Odhams Press was a British publishing company. Originally a newspaper publisher, founded in 1890, it took the name Odhams Press Ltd in 1920 when it merged with John Bull magazine. By 1937 it had founded the first colour weekly, Woman. The company also owned Ideal Home (founded 1920).
In 1935 Brangwyn was commissioned by Lord Southwood (who had begun life as J S Elias, a newspaper boy) to create a large lunette decoration (about 180sq ft) for the main entrance hall of Odhams Press. The theme was ‘The Printed Word Makes the People of the World One’.
Brangwyn painted one of his exotic vegetation murals, peopled with olive skinned figures, baskets of fruit, and wild birds and animals. Some of the figures could even be seen reading newspapers and books. The figures were linked by horizontal strips of sparkling blue water.
When the building was demolished in 1973 the lunette was saved and is now in a private collection in Canada.
It was offered to the Tate in 1977 and the response was:
‘Though it is certainly a very typical work, I am afraid that there is not much chance of our being interested in buying it.’
The painting was again offered in 1987 and the Tate internal memo read: ‘In theory we need this … but I find the picture rather ridiculous.’
Oh dear!
For further information see Peter Duffy, ‘Frank Brangwyn (1867-1956) and the curious incident of the art in the Tate’, The British Art Journal, Volume VIII, No 1, 2007