DOI issue:
No. 55 (October, 1897)
DOI article:Little, James Stanley: Frank Brangwyn and his art
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18390#0035
Frank Brangwyn and his Art
this significance is a fault, because every mind
ultimately looks for it, and not finding it goes away
dissatisfied. That this significance should be the
primary object of the picture reduces the work to a
piece of journalism. The artist who has no higher
aim may stumble on painting a picture, though he
would be sanguine to hope for such a result. In
the Adoration of the Magi {Gold, Frankincense and
Myrrh), exhibited at the New Gallery and the Salon,
Mr. Brangwyn has obviously stepped further away
from the purely naturalistic treatment of decorative
designs in the direction of the more conventional and
fanciful treatment. The scene is treated reverently
and poetically although as an historical retrospect
it does not carry conviction. That, however, was,
as I take it, not Mr. Brangwyn's aim. He aspired
to produce a symbol, a conception not so much of
what the scene might or could have been, but of
what it should have been, and assuredly he is
justified. The picture is an artist's embodiment of
the fitting. The Orange Market, which succeeded
The Magi, is another of those gorgeous displays of
colour in which Mr. Brangwyn revels and in which
he employs the copper and ebon skins of African
natives as a foil to the yellows and reds of tropical
fruits and flowers.
Although I am not, I believe, chronologically
justified in referring now to Mr. Brangwyn's visit to
South Africa, and the work he did there, the lapse
is of no importance. It is convenient to refer at
this juncture to his visit to that country, and the
artistic outcome of it. Mr. Brangwyn's journey
was suggested and supported by Mr. Larkin of the
Japanese Gallery, and the result was shown at the
aforesaid gallery. It cannot be said, however, of
this exhibition that it fully satisfied expectations.
The fact is South Africa, full of picturesque beauty
as it is, judged from the point of view of mere seeing,
has not much to offer to the landscape painter. Its
finest effects are panoramic. They cannot be con-
veyed to canvas. A painter who cared to establish
himself in Cape Town, Stellenbosch, the Paarl, or
"the orange market" from a painting by frank brangwyn
(In the Collection of G. Woodiwiss, Esq., J.P.)
17
this significance is a fault, because every mind
ultimately looks for it, and not finding it goes away
dissatisfied. That this significance should be the
primary object of the picture reduces the work to a
piece of journalism. The artist who has no higher
aim may stumble on painting a picture, though he
would be sanguine to hope for such a result. In
the Adoration of the Magi {Gold, Frankincense and
Myrrh), exhibited at the New Gallery and the Salon,
Mr. Brangwyn has obviously stepped further away
from the purely naturalistic treatment of decorative
designs in the direction of the more conventional and
fanciful treatment. The scene is treated reverently
and poetically although as an historical retrospect
it does not carry conviction. That, however, was,
as I take it, not Mr. Brangwyn's aim. He aspired
to produce a symbol, a conception not so much of
what the scene might or could have been, but of
what it should have been, and assuredly he is
justified. The picture is an artist's embodiment of
the fitting. The Orange Market, which succeeded
The Magi, is another of those gorgeous displays of
colour in which Mr. Brangwyn revels and in which
he employs the copper and ebon skins of African
natives as a foil to the yellows and reds of tropical
fruits and flowers.
Although I am not, I believe, chronologically
justified in referring now to Mr. Brangwyn's visit to
South Africa, and the work he did there, the lapse
is of no importance. It is convenient to refer at
this juncture to his visit to that country, and the
artistic outcome of it. Mr. Brangwyn's journey
was suggested and supported by Mr. Larkin of the
Japanese Gallery, and the result was shown at the
aforesaid gallery. It cannot be said, however, of
this exhibition that it fully satisfied expectations.
The fact is South Africa, full of picturesque beauty
as it is, judged from the point of view of mere seeing,
has not much to offer to the landscape painter. Its
finest effects are panoramic. They cannot be con-
veyed to canvas. A painter who cared to establish
himself in Cape Town, Stellenbosch, the Paarl, or
"the orange market" from a painting by frank brangwyn
(In the Collection of G. Woodiwiss, Esq., J.P.)
17