Sir Frank BRANGWYN, RA, RWS, PRBA, HRSA, REBelgian/British 1867-1956 |
Self Portrait
Brangwyn followed his own artistic path and in doing so found himself in the vanguard of the art world – as the Royal Academy recognised when he became the first artist to be honoured with a retrospective exhibition during his own lifetime
Frank (Guillaume François) Brangwyn was born in Bruges, Belgium, in 1867, the son of an Anglo-Welsh muralist, ecclesiastical and architectural designer. In 1875 the family returned to London and, aged 12, he entered his father‘s practice and developed his technique by copying the works of Italian artists in what was later to become the Victoria & Albert Museum. He spent the two years 1882-84 working in the workshops of one of the principal founders of the British Arts and Crafts Movement, William Morris (British, 1834-1896). Morris encouraged him to diversify his art.
From 1884, Brangwyn divided his time between London and travelling in England and abroad. In 1885, aged 17, he submitted his first painting to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, A Bit on the Esk near Whitby, which was accepted. He also exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists for the first time. Encouraged by this success he rented a studio and began a period of productive poverty but, drawn by his love of the sea, he signed on as a sailor and, from 1887-94, travelled widely in Europe, Africa and Russia. His travels encouraged a change of palette, “I determined to go in for a bit of colour, pure and undefiled”. His new style was much appreciated in America and on the Continent but criticised in Britain. He was however, encouraged to paint murals, an activity that would lead to many subsequent honours. During this period he exhibited mainly at the Royal Society of British Artists (RBA 1890, PRBA 1913-18) and the Royal Society of Painters in Oils (1893).
Brangwyn followed his own muse and in doing so found himself in the vanguard of the art world. He won a gold medal at the 1891 Paris Salon and began working as the designer for the new art magazine, The Graphic, in 1892. In 1895 he was asked to paint murals for the notorious gallery, L'Art Nouveau, in Paris. He won medals for his work in Munich and Paris and, by the age of 30, while Britain still puzzled over how to evaluate his work, the rest of the world viewed him as the quintessential exponent of modern British art.
In 1901, Brangwyn received his first major mural commission for a series of historical panels to decorate the hall of The Skinners Company in London. Completion of the first panel led to his election as an associate of the Royal Academy (ARA 1904) and to many subsequent commissions, including the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exhibition in San Francisco. From 1904 he also began etching (elected RE 1907). During the First World War he played an important role as a propaganda artist. He emerged from the war with a much enhanced reputation resulting in his election to a number of societies (see below).
In 1924 Brangwyn won the most prestigious and important commission of his career to date – to undertake the House of Lords’ official commemoration of the First World War (at a fee of £20,000, offered by Edward Guinness, 1st Lord Iveagh). This was to be a huge series of murals destined for the Royal Gallery in the Palace of Westminster. Brangwyn’s intention was to enliven the gloomy Royal Gallery with "decorative painting representing various Dominions and parts of the British Empire". On completion of the five finished panels in 1930, however, these sumptuous works, known as the British Empire Panels, were rejected by the commissioning committee as being too colourful and lively for the setting.
Brangwyn’s considerable fame and reputation, and the publicity surrounding the panels, ensured that they then became the subject of fierce bidding by other institutions, with particular interest coming from Cardiff and Swansea due to Brangwyn’s maternal Welsh connection. Swansea won the day due to the opportunity offered by the building of the city’s new Guildhall. The city fathers rather shrewdly offered to make the panels the central feature of the new Assembly Hall and, equally importantly, to accommodate them unaltered by re-designing the proposed building around them, raising its ceiling height to 13.4 metres. The panels were completed in 1932 and remain there to this day. The Guildhall and Brangwyn Hall were inaugurated by the then Duke of Kent in October 1934 and visited by HM King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1937.
Brangwyn was hugely prolific in a variety of media – oils, watercolour, pen and ink, and pencil. He produced hundreds of etchings and lithographs and the illustrations for a number of books yet still found time to create many design for the ‘decorative arts’ - furniture, carpets, textiles, wallpaper, ceramics, lamps, metalwork and jewellery, as well as some large stained glass panels for Tiffany’s in New York and even the interior of an ocean liner, the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company’s the Empress of Britain (in her time, the largest, fastest and most luxurious ship to sail between England and Canada). He was his own man and largely ignored developments in art, adapting traditional methods to suit his personal style. He was knighted in 1941 and his achievements received further public recognition when, in 1952, he became the first artist to be honoured in his own lifetime with a retrospective exhibition at the Royal Academy. He received numerous awards and honours (see below), was knighted in 1941 and, in 1952, became the first artist to be honoured in his own lifetime with a retrospective exhibition at the Royal Academy.
He ended his career planning the opening of the Brangwyn Museum in Bruges, Belgium, and he donated further works to the Musée de la Ville in Orange, France. He lived at his home at Ditchling, Sussex, virtually as a recluse, and died there in 1956.
© Albany Fine Art
TEXT REFERENCES (listed sequentially)
William Morris Gallery, London, UK
The Skinners Company, London, UK
Imperial War Museum, London, UK (29 works, not all to view)
(Collections> Art> Search the Art Database on Collections Online> Artists Name: Brangwyn> Search)
Propaganda Artist, First World War
British Empire Panels, Brangwyn Hall, The Guildhall, Swansea, Wales, UK
and
British Empire Panels, Brangwyn Hall, The Guildhall, Swansea, Wales, UK
Empress of Britain
Brangwyn Museum, Bruges, Belgium
HONOURS & AWARDS (listed chronologically)
With Acknowledgement to the Brangwyn Bazaar
1890: Elected a Member of the Royal Society of British Artists
1892: Elected a Member of the Institute of Oil Painters
1893: Elected a Member of the Royal Society of Painters in Oils
1897: Awarded Gold Medal at the Munich International Art Exhibition, Germany
1902: Appointed Chevalier of the French order of La Légion d'honneur (The Legion of
Honour)
1904: Elected an Associate of the Royal Academy
1906: Awarded the Grand Prix at the Milan Exhibition, Italy
Elected a Member of the Society of Illustrators, USA
Elected a Member of the Asociación de Escritores y Artistas Españoles (Association of
Spanish Writers & Artists)
1907: Elected a Member of the Royal Society of Painter Etchers and Engravers (RE)
1910: Awarded State Gold Medal for Art, Austria
1911: Appointed Knight of the Italian order of Corona d'Italia (Order of the Crown of Italy)
Visited by the Crown Prince of Sweden
1912: Awarded Gold Medal at the Berlin Salon, Germany
1913: Elected a Member of the Prussian Royal Academy, Germany
1913-18: Elected President of the Royal Society of British Artists (PRBA)
1917: Appointed Commander of the Italian order of Santi Maurizio e Lazzaro (Order of Saints
Maurice & Larazus)
1918: Elected a Member of the Royal Watercolour Society
Elected to the Institut de France (Institute of France)
Appointed Commander of the Belgian Ordre de Léopold/Leopoldsorde (Order
of Leopold)
1919: Elected Royal Academician (RA)
1920: Appointed Officier of the French order of La Légion d'honneur (The Legion of Honour)
1921: Elected Associate of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours (ARWS)
1922: Elected President of the Society of Graphic Artists
1924: London exhibition opened by Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald
1932: Awarded the Albert Medal by the Royal Society of Arts for ‘Services to decorative
and commercial art’ (HRSA)
1934: Duke of Kent inaugurates the British Empire panels in the Brangwyn Hall, Swansea
Guildhall, Wales
1936: Brangwyn Museum opens in Bruges, Belgium
Appointed Grand Officier of the Belgian Ordre de Léopold II/Orde van Leopold II
(Order of Leopold II)
Appointed Citoyen d’ honneur de la ville Brugge (Citizen of Honour of the City of
Bruges)
1937: HM King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visit the Brangwyn Hall, Swansea Guildhall
Elected President of the Society of Graphic Artists
1941: Receives Knighthood
1952: Awarded the first retrospective exhibition for a living artist at the Royal Academy
OTHER USEFUL LINKS (listed alphabetically)
Art Fund, UK (3 of 9 works to view)
Brangwyn Bazaar (many works)
The
Brangwyn Murals, Spreading the Gospel (1914-23), Christ’s Hospital,
Sussex, UK (School News > 2006-07 > scroll down)
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, USA (61 works)
Vlaamse Kunst Collectie/Flemish Art Collection, Belgium (78 works)
Herbst Theatre, San Francisco War Memorial & Performing Arts Center, USA (San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915 Murals)
National Maritime Museum, London, UK (1 work)
National Museum Wales, UK (6 of 10 works to view)
National Portrait Gallery, London, UK (1 work)
Royal Academy of Arts Collection, UK
and
Royal Academy of Arts Collection, UK (4 works)
Royal Pavilion, Libraries and Museum Collection, Brighton, UK (14 of 19 works to view)
Tate Collection, UK (7 of 8 works to view)
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Biographies  |
