Studio: international art (19.1900)

A Room Decorated by Frank Brangwyn

drawer-handle designed isy frank brangwyn

ABEDROOM
DECOR-
ATED BY
MR. FRANK
BRANGWYN.

munity of style. What has happened is a trans-
ference of patronage from the picture painter, to
whom formerly it was given almost exclusively, to
the decorator and designer, whose right to a place
in the front rank of his profession is gaining daily
a wider and more sincere recognition. This is to
some extent a reversion to the creed of the Middle
Ages when there was not the hard and fast line
that has been drawn in modern times between
workers in various branches of art. The mediaeval
artist took a very comprehensive view of his
responsibilities, and spared no pains to equip
himself so completely that he would be equal
to whatever demands might be made upon him.
He was by turns painter, architect, metal-worker,
and sculptor, a craftsman full of adaptability, a
practitioner learned in all the details of artistic
production. But through all his practice ran the
one dominating idea, that his mission was to

Although the col-
lecting of pictures has
ceased, of late years, to
be a general fashion, it
certainly cannot be said
that people with artistic
tastes have lost their
desire for surroundings
that are attractive and
aesthetically satisfying.
The lessened demand
for pictorial productions
does not mean that art
in the broad sense has
become uninteresting to
the majority of thinking
men, but simply that a
conviction has grown up
that other, and perhaps
better, ways of adorning
modern houses can be
found than the old
device of covering the
walls with a heteroge-
neous collection of can-
vases of different dates

and without any com- writing-table and stool designed by frank brangwyn

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