‘Unloading the Barges’ by Sir Frank Brangwyn

£28,500

R.A., R.W.S., P.R.B.A., (1867-1956) signed with monogram (lower right) oil on canvas board 18 x 21 1/2 in. (45.7 x 54.6 cm.)

Frank Brangwyn is considered to be one of England's most talented artists - a muralist, oil painter, watercolorist, draughtsman, etcher, lithographer, wood engraver and designer of interiors, furniture, carpets, ceramics and stained glass. Brangwyn was an artistic jack-of-all-trades. As well as paintings and drawings, he produced designs for stained glass, furniture, ceramics, table glassware, buildings and interiors, was a lithographer and woodcutter and was a book illustrator. It has been estimated that during his lifetime Brangwyn produced over 12,000 works. His mural commissions would cover over 22,000 sq ft of canvas, he painted over 1,000 oils, over 660 mixed media works (watercolours, gouache), over 500 etchings, about 400 wood-engravings and woodcuts, 280 lithographs, 40 architectural and interior designs, 230 designs for items of furniture and 20 stained glass panels and windows.

He had no formal art training but his natural abilities were recognized by William Morris to whom he became an apprentice at Queen Square, London 1882-1884. He exhibited his first painting at the Royal Academy at 18 and during the 1890s produced book illustrations, which he continued to do throughout his life. In the 1900s Brangwyn began designing furniture, textiles, ceramics and other media.

Though not an official World War I artist he gained repute through his posters, and was further recognized with an RA appointment (1919) and a knighthood (1941). Brangwyn was given a major retrospective exhibition at the Royal Academy, the first time this honour had been accorded to a living artist. His paintings are often concerned with the dignity of human labor, and the working man and his love of architecture, ships and rural and Industrial buildings is evidenced in their inclusion in many of his works. He was awarded many commissions including from Tiffany's and the concourse of the RCA building in New York alongside Diego Rivera. His expressive, bold and vigorous style was recognized amongst his peers and public during the pre War years, his works depicting the War were received with much acclaim and as a part of this era of Modern British painting Frank Brangwyn's works are now sought after and well collected. Frank Brangwyn was a polymath, an artist-craftsman who created murals, oils and watercolors, furniture, textiles, ceramics, stained glass and prints. Born to British parents in 1867 in Bruges, Brangwyn moved to London as a child. He lived in the capital for most of his life until moving to Ditchling, where he died in 1956. Brangwyn was internationally renowned during his life time, highly regarded in Avant-Garde circles and created an estimated 12,000 works. He represented Britain at the Venice Biennale and was the first artist to be given a retrospective exhibition at the Royal Academy during his lifetime. Brangwyn's murals were chosen for Siegfried Bing’s L'Art Nouveau in Paris, the Rockefeller Centre in New York and the Skinners Hall in London. Even in his own lifetime Brangwyn was controversial - regarded as a radical one minute, pilloried as an establishment figure the next. He never tried to conform and took pride in resisting trends. He was also unlucky; some of his most important commissions fell through and a key collection of his oils burned down. After his death his was ignored for half a century, but since 2006 the assessment of his work has been revived, leading to a number of important exhibitions and publications. Brangwyn briefly worked as an apprentice for Morris's workshop, enlarging designs and tracing drawings. Although he soon left to paint and travel, he shared Morris's believe that art should be available to all. When he heard of plans to establish a Gallery in Walthamstow, he donated a large part of his own art collection so that local people would "enjoy art and remember Morris". "An artist’s function is everything: he must be able to turn his hand to everything, for his Mission is to decorate life... he should be able to make pots and pans, doors and walls, monuments or cathedrals, carve, paint, and do everything asked of him." Frank Brangwyn, 1934 The William Morris Gallery holds the second largest collection of Brangwyn's work in England, after the British Museum. It includes oil paintings, watercolors, drawings, designs for stained glass, prints, furniture, a carpet, murals, books illustrated by Brangwyn, archival materials and personalia. Our first floor Brangwyn gallery displays a changing selection of his work. His works are held in collections all-over the world. The Arentshuis Museum in Bruges holds the largest collection of his work.

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