Price on request
Signed
Pen, pencil and watercolour on paper
50.5 x 76 cm
Provenance: Edgar Peakcock
Exhibited: Liss/The Fine Art Society, 2006, Frank Brangwyn, no. 154
Literature: Horner, Brangwyn a Mission to Decorate Life, 2006, p. 150
£3,000
Signed with monogram
Pencil on tracing paper; sight size 29 × 32½ in. (73.7 × 82.6 cm.)
Provenance: Kenneth Center; Michael Campbell; private collection, London
Literature: Frank Brangwyn, A Mission to Decorate Life, exh. cat.,The Fine Art Society, London, 2006 (no. 150); The Way of the Cross: An Interpretation by Frank Brangwyn, London 1935
In 1934 Brangwyn completed a set of Stations of the Cross, the original designs drawn in outline on tracing paper and transferred to zinc plates from which the lithographs were printed. The tracing-paper design was transferred to the plate by rubbing the back of the paper with chalk and then retracing the outline of the image. Following this, Brangwyn would have added the detail to the plate, including shading and the folds of the costumes, using lithographic crayon.
Sixteen sets of the Stations were printed on paper and a further three sets on sycamore (an experiment intended to produce a lithograph that would be
more durable in a damp church interior). The images were additionally
published in a reduced format by Hodder and Stoughton as a book entitled
The Way of the Cross: An Interpretation by Frank Brangwyn (London 1935), with a commentary by G.K. Chesterton, who enthused that Brangwyn was surely ‘one of the most masculine of modern men of genius’ (p. 11).
The original zinc lithographic plate, 30 × 32 in. (76.2 × 81.3 cm.) is also for sale.
We are grateful to Dr Libby Horner for her assistance (Ninth Station on
tracing paper is no. S1904, and the zinc plate is no. S1897, in her forthcoming catalogue raisonné).
Price on request
The wood-block is mounted with a wood-cut to the reverse, posthumously printed from the block by David Maes.
Original wood-block supplied by Lawrence’s, end-grain boxwood
5 1/8 × 7 5/8 in. (13.2 × 19.4 cm.)
Provenance: William de Belleroche; Gordon Anderson
Exhibited: Brangwyn In His Studio: The Jointure Studios, Ditchling, East Sussex, October 2006 (no. PR03)
Literature: Dominique Marechal, Collectie Frank Brangwyn, Bruges Stedelijke Musea, 1987, p. 128; print repr. in Modern Woodcutters, No. 2, London 1920; N.M. Lazareva, Frenk Brengvin, Izobrazit, 1978, plate 95; repr. back cover of Frank Brangwyn: Exposition de Gravures, Festival de Melle, 1988.
The wood-block is based on Brangwyn’s earlier lithograph, Mowers 1890.
We are grateful to Dr Libby Horner for her assistance (Mowers is no. v 1485 in her forthcoming catalogue raisonné).
Price on request
The wood-block is mounted with a wood-cut to the reverse, posthumously printed from the block by David Maes
Original wood-block supplied by Lawrence’s, end-grain boxwood
4 1/2 × 11 1/8 in. (11.4 × 28.2 cm.)
Provenance: William de Belleroche; Gordon Anderson
Exhibited: Brangwyn in his Studio, Jointure Studios, Ditchling, East Sussex, 2006 (no. PR18)
Literature: Dominique Marechal, Collectie Frank Brangwyn, Bruges Stedelijke Musea, 1987, p. 139; print repr. title page of Zwanzig Graphische Arbeiten,Vienna 1921; Jeremy Yates,
Price on request
Signed with monogram
Original lithographic zinc plate 30 × 31 1/2 in. (76.2 × 80 cm.)
Provenance: Kenneth Center; Hilary Gerrish; private collection, South of France
Literature: Dominique Marechal, Collectie Frank Brangwyn, Stedelijke Musea, Bruges, 1987, p. 178
In his commentary on Brangwyn’s Stations, G.K. Chesterton felt that the design of this Station was pivotal:‘Christ lifts His head, looks sharply over His shoulder, and His eyes shine with defiance and almost with fury. And that one flash of fierceness is shot back at the Women of Jerusalem weeping over Him.’
We are grateful to Dr Libby Horner for her assistance (Eighth Station is no.
S1903 in her forthcoming catalogue raisonné).
£3,000
Signed with monogram
Original zinc lithographic plate, 30 × 32 in. (76.2 × 81.3 cm.)
Provenance: Kenneth Center; Michael Campbell; private collection, London
Literature: Frank Brangwyn, A Mission to Decorate Life, exh. cat.,The Fine Art Society, London, 2006 (no. 150); The Way of the Cross: An Interpretation by Frank Brangwyn, London 1935In 1934 Brangwyn completed a set of Stations of the Cross, the original designs drawn in outline on tracing paper and transferred to zinc plates from which the lithographs were printed. The tracing-paper design was transferred to the plate by rubbing the back of the paper with chalk and then retracing the outline of the image. Following this, Brangwyn would have added the detail to the plate, including shading and the folds of the costumes, using lithographic crayon.
Sixteen sets of the Stations were printed on paper and a further three sets on sycamore (an experiment intended to produce a lithograph that would be
more durable in a damp church interior). The images were additionally
published in a reduced format by Hodder and Stoughton as a book entitled
The Way of the Cross: An Interpretation by Frank Brangwyn (London 1935), with a commentary by G.K. Chesterton, who enthused that Brangwyn was surely ‘one of the most masculine of modern men of genius’ (p. 11).
The original pencil on tracing paper design for this Station is also available; sight size 29 × 32 1/2 in. (73.7 × 82.6 cm.)
We are grateful to Dr Libby Horner for her assistance (Ninth Station on
tracing paper is no. S1904, and the zinc plate is no. S1897, in her orthcoming catalogue raisonné).
Price on request
Signed with monogram, inscribed William de Belleroche
Red chalk, 14½ × 13 in. (36.8 × 33 cm.)
Provenance: Christie’s, South Kensington, March 1989 (lot 34); Rachel Moss; private collection, Canada
In 1915 George Harold Winterbottom JP, a well-known figure in Manchester’s financial world, commissioned Brangwyn to paint murals for his billiard room at Horton House near Northampton.The murals were painted as a continuous frieze, 79 in. high and 122 ft 10 in. long, but after Winterbottom’s death in 1934, the canvas was taken down and cut into ten known sections, and some areas were repainted by Brangwyn.
Surprisingly only eleven studies for this large project have, to date, been
identified. This particular study is for one of the panels, known as Venetian
Workers Resting 1916, now in the collection of Dunedin Public Art Gallery,
New Zealand.
We are grateful to Dr Horner for her assistance (Brangwyn’s mural is
no. A1178 in her forthcoming catalogue raisonné).
Price on request
Signed with monogram and dated: 'FB1912'
Oil on canvas, lunette 26 3/4 × 78 in. (68 × 198cm.)
Provenance: John Heaton, Sunderland; Vose Galleries of Boston, USA; San Joaquin Pioneer Museum and Haggin Art Galleries, Stockton,California (de-acquisitioned 2006)
Exhibited: Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, November 1914 (no.68),l ent by John Heaton; Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings and Etchings by Frank Brangwyn, Royal Academy, London,1924 (no.297); Vose Galleries of Boston,USA,1925 (no.6)
Literature: Herbert Furst, The Decorative Art of Frank Brangwyn, London 1924, pp.84-5; Art News, New York, 14 March 1925; Boston Herald, 15 March 1925
Reference: Vincent Galloway, The Oils and Murals of Sir Frank Brangwyn, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex 1962, p.303
In 1911 Brangwyn was approached by Charles F. Schweinfurth,the architect of Cuyahoga County Courthouse, Cleveland,Ohio, to paint a mural for a lunette in the building,measuring 15ft by 50ft. The chosen theme was the democratic and very English subject of King John signing the Magna Carta on Runnymede Meadows in 1215. Brangwyn signed a contract with the Cuyahoga County Building Commission for the sum of $20,000,i n which he agreed to 'visit the site and location' before embarking on the commission, and 'before and after it has been set in place [to] personally visit the site,and touch up or finish this painting in place'. In fact Brangwyn never visited the United States. He obviously hoped to bypass the process by producing such an unusually detailed cartoon.
We are grateful to Dr Libby Horner for her assistance (Brangwyn's mural for Cuyahoga County Courthouse is no.M1142 in her forthcoming catalogue raisonne).
Price on request
Black,white and yellow chalk, lightly squared, 17 × 13 in. (44.5 × 33cm.)
Provenance: The Fine Art Society; private collection, Canada
This is a study for the pendentive panel, The Home Makers, in the State Capitol, Jefferson City, Missouri.
The previous state capitol having burnt down,a new one was constructed between 1911 and 1917, based on the design of the Capitol, Washington D.C. Brangwyn was asked to devise a colour scheme and thirteen murals for the new building,including a canvas for the eye of the dome (36 ft in diameter), four pendentives (each 24 ft high, 48 ft wide at the top and 15 ft wide at the base), and eight lower dome panels (approximately 16 ft high and 28 ft wide). The four large pendentives represented 'Missouri in Four Great Historical Periods' and were titled Historic Landing (Laclede Parleying with the Indians), Pioneers, The Home Makers and Builders.
The scale of the works was immense, each figure being about 14 ft high. The initial sketches were of tremendous importance, Brangwyn telling his friend Joseph Simpson that,once he had his sketch and cartoon ready, he could complete the painting of a figure of that size in one day.
We are grateful to Dr Libby Horner for her assistance (Brangwyn's work for the State Capitol,Jefferson City, is no.M1135 in her forthcoming catalogue raisonne).
£2,000
Signed with monogram and inscribed b.r.: ‘WdeB Coll’
Watercolour, 7 ½ x 9 1/8in. (19 x 23.2cm.)
Provenance: William de Belleroche (No 30); private collection
His Richness of Bal was one of 20 sketches produced to illustrate for King of the Sea in 1924. The proposed book was never published though a letter dated 1927 from Brangwyn to Martin Hardie refers to the project with the suggestion that a publication was imminent: ‘By the way you remember I lent you one or two rough heads of Pirates etc for that Turpin[?] book, can you lay your hand on them as they were part of a collection which belongs to a publisher who wishes to publish the lot.’ (Letter from Brangwyn to Martin Hardie, Victoria and Albert Museum, 16 February 1927, V&A. MA/1/B2328).
We are grateful to Libby Horner for her assistance. His Richness of Bal is number D1959 in her forthcoming catalogue raisonne
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Signed with monogram, oil on canvas,
22½ x 29½ ins (57 x 75 cms.). In its original Brangwyn Dutch black ripple pattern frame.
Provenance: Fine Art Society; W. Scott and Sons Montreal, 1927
Literature: Galloway Vincent, The Oils and Murals of Sir Frank Brangwyn, F Lewis, Leigh-on-Sea, 1962, p. 28, possibly no. 745, Canal de San Pietro.
Brangwyn designed the British Room for the Venice Biennale in 1905 and 1907 and always felt a strong association with the city and its celebrated tradition of painting. In 1922 he illustrated Edward Hutton's book The Pageant of Venice. It is rare to find a Brangwyn with its original surface so uncompromised: the texture of the brushwork has not suffered through time and nor has the palette. More usually, Brangwyn built his surface colours on top of a brown ground. Through the passage of time these colours often thinned, allowing the ground to 'burn' through, thus darkening the original palette. We are grateful to Dr Libby Horner for her assistance. The work is number O2692 in her forthcoming catalogue raisonné.
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Signed with monogram, oil on canvas board, 13½ x 16½ ins. (34.3 x 42 cms.)
Provenance: Fine Art Society, 1952; Mrs Barton Chadwynd; private collection, Montevideo
Literature: Galloway Vincent, The Oils and Murals of Sir Frank Brangwyn, F Lewis, Leigh-on-Sea, 1962, p. 28, no. 159 Exhibited: Fine Art Society, October 1952 (31)
This painting shows a giant dahlia, a flower of South American origin. It is typical of the dense and richly coloured foliage that Brangwyn used to great effect in the murals he painted for the House of Lords in 1926. Brangwyn was a keen horticulturist: through his apprenticeship with William Morris he developed a love of traditional English flora; through his travels abroad he developed a love of the exotic. His garden at the Jointure in Ditchling, Sussex, combined the two. As a painter, Brangwyn responded to all forms of nature, making large numbers of spontaneous sketches on scraps of paper in response to the environment around him. This plein-air sketch is unusual for being in oil. We are grateful to Dr Libby Horner for her assistance. The work is number O2512 in her forthcoming catalogue raisonné. Six other still lives with dahlias are recorded.
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Signed with monogram, watercolour, 22 x 30 ins. (56 x 76.3 cms.)
Provenance: A.T. Gledhill and by descent to Miss Lloyd-Williams; The Fine Art Society, March 1981; Judd Estate (Sotheby's Beverley Hills, California)
Exhibited: Brangwyn Queen's Gate exhibition, 1924 (129); Fine Art Society, 1981
Literature: Brangwyn, D'Alignan and Turpin, London and Paris, 1923 and 1927, reproduced as colour lithograph no. 26, 14 x 19ins. (35.5 x 48 cms.); Cyril Bunt, The Watercolours of Sir Frank Brangwyn, F Lewis, Leigh-on-Sea, 1958, p. 61, no. 674. In 1920 Brangwyn's assistant, Frank Alford, recalled Turpin and D'Alignan arriving at the studio to select works for the Portfolio: 'the studio floor and all easels and boxes (were) utilized to show drawings, etchings and water colours'. From the hundreds of works available the four men chose fifty, including this impressive, highly atmospheric work. We are grateful to Dr Libby Horner for her assistance. The work is number D1556 in her forthcoming catalogue raisonné.
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Oil on prepared board, 24W X 20E ins. (61.5 X 53 cms.)
Provenance: William Stewart, and by descent
This spontaneous oil sketch brings to mind Paris of the 1890s, with its musicians, absinthe drinkers and bohemians, immortalised by the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. Brangwyn was working in Paris in 1895, painting mural and stencil decorations on the exterior of the Galerie L'Art Nouveau for Siegfried Bing.
Technically the painting shows clearly how Brangwyn, at times, laid his colours over a warm pink-orange ground, thereby achieving a greater luminosity. Musicians appear frequently throughout Brangwyn's oeuvre. Writing to Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo in 1940, on the death of their mutual friend the music antiquarian and scholar Arnold Dolmetsch, Brangwyn wryly remarked: 'your old friend Dolmetsch has gone to play his viols and virginals before The master [sic]. He will no doubt see some wonderful instruments there?' Letter from Brangwyn to Mackmurdo, 21 April 1940, William Morris Gallery, London. We are grateful to Dr Libby Horner for her assistance. Musicians is number D2070 in her forthcoming catalogue raisonné.
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Signed with monogram & inscribed with title to reverse
Oil on board, 16A X 17Q ins. (41 X 44.5 cms.)
Provenance: William Stewart, and by descent; private collection
This is a study for a proposed mural which has not, to date, been identified. Brangwyn may have gained the commission through one of his American assistants. Only one other study is known to exist, a conté drawing in the Art Gallery of South Australia, squared for enlargement, whilst a photographic study of the central mother and child gives a clue to the date. We are grateful to Dr Libby Horner for her assistance. Grant Bryn & Mays is number M2087 in her forthcoming catalogue raisonné.
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Signed with monogram; coloured chalks on grey paper, 18Q X 12 ins. (47 X 30 cms.)
Provenance: Catto Gallery
Judging by the style of clothing, this was a preparatory but unused sketch for one of the Skinners Hall murals (probably panel 14, Lord Mayor Pilkington entertaining King and Queen, 1689). The quality of draughtsmanship would also suggest an early date. Brangwyn frequently recycled images and this particular pose, suitably modified, reappeared in the Horton House murals (circa 1916).
We are grateful to Dr Libby Horner for her assistance. The sketch has been entered as a study under Worshipful Company of Skinners, London, number M1139 in her forthcoming catalogue raisonné.
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Signed with monogram (twice)
Black and red chalk, over pencil, 11Q X 16Q ins. (29.5 X 42.5 cms.)
Provenance: Count William de Belleroche, 1958
In 1910 Brangwyn completed a large oil entitled New Wine, 81 X 106 ins (205.7 X 269.2 cm). This was subsequently purchased by the wealthy Japanese industrialist Kojiro Matsukata, but was probably destroyed in the Pantechnicon fire in London (1939). A number of studies, of which Lazybones is one, are all that remain. An almost identical study is in the collection of the Victoria Art Gallery, Bath. We are grateful to Dr Libby Horner for her assistance. New Wine is numbered 01402 in her forthcoming catalogue raisonné.
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Inscribed 'CHINA/JA' and 'ISOLA DI'
Chalk and bodycolour on light grey paper, 41 X 32 ins. (104 X 81.3 cms.)
Provenance: William de Belleroche (catalogue number 77); private collection
Literature: Furst, The Decorative Art of Frank Brangwyn, John Lane, 1924, p. 167, reproduced; Alford and Horner, Brangwyn in His Studio, Alford, Guildford, 2004, p. 111, reproduced
Harry Gordon Selfridge, nicknamed 'Mile a Minute Harry', brought American ideas on commerce and advertising to the British retail business. His vast emporium on Oxford Street was, when built, the largest in England and was enlarged over the following twenty years. Brangwyn was commissioned to design a decoration for the interior of a dome designed by Sir John Burnet. The huge dome, 70ft (21 metres) in diameter and 130ft (40 metres) above the ground, was to be tiled in mosaic, the subject being, appropriately enough, 'Trade of the World'. Brangwyn designed the top of the dome as an inverted globe upon which he noted various countries, together with flora and fauna of those areas, whilst the lower parts were filled with exotically dressed people and traders, each figure measuring some 16-17ft (5 metres) high. Unfortunately the mosaics were never executed because, apparently, the London County Council feared that the excessive weight might damage the underground railway.
We are grateful to Dr Libby Horner for her assistance. Selfridges is number M2157 in her forthcoming catalogue raisonné.
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Signed with monogram and inscribed 'Messina - O'Shade of Bourdon/Forgive' Blue ink and pencil on paper, 10 X 8W ins. (25.5 X 21 cms.)
Provenance: William de Belleroche (catalogue number 145); private collection
Exhibited: London, Royal Academy, Works of Sir Frank Brangwyn RA, 1952, no. 291
Literature: Belleroche, Brangwyn's Pilgrimage, Chapman and Hall, London, 1948, facing p. 146 In the 1940s
Brangwyn produced a number of pen and ink sketches to illustrate Brangwyn's Pilgrimage, by William de Belleroche. This particular drawing records the devastation caused by the earthquake on 28 December 1908 at Messina, Sicily, when the shore sank by 16ft. 5ins. overnight and 84,000 people lost their lives. Brangwyn visited the site and made numerous sketches of the area when he visited his friend R. H. Kitson in Taormina, Sicily, in 1909.
We are grateful to Dr Libby Horner for her assistance. Messina after the earthquake is number D3192 in her forthcoming catalogue raisonné.
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Signed and inscribed: ‘Bringing home the Christmas goose, all good wishes for a Peaceful Christmas from Frank Brangwyn 1944’
Watercolour and crayon over an etched base, 6 7/8 × 5 1/4 in. (17.5 × 13.4 m.)
Provenance: Raymond Sheppard
Literature: Jerome and Jean Tharaud, L’Ombre de la Croix, Paris, 1931, Book 1, p. 161The image was produced for the book L’Ombre de la Croix by Jerome and Jean Tharaud (Paris 1931), which describes the lives of Jews in Europe in the 1930s, with particular reference to the town of Belz in Poland.
We are grateful to Dr Libby Horner for her assistance.
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Signed with monogram: ‘b.l.: FB’. Various inscriptions on verso (not in Brangwyn’s hand): ‘Go now, Friends, and/ say God speed for us’; ‘Brangwyn 20066; Sept 1902 for 353’; ‘Fisherman of Costla’; ‘Martin Cook’; ‘Frank Brangwyn’; ‘PTG 1978-9-2-pac’; ‘E9131’, together with a torn label: ‘This is an original/ painting by Frank Brangwyn/ one of the greatest artists.’ Grisaille on board, 11⅜ × 17¼ in. (29 × 44 cm.)
Literature: ‘A Fisherman of Costla’, Scribner’s Magazine, vol. XXXII.40, 1902, repr. p. 353
Of the 439 recorded oils that Brangwyn painted before 1900, more than a
quarter were small monochrome compositions produced to illustrate books
and, especially, magazines, such as Scribner’s Magazine and The Graphic. Goodbye to the Galway Fisherman was an illustration for the article ‘A Fisherman of Costla’ in Scribner’s Magazine.
We are grateful to Dr Libby Horner for her assistance (the work is no. O4752 in her forthcoming catalogue raisonné).
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