The Eight Limited Edition Print is a study of a racing eight observed from Hammersmith Bridge during the trials for Head of the River Race on the Thames. While the majority of the published edition leaves the area on the back of the rowers as unprinted white, the impression offered in this lot is a rare example that displays pale chrome printed very lightly from a third lino block. 

The linocut is "a back view of the men apparently in the drive position, whereby the 'oar enters the water at the perfect angle, then the rower pushes backwards, toward the bow, flattening his legs with his arms fully outstretched and pulling the oar toward him'. The emphatic perspective of the scene from the bridge above has turned into a close-cut aerial view, editing out the tips of the oars and the front of the craft, eliminating the figure of the coxswain. As the oars are seen to enter the river, a whole framework of lines and shapes are seen to irradiate across the transparent blue waters, describing the curving cone-shaped eddies stirred by the oars and the small wave patterns; like arching flares of lights- created as the craft thrusts forward. Power noted that the use of Chrome Orange should be 'heavy on men', the Permanent Blue applied at 'full pressure' and the Pale Chrome 'very light on the backs of the men'. The translucent, glowing yellow on the backs of the men helps evoke the aesthetically subtle nuances of their muscular torsos as they twist and strain forwards. The clipped, contoured opaque blue-black expanses describing their haircuts communicates something of the taut impersonal resolve and concentrated strength of the crew, its overall motion synchronised with balletic precision."