is a distinctively
styled (and strangely beautiful) girl standing against a yellow
background, and the note in the edition mentioned the painter or group
of painters responsible. They were linked to some kind of "British
primitivist" (?) movement, perhaps a group with the name "League
of...", and the note went on to blurb how this was consistant with
Arden's goal of being a great edition of the bard, etc. (actually, the
Arden editions are my favourite, esp. over Norton, but that's neither
here nor there.) I believe the group was explicitly referenced as
being English.

Unfortunately, the new reprint of this particular edition is missing
this note (it looks like the old Arden was electronically reprinted,
with some slightly different front/back matter), and so I can't just
go to the bookstore. One way to find this info is to locate an earlier
copy. No other Arden edition that I own seems to have any of this
info, even though many covers (e.g., that for _Comedy of Errors_,
_Much Ado_) seem to share some stylistic characteristics. You can find
some examples on the Arden website, if you think you can identify the
folks by sight alone.

What I'm looking for in the answer:

1. The name of the group of painters, with the names of at least three
members, and a brief sketch of who they were, when they painted, where
they lived, how they came to form a group and why, and what they wrote
about themselves (quotations preferred, references to a book OK.)
Contextual information is a big plus (i.e., how did they relate to
other movements in the visual, musical, literary arts at the time;
were they considered reactionaries, off-beat, or completely
neglectable commerical artists?) Are they still around, did the group
fragment?

Sources of personal accounts by the members especially sought after,
but not necessary. Reviews of their work by critics also of interest,
but not necessary. (Tips provided!) If you're opinionated, I'd be
interested to hear your own personal responses as well. Optional,
again, is any story about their association with Arden, with the
Shakespeare (theater or academic) community (e.g., did these guys do
set work?)

2. A reference of where to buy or loan a book on this group that has
some reprints of their work (hopefully with some work *not* used for
Arden) and a good discussion of their work.

OR

Information about where their work can be found in galleries in the US
or UK/ROI. I assume that any such gallery would have a book or at
least a pamphlet on them, but possibly no.

It is of course possible that there was no such group of painters, and
that the Arden note (that I remember clearly) was a hodgepodge of
commerical art blurb that conjured up this weird fantasy, and in fact
it was talking about how some design company was doing new
"primitivist" covers. It is very hard to prove a negative ("these
artists never existed") but I promise to be fair to someone who can
come up with convincing evidence of the contrary and give some info on
the design company responsible.

For a good, detailed, and referenced answer -- especially if it took
good legwork -- I will tip generously.

Hello Rosalind

Your question jogged my memory enough for me to feel sure this was an
actual group and not a figment of anyone's imagination. I too could
remember something about a collective or a league or......
As it turns out, it is the Brotherhood of Ruralists. Their members
include Graham Ovenden, responsible for the artwork on the front of
the Arden "Pericles", and Graham Arnold, designer of a series of
covers including "Henry IV, Part I".

Graham Ovenden: cover illustration for the Arden "Pericles"
http://www.aznet.co.uk/ruralists/imagepages/GO001.htm

Graham Arnold: cover illustration for the Arden "King Henry IV, Part
1"
http://www.aznet.co.uk/ruralists/imagepages/GA001.htm


Ann Arnold and Annie Ovenden are the other two members of the
Brotherhood. The group was originally based in the West Country,
though they didn't all live together. In the late seventies/early
eighties the Arnolds lived in Wiltshire and the Ovendens in Cornwall.
For the six years between 1975 and 1981 the Ruralists also included
Peter Blake, Jann Haworth and David Inshaw. On the surface, Peter
Blake's part in this is surprising, as he is more generally known as a
Pop Artist. He and his wife, Jann Haworth, were the artists for the
album cover of "Sergeant Pepper", too.

The group were inspired by ideas of an English pastoral tradition and
shared an interest in the pre-Raphaelites, with Ovenden using his own
cottage as a starting point for design work inspired by the Arts and
Crafts movement.

"Peter Blake had raised the idea of artists working as a group with
perspectives looking beyond the mundane structures of the Art
Establishment as early as 1969. After a joint showing (Alice) with
Graham Ovenden at the Waddington Galleries in 1973 these ideas took on
substance, but it was with Blake’s move to Wellow (near Bath) and his
growing friendship with David Inshaw and Graham and Ann Arnold that
the possibilities of a more substantial and formal movement devoted to
“that most precious thread” in English art might be achieved.
 
Already by 1971 Graham and Arnold and David Inshaw had formed The
Broadheath Brotherhood, creating a small, yet potent, compliment to
the English pastoral tradition, taking their name from the birthplace
of Edward Elgar. Three other artists working closely with them at this
time were John Morley, Diana Howard and Peter Nott.
 
Thus through Blake’s introduction of Graham and Annie Ovenden to
Graham Arnold, Ann Arnold and David Inshaw combined with Blake himself
and his then wife Jann Haworth, the group of seven was complete. These
seven artists formed under the name The Brotherhood of Ruralists in
1975. Also, in like sentiment the scholar John Michelle, playwright
John Fletcher and essayist Laurie Lee added their active support to
the venture."

The Brotherhood of Ruralists: Background Information 
http://www.aznet.co.uk/ruralists/general/background.html



Apart from their own website, there's not a great deal about their
work online, but I offer you these three extracts:

"In the 1970s, a group of English artists emerged who openly
acknowledged a strong PRB influence -- both in their Romantic,
enigmatic art, and in their interconnected lives. This acclaimed group
of seven artists, called The Brotherhood of Ruralists, includes the
painters Ann Arnold, Graham Arnold, Peter Blake, David Inshaw, Annie
Ovendon, Graham Ovendon, and sculptor Jann Haworth."

"The Pre-Raphaelites and the New Romantic Tradition", by Terri
Windling
http://www.endicott-studio.com/galprb.html


" In 1975 Haworth was one of the seven founding members of the
Brotherhood of Ruralists, an artist’s group that generally based its
work upon the romantic and pastoral traditions of Pre-Raphaelite art
and other nineteenth century styles and ideas. The Brotherhood had an
immediate impact upon British art and in 1976 a major exhibition of
their paintings and sculpture was held in London at the Royal Academy.
Haworth and other members of the group also designed the famous cover
art for the Arden Shakespeare Series. She created the art for
Coriolanus, King Richard III, MacBeth and Twelfth Night"

Jann Haworth
http://artoftheprint.com/artistpages/haworth_jann_warrior.htm

"The combination of sophistication and naivety typical of Blake's
style is seen particularly clearly in his work as a member of The
Brotherhood of Ruralists, a group of seven painters based in the West
Country, of which Blake (then living near Bath) was one of the
founders in 1975. The members had several group exhibitions, took
working holidays together, and shared a commission to design covers
for the New Arden edition of Shakespeare's work, but they had common
ideals rather than a common style, taking as their inspiration 'the
spirit of the countryside'. A series of winsome fairy paintings are
characteristic of this facet of Blake's work, and many critics found
the work of the group as a whole insufferably twee - one newspaper
review of a 1981 Ruralists exhibition was headed Tinkerbell lives. The
Brotherhood last exhibited as a group at Blake's retrospective at the
Tate in 1983."

Biography: Peter Blake 
http://www.artsworld.com/art-architecture/biographies/a-c/peter-blake.html



Although there isn't much about them on the net, the Brotherhood are
well enough established to have had books and critical essays written
about them.  Their website is well organised and they have prepared a
bibliography:
http://aznet.co.uk/ruralists/general/bibliography.html

and a list of illustrated "ruralist books"
http://aznet.co.uk/ruralists/general/ruralistbooks.html

If you can't borrow these books from a library, you may find it tricky
to buy them, as they are no longer in print.
There is one used copy of Papadakis'book, available through Amazon:
The New Romantics (Art and Design Profile) , by Andreas Papadakis
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0856709565/qid=1047513520/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_0_3/202-5619287-5131024

While searching Amazon.co.uk, I noted that Graham Ovenden has written
or edited several books on photography:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/202-5619287-5131024



In September a major exhibition of the Ruralists' work will be held in
Wales:

"Work is currently being carried out in preparation for a major
celebration of the work of the Ruralists, covering three decades.
An exhibition of work, with accompanying lectures and concerts will
take place at the Museum of Modern Art (The Tabernacle) in
Macchynleth, Wales between 8 September 2003 and 1 November 2003."

Brotherhood of Ruralists: Latest News
http://www.aznet.co.uk/ruralists/index.html



In the meantime, their site offers links to commercial galleries.
You'll also find a selection of paintings online, but please note that
some images may not really belong to the artist named in the search!

image search Ann Arnold
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=+site:aznet.co.uk++++%22ann+arnold%22++

image search Graham Arnold
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=+site:aznet.co.uk+%22graham+arnold%22++

image search Annie Ovenden
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=+site:aznet.co.uk+++%22annie+ovenden%22++

image search Graham ovenden
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=++%22graham+ovenden%22++&btnG=Google+Search


I'm afraid I could find nothing about any particular connection with
the theatre or with academic studies of Shakespeare. The artists'
biographies on the Brotherhood site suggest nothing academic (outside
teaching painting) nor theatrical. Perhaps you might be lucky enough
to find more answers by joining their mailing list?
http://aznet.co.uk/ruralists/siteinfo/emaillist.html

(There is an essay asserting a link between Elizabethan pastoral
themes and Arden's choice of the Ruralists for their cover art at:
http://www.cyberpat.com/shakes/proslear.html)


Thank-you for a very interesting question. If I can help any further
with this please let me know and I'll do my best to assist.



Leli



More notes on the Arden Shakespeare:

Annie Ovenden illustrated "Measure for Measure" and "Cymbeline".
David Inshaw not only worked on Arden editions but did other cover
art:
http://www.aznet.co.uk/ruralists/artists/diprofile.html

The complete set of Arden covers was exhibited in Devizes in 1995
://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cache:ksvN8uvmu7AC:aznet.co.uk/ruralists/catalogue/exhibitions/1995Mirror.html+ruralists+arden&hl=en&ie=UTF-8



searches
Arden Shakespeare cover illustration OR art
://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=arden+shakespeare+cover++illustration+OR+art&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

Google image search for Brotherhood artwork
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=+site:www.aznet.co.uk+%22+brotherhood+of+ruralists%22++

image search Ann Arnold
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=+site:aznet.co.uk++++%22ann+arnold%22++

image search Graham Arnold
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=+site:aznet.co.uk+%22graham+arnold%22++

image search Annie Ovenden
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=+site:aznet.co.uk+++%22annie+ovenden%22++

image search Graham ovenden
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=++%22graham+ovenden%22++&btnG=Google+Search

Arden covers
http://www.ardenshakespeare.com/second_series.htm#ham

Absolutely stunning answer for me; everything I was looking for!

Thank-you very much for the kind feedback - not to mention the
generous tip and rating. Researching this was a pleasure and I am glad
the answer was helpful for you.