DOI Heft:
Nr. 169 (March, 1911)
DOI Artikel:West, W. K.: Some examples of recent work by Mr. Frank Brangwyn, A. R. A.
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43446#0066
Recent IFork by Frank Brangwyn, A.R.A.
understood, and even his design for a poster is
more a decorative abstraction than a precise repre-
sentation of facts. He has not ignored in them
the sentiment of the motive with which he has
been called upon to deal, but he has used this
sentiment only to give the necessary atmosphere
to his work. Here again he has been principally
interested in the distribution of his colour spaces,
in the rhythmical adjustment of his lines, and in the
placing of each accessory detail where it will best
amplify the general decorative impression that he
intends to convey. The sentiment affects un-
doubtedly the character of his decoration — it
accounts for the formality of such a design as that
for the frieze in which labour is symbolised by
smoking factory chimneys, just as it inspires the
sumptuousness of effect in his Fruits of Industry
panel—but it never causes him to ferget that he
has to solve a problem of design in the work he
has undertaken, and to arrive at a result which
will excite in the people to whom it is presented a
deep aesthetic feeling rather than a personal and
superficial emotion.
Yet it must be noted that with all this strict con-
sistency in his pursuit of decorative ideals he has
never made the mistake of conventionalising either
his outlook upon nature or his rendering of natural
realities. He has not hedged himself round with
hard-and-fast rules, and he does not follow any
rigid artistic prescription. His landscapes are
simplified undoubtedly, but only by the elimination
of trivialities which obscure the decorative meaning
of the subject. His figure compositions have a
monumental dignity, but they are made up of
human beings, not of statues or lay figures, which
conform only to some constructional preconception
of his own. Nature guides him surely in the whole
of his production, but he chooses from what she
offers no more and no less than he feels is neces-
sary for the filling out of the pictorial scheme upon
which he has decided.
Indeed, both as a draughtsman and as a painter
he is impressive especially on account of the robust
naturalism upon which the whole of his decorative
work is founded. What an amount of acute study
he bestows upon the details of his paintings and
etchings can be judged by examination of the
preliminary drawings which he executes before he
puts his composition into its final form. The
crayon sketch for the etching, Unloading Bricks,
Ghent, is an excellent example of his preparatory
work, a remarkable note of movement and action
and a delightful piece of fluent draughtsmanship.
Not less convincing is the series of masterly studies
“the bridge, valentre” (etching)
18
BY FRANK BRANGWYN, A.R.A-
understood, and even his design for a poster is
more a decorative abstraction than a precise repre-
sentation of facts. He has not ignored in them
the sentiment of the motive with which he has
been called upon to deal, but he has used this
sentiment only to give the necessary atmosphere
to his work. Here again he has been principally
interested in the distribution of his colour spaces,
in the rhythmical adjustment of his lines, and in the
placing of each accessory detail where it will best
amplify the general decorative impression that he
intends to convey. The sentiment affects un-
doubtedly the character of his decoration — it
accounts for the formality of such a design as that
for the frieze in which labour is symbolised by
smoking factory chimneys, just as it inspires the
sumptuousness of effect in his Fruits of Industry
panel—but it never causes him to ferget that he
has to solve a problem of design in the work he
has undertaken, and to arrive at a result which
will excite in the people to whom it is presented a
deep aesthetic feeling rather than a personal and
superficial emotion.
Yet it must be noted that with all this strict con-
sistency in his pursuit of decorative ideals he has
never made the mistake of conventionalising either
his outlook upon nature or his rendering of natural
realities. He has not hedged himself round with
hard-and-fast rules, and he does not follow any
rigid artistic prescription. His landscapes are
simplified undoubtedly, but only by the elimination
of trivialities which obscure the decorative meaning
of the subject. His figure compositions have a
monumental dignity, but they are made up of
human beings, not of statues or lay figures, which
conform only to some constructional preconception
of his own. Nature guides him surely in the whole
of his production, but he chooses from what she
offers no more and no less than he feels is neces-
sary for the filling out of the pictorial scheme upon
which he has decided.
Indeed, both as a draughtsman and as a painter
he is impressive especially on account of the robust
naturalism upon which the whole of his decorative
work is founded. What an amount of acute study
he bestows upon the details of his paintings and
etchings can be judged by examination of the
preliminary drawings which he executes before he
puts his composition into its final form. The
crayon sketch for the etching, Unloading Bricks,
Ghent, is an excellent example of his preparatory
work, a remarkable note of movement and action
and a delightful piece of fluent draughtsmanship.
Not less convincing is the series of masterly studies
“the bridge, valentre” (etching)
18
BY FRANK BRANGWYN, A.R.A-