OIL PAINTINGS
To date I have catalogued 969 oils, 274 of which are undated and 246 were painted between 1901 and 1948. The remaining 439 were painted between 1883 and 1900 – this works out at an average of one painting a week! Many of these works may have been bread-and-butter, quick commissions. Of the oils painted before 1900, at least 142 were comparatively small monochrome compositions produced as illustrations for books (for example The Arabian Nights and Don Quixote of La Mancha) and magazines (for example Scribner’s and The Graphic). On the other hand Brangwyn also painted some large decorative works prior to 1900, 40 being over 1 square metre in area, 16 of these over 2.5 square metres (25 sq ft).
The oils depict marine subjects, buildings, bridges, Middle Eastern markets ad infinitum, a number of rather anachronistic historical topics, and some religious themes, figures tending to dominate the scenes. The artist also painted about 40 landscapes and, after 1900, about 20 still lifes. Brangwyn was not a portrait painter; the twenty or so known works were not commissioned by VIPs but depicted friends and local characters, ranging from Sir Alfred East, c1900, National Portrait Gallery (O1383) to the Ditchling Village Postman, nd, private collection (O1103).
The fees involved in gaining copyright permission from art galleries and museums to illustrate their works on my website precludes my ability to show some of Brangwyn's best or more representative oils. However the William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow, very kindly offered images of two of their works, and I chose Music and Swans, two seminal oils. I have also included works believed to have been destroyed and Paul Liss has given me permission to use the images from his website (the number in brackets following the title of each Brangwyn work indicates the number by which the work is identified in the Catalogue Raisonne) .
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| Turkish Fishermen (O1535), 1890, oil on board, 38x45cm, monogram and date in black b.l.: 'FB 1890', and inscribed verso: 'Turkish Fishermen'. Provenance: Liss Fine Art, private collection. Exh: Frank Brangwyn. A Mission to Decorate Life, The Fine Art Society, 2006, cat 19. Lit and Ill: Libby Horner, Frank Brangwyn. A Mission to Decorate Life, The Fine Art Society/Liss Fine Art, 2006, p52,53. Brangwyn travelled to Turkey in 1890, the results of his work being exhibited in his first one-man show, From the Scheldt to the Danube, at the Royal Arcade Gallery, London, in March 1891. Image courtesy Liss Fine Art. | Music (O3424), 1895, oil on canvas, 188x143.5cm, monogram b.r.: 'FB' (Gillow states that the signature was added when the work was returned to Brangwyn), William Morris Gallery, London Borough of waltham Forest (Br O10). Provenance: Siegfried Bing; M Agache; Brangwyn (Gift to gallery in 1936). Exh: Salon L'Art Nouveau, 1895, cat 38. 62nd Autumn Exhibition, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 1936, cat 1011, titled Pipes of Pan. Brangwyn Centenary, 1967, cat 45. Origins of L'Art Nouveau, 2005. Frank Brangwyn 1867-1956, 2006. Lit and Ill: Weisberg, Art Nouveau Bing: Paris Style 1900, New York, 1986, p60-61. Weisberg, 'Gallery L'Art Nouveau in Paris 1895', Jaarboek 1985-86, Bruges, 1987, p279, 282-283. Weisberg, Becker, Posseme, Origins of L'Art Nouveau, Van Gogh Museum, 2005, p118-119,121. Lit: Rinder, 'The Art of Frank Brangwyn', Art Journal, March 1903, p83. Furst, Decorative Art of Frank Brangwyn, London, 1924, p50-51. Gillow, Catalogue of Works by Sir Frank Brangwyn RA, William Morris Gallery, 1974, p50-51. R Brangwyn, Brangwyn, London, 1978, p73. Duffy, 'Frank Brangwyn and the curious incidence of art in the Tate', British Art Journal, Vol 8, p50. Ill: Little, 'Frank Brangwyn and his Art', The Studio, October 1897, p14. Marechal, Frank Brangwyn. Collection Catalogue, Bruges, 1987, p29. Willsdon, Mural painting in Britain: 1840-1940, OUP, 2000, p22. Horner and Naylor (Eds), Frank Brangwyn 1867-1956, Leeds/Arents House, 2007, p9,79. | Building a Liner: A Scene at a Tyneside Shipbuilding Yard (O4700), 1899, oil, probably grisaille, size unknown, pwu. Ill: The Graphic, 19 August 1899, p257. Brangwyn produced countless illustrations for books and magazines, including The Graphic. Most of these were hastily executed in grisaille on poor quality board but commercial work provided a useful means of reaching a wider public. It was also good bread and butter work, each commission gaining the artist £16 (equivalent to about £1000 nowadays). |
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| Gathering Grapes (O1536), c1905, oil on board, 62x41.5cm, inscribed with monogram. Provenance: Phillips, 17 June 1997, Lot 53, Liss Fine Art, private collection. Related works: Fruit picker in Building the New Home, State Capitol, Jefferson City, Missouri, USA (M1135). Exh: Frank Brangwyn. A Mission to Decorate Life, The Fine Art Society, 2006, cat 26. Lit: Alford and Horner, Brangwyn in His Studio, Guildford, 2004, p78. Lit and Ill: Libby Horner, Frank Brangwyn. A Mission to Decorate Life, The Fine Art Society/Liss Fine Art, 2006, p62, 63. Ill: Scribner's Magazine, cover, Vol XXXVIII, October 1905. Phillips cataogue. Despite being financially secure by 1905 Brangwyn continued to accept commercial commissions, as with this for the cover of Scribner's Magazine, the gold painted bar across the painting relating to the magazine format. Image courtesy Liss Fine Art. | Myself when young did eagerly frequent (O2246), c1912, oil, 30.5x41.3cm. Provenance: J de Graff, pwu. Exh: Queen's Gate, 1924, Cat 20. Ill: Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, London: Foulis, 1912, 1917, 1919. Brangwyn illustrated at least four different editions of the Rubaiyat as translated by Edward Fitzgerald and designed the blue plaque for Fitzgerald's home in Cambridge. | And Lo! The Hunter of the East has caught (O2244), c1912, oil, 42.5x30.5cm. Provenance: J de Graff, pwu. Exh: Queen's gate, Cat 22. Ill: Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, London: Foulis, 1912, 1917, 1919 |
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| Exodus (O283), c1914, oil, 175.3x508cm. Provenance: Kojiro Matsukata, probably destroyed in Pantechnicon fire 1939. Studies: Photographs EP34, 35, 36, 37, 65, 66, 67, Liss Fine Art; Study, pastel on brown paper, squared, 55.5x127cm, private collection, Canada; Belgium 1914, oil, 72.5x82.5cm, pwu. Related works: Exodus (V1333). Exh: Queen's Gate, 1924, Cat 45, titled Belgium. Lit: Sparrow, Frank Brangwyn and His Work, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1915, p236. Ill: Masters of Modern Art, London: Colour Ltd; Queen's Gate catalogue, 1924. The work illustrates Belgians fleeing their country during World War 1. | Photographic study for Exodus, squared, private collection. Brangwyn frequently used photographs to help with his studies for large paintings and murals - this is one of at least 7 known to have been taken for the Exodus painting. The people seen in this image were probably Brangwyn's neighbours in Hammersmith and would have been posed and photographed by the artist himself. Photograph courtesy Liss Fine Art. | Landing the Catch: Boat Building in the Harbour (O2537), 1914, oil on canvas, inscribed with monogram and date b.r.: 'FB 1914'. Provenance: Barbizon House, USA, private collection UK. Exh: Barbizon House, 1926, Cat 4. Frank Brangwyn. A Mission to Decorate Life, The Fine Art Society, 2006, cat 30. Lit and Ill: Barbizon House Record, 1926. Libby Horner, Frank Brangwyn. A Mission to Decorate Life, The Fine Art Society/Liss Fine Art, 2006, p72-75. The Barbizon House record noted that: 'The artist has aimed at producing a grand decorative scheme showing the scaffolding reaching to the ribs of the vessel and the active movement of the workers in full swing, each absorbed in his own labour.' Image courtesy Liss Fine Art. |
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| Seasons - Summer (O2032), c1916, oil, 44.5x54.6cm. Provenance: Kojiro Matsukata, probably destroyed in Pantechnicon fire 1939. Studies: Photograph 66, Paul Cava. Photograph CPP22, private collection. Related works: Miss Helen Wilson, Tangiers (X594) Exh: Queen's Gate, 1924, cat 26. Ill: Phillpotts, The Girl and the Faun, London: Cecil Palmer & Hayward, 1916, facing p22 | Seasons - Autumn (O2033), c1916, oil, 44.5x54.6cm. Provenance: Kojiro Matsukata, probably destroyed in Pantechnicon fire 1939. Studies: Photograph 41, Paul Cava. Related works: boy on left in Slave Market (O2141). Exh: Queen's Gate, 1924, cat 27. Ill: Phillpotts, The Girl and the Faun, London: Cecil Palmer & Hayward, 1916, facing p40 | Swans (O312), 1920-1921, oil on canvas, 148.5x160.8cm, inscribed with monogram in grey b.r. :'FB', William Morris Gallery, London Borough of Waltham Forest (Br O 18). Provenance: Kojiro Matsukata, Brangwyn (gift to Gallery in 1936). Exh: Queen's Gate, 1924, cat 3 (lent by Matsukata). Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 1936. cat 1006. Royal Academy, 1952, cat 413. 50th Anniversary Exhibition, Walthamstow, 2001. Frank Brangwyn 1867-1956, 2006. Essex Paints London, Guildhall Art Gallery, London, 2008. Lit and Ill: : Alford and Horner (Eds), Brangwyn in his Studio, Guildford, 2004, p93, 94, front cover. Lit: Duffy, 'Frank Brangwyn and the curious incidence of art in the Tate', British Art Journal, Vol 8, p52. Ill: Furst, Decorative Art of Frank Brangwyn, London, 1924, facing p201. Galloway, Oil and Mural Paintings of Sir Frank Brangwyn, Leigh-on-Sea, 1962, plate 22. Horner, 'Brangwyn and the Japanese Connection', Decorative Arts Society, Journal 26, 2002, p72. Billie Figg, 'Essex Club goes to the Guildhall', The Artist, May 2008, p19 |
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| Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings & Etchings by Frank Brangwyn RA, 184 Queen's Gate, London, 1924, Room 1. On the right hand wall the four Seasons oils surround Trees, Avignon (O276), pwu; Brass Pot (O1844), Wolverhampton Art Gallery dominates the central wall, whilst illustrations to the Rubaiyat are placed round Palazzo dei Camerlenghi (O278) on the left hand wall. This latter painting was owned by Matsukata and was probably destroyed in the Pantechnicon fire 1939. Photograph courtesy Liss Fine Art. | Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings & Etchings by Frank Brangwyn RA, 184 Queen's Gate, London, 1924, Room 2. On the right hand wall can be seen the painting Exodus. Other large works in this view include, from right to left, Wine (O260), Mildura Arts Centre; Swineherd (O272), Ontario, Hamilton Art Gallery; Mars and Venus (O259), Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh lane; Moorish Prison (O4559) which was probably destroyed in the Pantechnicon fire 1939. Photograph courtesy Liss Fine Art. | Study of Dahlias (O2512), 1930-1940, oil on canvas board, 34x42cm, inscribed in pencil t.r.: 'FB'. Provenance: The Fine Art Society, Mrs Barton Chadwynd, private collection Uraguay, Liss Fine Art, private collection UK. Exh: The Fine Art Society, 1952, Cat 31. Lit and Ill: British Paintings and Works on Paper 1880-1980, Liss Fine Art, 2004, Cat 13. Brangwyn was a keen horticulturist; through his apprenticeship with William Morris he developed a love of traditional British flora; through his travels abroad he developed a love of the exotic. His garden at the Jointure in Ditchling, Sussex, combined the two. Giant Dahlias originated in South America. Image courtesy Liss Fine Art. |