Sir Frank William Brangwyn
A Welsh painter, etcher and designer of furniture. Born in Bruges, Belgium, on 13 May 1867. His father was a church architect. When he was eight, Brangwyn and his family moved to London. From 1882, he spent two years working in William Morris’s workshop; his childhood experience of his father’s workshop for ecclesiastical furnishings in Bruges may well have appealed to Morris’s artistic doctrine. Subsequent to this enlightened training, Brangwyn travelled to Paris where he became an active champion of the blossoming Art Nouveau movement. He experimented introducing the sinuous lines characteristic of Art Nouveau into his paintings of galleons and shipping scenes. He specialised in painting large mural cycles, such as those for the Royal Exchange (1906), for Skinners Hall (1909) and even for the Empress of Britain (a Royal Mail liner), which later sank, taking Brangwyn’s murals with her. In 1919 he was elected a Royal Academician, having exhibited regularly there since 1885. Knighted in 1941, he died in Ditchling, Sussex, on 11 June 1956, having bequeathed most of his works to the City of Bruges, where they remain on display in a museum bearing his name.
Born in Bruges, in Belgium in 1867, the son of an English ecclesiastical architect, Frank Brangwyn grew up in England. He was largely a self-taught artist and his talent was recognised while still a teenager when one of his paintings was accepted for inclusion at the summer exhibition at the Royal Academy. As well as working in oils, Brangwyn was adept at many artforms including stained glass, watercolour, printmaking, graphic work and interior design. As an admired muralist he was commissioned, along with Diego Rivera, by J.D. Rockefeller to produce work for the RCA building in New York. Brangwyn was an immensely prolific artist. While initially his style and palette were spare and minimalist, his work became more colourful and exuberant, perhaps influenced by his extensive travels abroad. In his later career he concentrated on religious themes. In 1910 Brangwyn presented the painting Mars and Venus to this Gallery’s collection. He was knighted in 1941.
Jessica O'Donnell 2014
