Original lithograph after the listed artist and printmaker Sir Frank William Brangwyn RA RWS RBA (1867 - 1956), published in 1927 in an edition of only 120.
Titled "Man playing a Harmonium”, depicting the musician, with his dog by his feet. From 'The Brangwyn Portfolio', published by E F d'Alignan and Paul Turpin in 1927 (see full details below). This lithograph was number 53 in the portfolio, the original work being a chalk drawing study for a mural, in the collection of the Musee d'Orange, which is listed as work M1109 in Brangwyn's Catalogue Raisonne by Libby Horner.
The backboard inscribed "C I Richmond-Watson" - the previous owner was Colin Irving Richmond-Watson, see 'The Peerage' for further details. One of two Brangwyn lithographs from his collection that I have listed.
Signed in the plate with the artist's monogram upper right.
Two tint lithograph printed on wove paper. In a later 'distressed' gilt wood frame with detailed wash line mount.
Image size 45cm x 34.5cm, frame size 70.5cm x 55.5cm.
Lithograph in excellent original condition (see photos). Frame with some slight nicks and scratches, mount with some light age toning (see photos).
Delivered ready to hang.
Comes with our Certificate of Authenticity - guaranteed authentic and original.
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Sir Frank William Brangwyn RA RWS RBA (12 May 1867 – 11
June 1956)
Anglo-Welsh artist, painter, watercolourist, printmaker,
illustrator, and designer.
Frank Brangwyn was born in Bruges, Belgium where his father,
William Curtis Brangwyn, moved after winning a competition organised by the
Belgian Guild of St Thomas and St Luke to design a parish church. Frank
Brangwyn attended Westminster City School but often played truant to spend time
in his father's workshop or drawing in the South Kensington Museum. Through
contacts made at the Museum, among them Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo, he obtained
an apprenticeship with William Morris for whom he worked first as a glazer
before undertaking embroidery and wallpaper work.
At the age of seventeen, one of Brangwyn's paintings was
accepted and then sold to a shipowner, at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition,
which strengthened him in his conviction to become an artist. Brangwyn joined
the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve and began painting seascapes. He convinced the
shipowner who had bought his Royal Academy picture to let him sail on a
freighter to Istanbul. This trip provided Brangwyn with the material for
several notable paintings. Whereas Funeral at Sea, which won a medal at the
Paris Salon in 1891 was mostly composed in grey, The Golden Horn,
Constantinople was much brighter and full of colour. Although Brangwyn held his
first one-man show in London in 1891, he spent most of that year and 1890 at
sea, visiting Spain several times as well as returning to Istanbul and
travelling to South Africa and Zanzibar. In 1892 he visited northern Spain with
the Scottish artist Arthur Melville, travelling from Saragossa along the Canal
Imperial de Aragon on the barge, the Santa Maria. Soon Brangwyn was attracted
by the light and the bright colours of these southern countries at a time when
Orientalism was becoming a favoured theme for many painters. He made many
paintings and drawings, particularly of Spain, Egypt, Turkey and Morocco, which
he visited in 1893. This lightened his palette, a change that initially did not
find critical favour but helped establish his international reputation. In 1895
the French government purchased his painting Market in Morocco.
In 1895, the Parisian art dealer Siegfried Bing commissioned
Brangwyn to decorate the exterior of his Galerie L'Art Nouveau, and encouraged
Brangwyn into new avenues: murals, tapestry, carpet designs, posters and
designs for stained glass to be produced by Louis Comfort Tiffany. In 1896 he
illustrated a six-volume reprint of Edward William Lane's translation of One
Thousand and One Nights. In 1917 he collaborated with the Japanese artist
Urushibara Mokuchu on a series of woodblock prints. For his austere but
decorative designs he was recognized by continental and American critics as a
prominent artist, while British critics were puzzled as to how to evaluate him.
Awards and honours
1891 Medal at Paris Salon
1894 Two medals at the Chicago
Exhibition
1897 Gold Medal, Munich for The
Scoffers
1897 Silver Medal, Great
Exhibition Paris for The Market of Bushire
1902 Chevalier of the Legion of
Honour
1904 Associate member of the Royal
Academy
1906 Gold medal of Venice and
Grand Prix of Milan for the etching Sante Maria della Salute
1911 Chevalier of the Order of the
Crown of Italy
1912 Gold Medal, Berlin Salon
1917 Commander of the Italian
Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus
1919 Commander and Cross of the
Order of Leopold I of Belgium
1919 First President of the
Society of Graphic Art
1919 Full member of the Royal
Academy
1925–1926, President of the Royal
Birmingham Society of Artists
1932 The Albert Medal
1936 Grand Officer of the Order of
Leopold II of Belgium
1941 Knight Bachelor, Great Britain
The Brangwyn Portfolio
In 1927 the Brangwyn Portfolio was published by E F d'Alignan and Paul Turpin. Responding to a demand for high quality reproductions of his work Brangwyn himself chose 100 items which he felt were representative of his range of disciplines, including 12 original etchings and 3 original lithographs. The remaining 85 works were lithographic reproductions of watercolours, pastels and drawings produced by photomechanical means to which Brangwyn and his assistants added chalk or watercolour through stencils, giving the impression of original works. In fact such is the quality of these reproductions that they are frequently mistaken for the real thing - even by the top auction houses.
The folios, presented in a folder
measuring 45x64cm, were produced in a limited edition of 120, costing 100
guineas each. Most were sold to Japan, America and Europe. Works produced
before 1922 were numbered 1-50, before 1927 were numbered 51-100.