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| c1932 Sir Frank Brangwyn working on a study for the Rockefeller Murals |
Sir Frank William Brangwyn (1867 – 1956) was an Anglo-Welsh artist, painter, water colourist, engraver, illustrator and progressive designer.
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 (2,000 m2) 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.
Brangwyn received some artistic training, probably from his father, and later from Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo and in the workshops of William Morris, but he was largely an autodidact without a formal artistic education. When, at the age of seventeen, one of his paintings was accepted at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, he was strengthened in his conviction to become an artist. Initially he painted traditional subjects about the sea and life on the seas. His 1890 canvas, Funeral At Sea won a medal of the third class at the 1891 Paris Salon. The murals for which Brangwyn was famous, and during his lifetime he was very famous indeed, were brightly coloured and crowded with details of plants and animals, although they became flatter and less flamboyant later in his life.
This is part 10 of a 13-part series on the works of Sir Frank William Brangwyn.
For earlier works see parts 1 - 9 also.
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| 1924 A Procession, Genoa etching 23 x 26 cm |
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| before 1924 Man Playing Harmonium lithograph 47 x 36 cm |
1930 Carpet designs:
Designs 1275 and 1276 were Chenille Axminster carpets manufactured by James Templeton & Co, Glasgow, and initially made specifically to be shown at the Pollard Exhibition in October 1930.
The booklet’s foreword notes that these carpets were available for purchase in a variety of sizes, and that it had been ‘the aim both of the designer and the manufacturers to produce these carpets – not at exclusive prices – but on the ordinary commercial basis’, thus making them available to the ‘Art loving public.’
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| 1930 Carpet design No.1275 |
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| 1930 Carpet design No.1276 |
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| 1930 The Begging Musicians woodcut 25 x 20 cm |
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| 1930 The Printers woodcut on tinted paper 11 x 13 cm (image) |
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| c1930 At the Circus scraperboard with pen and ink 46 x 39.5 cm |
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| c1930 Bargemen etching 25.1 x 20 cm |
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| c1930 Old Gateway at Bruges pen and ink and watercolour on China paper 50 x 65 cm Museum of New Zealand, Wellington, NZ |
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| c1930 Pollard's The House of Craftsmen lithograph 76 x 54.6 cm Victoria & Albert MUseum, London |
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| c1930 Pollards Storefitters colour lithograph 75 x 50.5 cm |
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| c1930 Pollards Storefitters colour lithograph 75 x 50.5 cm |
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| c1931 Use your Public Library colour lithograph 76.1 x 50.5 cm Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
1930c British Empire Panels
Brangwyn Hall, Swansea, Wales:
The story of the Brangwyn Panels and the various preparatory drawings coming to Swansea is one of triumph over disaster. In 1924 the House of Lords voted to commemorate the First World War by completing the Victorian decorations in the Royal Gallery, Palace of Westminster, London. Lord Iveagh offered the fee of £20,000 and chose Frank Brangwyn, supported by other Lords.
Brangwyn was already recognised world-wide and had been elected a full Royal Academician in 1919. From 1904 – 1909 he had worked on the Skinner’s Company Hall producing panels illustrating their history, and also designing various mural schemes for projects abroad. Following the death of his wife in 1924, Brangwyn’s fortunes improved when in 1925 a major show of his work was both critically and popularily received in Boston, USA and the Royal Gallery Commission was begun.
Brangwyn’s intention was to enliven the gloomy Royal Gallery with “decorative painting representing various Dominions and parts of the British Empire.” No geographical logic was intended; the panels have a spirit of fantasy showing a protected world of beauty and plenty, based artistically on Brangwyn’s many travels and also his studies of animals in London Zoo. In 1927–28, two of Brangwyn’s main supporting peers for the scheme died, and in 1930 at the request of the Royal Fine Art Commission the artist had to show, somewhat reluctantly, the five finished panels in the Royal Gallery itself.
Public controversy ensued; the scheme was thought to be too colourful and lively, and was declined. Lord Iveagh’s heir honoured the original commission which was completed in 1932; the whole scheme was then shown at Olympia in a special setting at the Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition in 1933 – its future uncertain.
Both Cardiff and Swansea showed interest; due to Brangwyn’s considerable fame and his paternal Welsh connections. The building of the new Guildhall in Swansea, with the offered chance of raising the proposed Assembly Hall ceiling to 13.4 metres specially for the Panels, secured the scheme – the Brangwyn Hall was inaugurated along with the whole building in October 1934 by the then Duke of Kent, and visited in 1937 by Their Majesties King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Brangwyn was so encouraged by Swansea’s response that he gifted many related drawings and studies to the Council – a continuing source of interest to this day. |
| British Empire Panel oil on canvas 365.7 x 396 cm |
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| British Empire Panel oil on canvas 365.7 x 396 cm |
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| British Empire Panel "Canada" oil on canvas 609 x 396 cm |
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| British Empire Panel "Canada" oil on canvas 609 x 396 cm |
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| British Empire Panel "Canada" oil on canvas 609 x 396 cm |
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| British Empire Panel "West Africa" oil on canvas 365.7 x 396 cm |
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| British Empire Panel "West Africa" oil on canvas 365.7 x 396 cm |
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| British Empire Panel "Siam" oil on canvas 365.7 x 396 cm |
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| British Empire Panel "Burma" oil on canvas 365.7 x 396 cm |
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| British Empire Panel "India" oil on canvas 609 x 396 cm |
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| Photographic reference study for the above panel |
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| Study for the above panel red chalk on soft white machine-wove paper 42.3 x 40 cm Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia |
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| British Empire Panel "India" oil on canvas 609 x 396 cm |
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| British Empire Panel "India" oil on canvas 609 x 396 cm |
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| British Empire Panel "East Africa" oil on canvas 365.7 x 396 cm |
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| Study of a Rhinocerous for the above panel (lower right of the panel) Glynn Vivian Ar Gallery, Swansea, Wales, UK |
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| Study of two Elephants for the above panel (lower left of the panel) Glynn Vivian Ar Gallery, Swansea, Wales, UK |
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| British Empire Panel "Australia" oil on canvas 365.7 x 396 cm Brangwyn Hall, Swansea, Wales, UK |
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| British Empire Panel "East Indies" oil on canvas 365.7 x 396 cm |
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| British Empire Panel "Decorative Panel" oil on canvas 213.5 x 264.2 cm |
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| British Empire Panel "North Africa" oil on canvas 365.7 x 396 cm |
1931 L'Ombre de la Croix (Shadow of the Cros) suite
published by Jerome & Jean Tharaud, Editions Lapina, Paris
73 etchings by Brangwyn, many taken from photographs:
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| 1931 Title Page: The Shadow of the Cross etching 14 x 12.5 cm |
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| 1931 L'Ombre de la Croix etching 18 x 14 cm |
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| 1931 L'Ombre de la Croix etching 17.2 x 15.2 cm |
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| 1931 L'Ombre de la Croix etching 8 x 9.7 cm |
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| 1931 L'Ombre de la Croix black ink over etching 9.7 x 9.5 cm |
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| 1931 L'Ombre de la Croix etching 4.8 x 5.3 cm |
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| 1931 L'Ombre de la Croix etching 7.5 x 6 cm |
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| 1931 L'Ombre de la Croix etching 12.5 x 14 cm |
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| 1931 L'Ombre de la Croix etching 14 x 15 cm |
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| 1931 L'Ombre de la Croix etching 17.5 x 15 cm |
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| 1931 L'Ombre de la Croix Face Profiles etching 3 x 7.5 cm |
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| 1931 L'Ombre de la Croix Figure with Sack etching 17.3 x 14 cm |
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| 1931 L'Ombre de la Croix Figures at a Market etching 17.4 x 15.1 cm |
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| 1931 L'Ombre de la Croix Landscape etching 4.3 x 15 cm |
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| 1931 L'Ombre de la Croix Landscape with Figures and Water Pump etching 17.4 x 14.8 cm |
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| 1931 L'Ombre de la Croix Rabbi with a Goose etching 17.6 x 13.5 cm |
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| 1931 L'Ombre de la Croix Roadside Crucifix etching 18 x 15 cm |
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| 1931 L'Ombre de la Croix Seated Figures in a Large Hall etching 17.5 x 13.6 cm |
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| 1931 L'Ombre de la Croix Standing Figure with Keys etching on wove paper 17 x 14.6 cm |
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| 1931 L'Ombre de la Croix Standing Figures etching 5.5 x 15 cm |
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| 1931 L'Ombre de la Croix Three Crosses etching 5 x 7.5 cm |
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| 1931 L'Ombre de la Croix Tree Cutters etching 14.9 x 17.6 cm |
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| 1931 L'Ombre de la Croix Tree Cutters etching 18 x 15 cm |
1932 Rockefeller Centre:
In 1932, Brangwyn was commissioned by J. D. Rockefeller Jr. to produce four large murals for the RCA building, the centrepiece of the Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, New York. These are still in situ in the entrance hall, decorating the area of the south corridor elevator shafts, each measuring 17 x 25ft.
J. D. Rockefeller Jr. had originally approached Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, but both artists turned the commission down. Brangwyn, Josep Maria Sert i Badia (1874–1945) and Diego Rivera (1886–1957) were subsequently appointed to carry out the scheme.
The three artists were briefed to work on canvas, to paint en grisaille and to include some lettering in their designs. The broad subject matter of the murals was 'New Frontiers', encompassing aspects of a modern society, including science, labour, education, travel, finance and spirituality. Brangwyn was assigned four themes expressing man's search for eternal truth: Man Labouring; Man the Creator; Man the Master; Man’s Ultimate Destiny.
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| Rockefeller Murals |
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| Working photomontage for "Man's Ultimate Destiny" pen and ink and white oil paint highlights 85 x 130 cm |
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| Smiths at Work (study for the third panel of the mural) oil on canvas 252.7 x 145.9 cm Dundee Art Galleries and Museums Collection, Scotland, UK |
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| Study for Man the Creator oil on canvas 279 x 179 cm |
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| Blacksmiths study |