Brangwyn painting the panel and the completed panel right.
1900-1906
Roberson’s spirit fresco, 533.4×335.3cm
Inscription: monogram and date b.r. ‘1906 FB’
The new Royal Exchange, designed by Sir William Tite, was opened in 1844 by Queen Victoria. The interior has a huge hall with a glass dome supported by pillars, between which a series of paintings by leading Victorian artists were placed, each sponsored by private individuals or companies in a concerted effort to involve more public figures in patronage of the arts. The scheme was organized by the Royal Academy and the Gresham Committee and each panel had a set cost of £500.
Late in 1899, Sir Thomas Lane Devitt (1839-1923), Chairman of Lloyds Register of Shipping, announced that he was prepared to pay for a panel and chose Brangwyn as his artist. In January 1900 the Gresham Committee accepted Devitt’s proposal and two months later Brangwyn submitted a sketch entitled Commerce. As his ideas evolved the design became less pictorial and the final design Modern Commerce shows labourers in dockland against an architectural background of ships, derricks and cranes forming strong verticals, linking the design and shape of the panel to the surrounding architecture.
Brangwyn’s panel, one of the last to be completed, is to the right of the entrance and was officially unveiled on 22 October 1906 by Mrs Devitt in company with the Lord Mayor of London. The panels were marouflaged to the walls and are still in existence behind the present shopping mall, London, EC3V 3LL.
Rinder noted that Brangwyn had ‘conceived his theme in large and simple way; he has shaped his conception with a vigorous strength, an intensity’.
Literature: The Studio, p239-243 Vol 39, Covey, ‘Mr Frank Brangwyn’s New Panels for the Royal Exchange’. The Studio, p74-75 Vol 33, ‘Studio-Talk’. Shaw-Sparrow, The Spirit of the Age, London, 1905 p21, Benedite, ‘Frank Brangwyn ARA’. The Studio, p311 Vol 45, ‘Studio-Talk’. Furst, The Decorative Art of Frank Brangwyn, The Bodley Head London 1924 p61-65. Shaw-Sparrow, Frank Brangwyn and his Work, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co Ltd London 1915 p136-143. Rodney Brangwyn, Brangwyn, William Kimber London 1978 p83-85. Galloway, The Oils and Murals of Sir Frank Brangwyn RA, F Lewis 1962 p72. Magazine of Art, p486 July 1903, Konody, ‘The Decorative Figure-Work of Mr Frank Brangwyn’. Art Journal, p370 1906, ‘Royal Exchange Panel’. Art Journal, March 1903, Rinder, ‘The Art of Frank Brangwyn’, p86. Art Journal, 1907, ‘Modern Commerce’, p42. Masters of Modern Art. Frank Brangwyn RA, by ‘Tis’, p5. Duffy, BAJ, Vol 8, p52. Horner/Naylor, 2006, Powers, ‘The murals of Frank Brangwyn’, p73.
Illustrated: The Studio, p241? Vol 39, December 1906, Covey, ‘Mr Frank Brangwyn’s New panel for the Royal Exchange’. The Studio, Vol 33. Shaw-Sparrow, The Spirit of the Age, London, 1905 plate 20. Furst, 1924 p60-65 panel, cartoon and sketch. Shaw-Sparrow, 1915 facing p140. The Studio, Vol 45, January 1909, preparatory oil sketch. Clare Willsdon, Mural painting in Britain 1840-1940, Oxford University Press 2000 p78. Art Journal, 1907, facing p42, ‘Modern Commerce’. Lazareva, Frenk Brengvin, Izobrazit 1978 plate 44. Graphic, Saturday 13 October 1906, cover. Art et Decoration, Guillemot Maurice, ‘Brangwyn, Décorateur’, Vol XXVI, 2nd semester 1909, p104. Fruits of Industry, p107University of Melbourne Library Journal, Spring/Summer 1993, cover, 1st sketch for RE. Horner/Naylor, 2006, Powers, ‘The murals of Frank Brangwyn’, p73.