Studio: international art (6.1896)

Interview with George Framp ton, A.R.A.

" Have you done much work on domestic build- crucifix, all in stone for a church, and panels in

ings?" I asked. fibrous plaster, gilt and coloured, which I worked

"A great deal," he said, " more than I could re- out with Mr. R. Anning Bell, and exhibited at the

member offhand. I have done a good deal of Arts and Crafts, 1889 ; the Lowell memorial in

modelled stucco work-, chiefly for gables, grotesques Westminster Abbey, a commemorative tablet to

and foliage. I was engaged upon some sgra- the Rev. S. Purton in St. Clements, Bournemouth,

fifitto work for a house at Birchington at the time and several other memorial tablets, are a few of

Rossetti died there. The carving upon the Con- the ecclesiastical commissions I have carried out

servative Club at personally. You may

Chelsea—the group _ remember possibly a

the JfflHHH^HHHHHjj music gallery at Ken-
central doorway—is sington Court, as it
mine; much of the was illustrated in an
terra-cotta work on W early number of The
the Constitutional m f m"*1^ Studio ; I have also
Club in Northum- I ^* done some fireplaces
berland Avenue, I m and other work at the
modelled outright. B^"- fl Imperial Institute,
The pillars and the B % and ceilings for the
ornament over the B ^^KP( dining-hall of Newn-
door are entirely W ham College, and for
original work, not wF '^m ^'ir ^eorSe Lewis's
casts from models, W , dining-room at 88
according to the W m*l- ym00v J Portland Place."
usual practice, but & m4^mmJm. Ym "Did you work
absolutely worked in W .. at the ceilings in
the clay itself. The W m J8kV place?"
two heads on that W .Ok JmKg^k " No, that is not
building, Pitt and BPIWFij^^^ ^-^mmt^jfl^jf^ .fp necessary. I first
Beaconsfield, are also V^^-^mm ^^tfBi^^^^^^HHHH^fl made a sketch on a
mine; and the frieze small scale, and then
on the front of Fos- drew it out in full-
ters', the auctioneers size sections while the
in Pall Mall, just op- design was on the
posite Marlborough board, and drew red
House, is my work. lines across it, at the
But without looking l^^^^^^R KL^^I ^^^H most convenient posi-
up old correspond- ^r ■ J<s^^aj tions for the joints to
ence I could not ^BB^l ... occur. Then, when
recall a number of BH _ ■—■■™-**«~mmmm^k each piece was
things of this sort for modelled and ready
which I am respon- for placing, the joints
sible." girl singing by george frampton, a.r.a. which showed after

" But the mass of they had been fixed

your architectural work is for interior decoration, I were filled up with plaster. It is quite easy to ac-

imagine?" complish this in a way that leaves no trace what-

" I have certainly done a good deal of interior ever of the work being prepared in sections."

work, both in churches and public buildings. In "To go back a little," I said, "did you study

the reredos at Manchester Cathedral, designed by entirely at the Royal Academy schools?"

Mr. Basil Champneys, I modelled the low-relief "Practically—yes; so far as regards painting and

panels and the figures in the round; the frieze sculpture. I was for a little time in an architect's

and ceiling at St. Clements, Sheffield, illustrated office previously, as I mentioned before, but ex-

in the Arts and Crafts number of The Studio ; cepting a short period in Paris, after I had left the

a statue of the Madonna and Child, and a Royal Academy schools, I had no continental
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