As the science of photography developed, so architectural drawings became less realistic and more impressionistic (since there was no need to produce a realistic facsimile of a scene when a photograph could achieve this in an instant). Architectural draftsmen, however, were required to produce something that looked realistic when in fact it was pure fantasy.
Often the lovingly-drawn perspective flattered the building rather more than it deserved, putting it into a romantic light, or drawing it from an impossible viewpoint. Many architectural designs were never built, or worse, demolished – in such cases, the original drawings are the only evidence that the building ever existed.
We are proud to present a selection of architectural drawings and watercolours by some of the twentieth century’s greatest architectural artists, including Cyril Farey and JDM Harvey.
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Sir Edward Maufe (1882 - 1974)
Design for House on Round Island, Poole Harbour
Watercolour and collage 30 x 47 cm Signed lower right Edward [Maufe]. Provenance the estate of Bernard Bumpus, together with several other Maufe drawings. Drawing for D Beatty Pownall Architect. A design for an Art Deco house by the coast, complete with seagulls and boats. Maufe is probably most famous for his Guildford Cathedral, the Air Forces Memorial, and his work for the Imperial War Graves Commission, for which he received his knighthood in 1954. He served a five-year apprenticeship under William Pite and then attended St John’s College, Oxford as an undergraduate. He then studied Design at the Architectural Association. His architecture is notable for its strong Arts and Crafts influence; this likely arose from his having lived in The Red House, Bexleyheath, which Philip Webb designed for the most famous of the Arts and Crafts designers: William Morris. Condition: generally very good, save for missing area in bottom right hand corner which has been repaired professionally. If you are interested, please email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. Click here for more architectural designs. -
Ken Howard RA (1932 - 2022)
Hampstead Church (St Stephen's Church, Rosslyn Hill)
Oil on board 75 x 91 cm Ken Howard's magnificent view of St Stephen's Church, Hampstead. The artist's rich, deep colour palette and use of impasto underline the neo-gothic style of the church. Howard died in Hampstead and painted several views of the area and its architecture. St Stephen's was designed in the Neo Gothic style by Samuel Sanders Teulon and he considered it the best of the 114 churches he designed, calling it his "mighty church". The building is no longer a church, but wedding ceremonies still take place there; it was made a Grade I listed building in 1974. Kenneth Howard OBE RA was a British artist and painter. He was President of the New English Art Club from 1998 to 2003. He studied at the Hornsey College of Art and the Royal College of Art. In 1958 he won a British Council Scholarship to Florence, and in 1973 and 1978 he was the Official War Artist to Northern Ireland, and 1973 - 80 worked in various locations, including Hong Kong, Cyprus and Canada with the British Army. In 1983 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy (ARA). In 1998 he became President of the New English Art Club, a post he held until 2003. In 1991 he was elected a Royal Academician (RA). Howard was given his OBE in 2010. Condition: very good. If you’d like to know more, please email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Crest Mill, Castleton, Rochdale, Lancashire (1906)
Watercolour 56 x 96 cm Crest Mill in Castleton, Rochdale, was built in 1906. It was designed by Sir Philip Sidney Stott, the English architect, civil engineer and surveyor. Crest Mill was demolished long ago. The mill engines were sent to the United States, but the ship carrying them sank in the Atlantic. Scott's mill chimneys all had two distinctive bands towards the top. Stott was born in Chadderton, Lancashire, and joined the family firm of architects upon leaving school. In 1883, he set up his own business, P. S. Stott, specialising in the design of cotton mills - he designed 22 mills in Oldham and 55 elsewhere in the county, plus many more in Europe, India and the Far East, amounting to 124 in total. He became a baronet in 1920, and was elected a Fellow of the Society of Architects and a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He was a significant figure in Lancashire mills, being responsible for 40% of the spindles laid down in Oldham between 1887 and 1914, and 44% of the increase in Lancashire's spinning capacity between 1887 and 1925. He retired a wealthy man having accumulated shares in the mills he designed. Condition: generally very good; some slight staining marks to mount, and possible faint time staining in areas. If you are interested, please email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. Click here for more architectural perspectives. -
James Gowan (1923, Glasgow - 2015, London) The Blue Mill at Backbarrow
62x52cm Oil on Canvas For biographical details and other paintings by Gowan click here. The present work exhibits many of the characteristics obvious in his architectural works. There is a very strong architectural composition. The landscape and sky are approached in almost cubist fashion, reminiscent of the Toblerone-shaped roof of the Leicester Building, whilst the figures have a carefree feel to them. Backbarrow was the place where the blue pigment ultramarine (or dolly blue - used to return brilliant whiteness to yellowed fabrics) was produced in an old mill building by the Lancashire Ultramarine Company. Dust from the production gave the entire village a blue tint until production ceased in 1981. The factory is now a hotel and it maintains a display of machinery used in the factory. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
James Gowan (1923, Glasgow - 2015, London) Fountains Abbey (1973)
52x62cm Oil on Canvas Signed 'James Gowan' lower left Inscribed to reverse 'Fountains Abbey 1973 James Gowan No 199' For biographical details and other paintings by Gowan click here. The present work exhibits many of the characteristics obvious in his architectural works. There is a very strong architectural composition. The landscape and sky are approached in almost cubist fashion, reminiscent of the Toblerone-shaped roof of the Leicester Building, whilst the figures have a carefree feel to them. And here indeed are the gothic towers and flying butresses that we know inspired Gowan when designing the Leicester Engineering Building, being captured by the brightly-dressed members of an art class, splashes of primary colour in an already colourful landscape. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Cyril A. Farey
Design for an Art Deco office building, (1932)
Signed ‘Cyril A Farey Del 1932’ Pencil and watercolour 23 x 16 in A glorious and large drawing of an as-yet unidentified art deco building. This picture is classic Farey, with the reflections in the foreground and the bright blue sky. Biographical details and other works by Cyril Farey can be found here. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Sir Albert Edward Richardson K.C.V.O., F.R.I.B.A, F.S.A., P.R.A. (1880-1964)
Cambridge Revisited (1933)
Pen, ink, and wash24 x 35 cmSigned and dated lower right.Renowned for his architectural fantasies, Richardson here depicts Sir Christopher Wren revisiting the chapel he built in 1677. Wren is a Colossus, surveying not only the architecture of the chapel but the fantastical assortment of characters present in the quad. Seventeenth century lords, ladies, and scholars occupy the centre of the picture while 20th century tourists (on the left) watch the scene unfold.Richardson was a leading English architect, teacher and writer about architecture during the first half of the 20th century. He was Professor of Architecture at University College London, a President of the Royal Academy, editor of Architects' Journal, founder of the Georgian Group and the Guild of Surveyors and Master of the Art Workers' Guild. He also received the Architectural Association’s Professor Bannister Fletcher Medal (an award for the study of post- Great Fire London architecture) in 1902. -
Florence & Walter Camm
Design for Series of Four Arthurian Stained Glass Windows for Mercersburg Academy Chapel, Pennsylvania
1928 Watercolour over photographic background 10 x 24cm Provenance: The archives of TW Camm The Irvine Chapel of Mercersburg Academy was built as a war memorial for the First World War dead of the school. The dead were honoured in a series of stained glass windows that were commissioned from a series of the greatest stained glass designers of the time. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Albert Walter Moore (1874 – 1965)
Design for 30 Fenchurch Street (1915)
Pencil and watercolour on paper 38.1 x 62 cm Signed and inscribed ‘Albert W Moore FRIBA Architect, 112 Fenchurch St, March 1915’. Provenance: Sotheby’s lot 166, 25 June 1981. A design for a fine building on the Plantation House site (the site was cleared in 2005 for a new building, '30 Fenchurch Street'). The architectural drawing is rendered carefully in pencil, with blue, yellow, and brown washes adding colour and depth to the picture. Moore was articled to George Hubbard, and the two became partners in 1898. He studied at the West London School of Art and was a member of the Architectural Association. Condition: very good; some losses to frame. -
Cyril A. Farey (1888-1954)
National Bank of India, Aden
Watercolour 44x60cm (frame) 17.5×33.5cm (6.8×13.1 inches) Biographical details and other works by Cyril Farey can be found here. In 1839 Aden was taken by the East India Company as a recoaling point between India and the UK. Aden came under the control of the Government of Bombay. In 1937, recognising the geographical distinction between India and Aden it ceased to be a part of British India and became a Crown Colony with its own Governor. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811 - 1878)
Preliminary Architectural Design for Forth Road Bridge
Pencil and coloured pencil 24 x 74 cm The architect's design for the Forth Road Bridge, a suspension bridge in Scotland. Gilbert Scott was the consulting architect from the early stages in 1947, but died four years before the bridge was completed. Sir George Gilbert Scott RA was an English Gothic Revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals. Condition: generally very good. If you are interested, please email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. Click here for more architectural designs. -
Louis Osman FRIBA (1914 - 1996)
Design for the Restoration of the 'Bird Cage' Arbour, Melbourne Hall, Derbyshire
Mixed media, including pen, ink, watercolour, and gold leaf 108 x 63 cm Provenance: the artist's daughter. In 1958 Osman was commissioned to advise on the restoration of a metal arbour, originally designed in 1708 by Robert Blackwell for the grounds of Melbourne Hall in Derbyshire. The arbour is known as the 'Bird Cage' and was originally painted in a dreamy array of vivid colours; Osman extensively researched Blackwell's work and consulted his original plans for the metalwork in order to restore the arbour to its former glory. The paint was stripped and the iron repainted as per Blackwell's original scheme. The ironwork specialists George Lister & Sons Ltd worked with Osman on the project. This large design features watercolour and gold leaf to illustrate the embellishments Osman had in mind. Osman was as much an artist as an architect. This is likely a portfolio piece from his time studying at the Bartlett School of Architecture, and is as such a piece of architectural history as well as a beautiful Osman design. Osman was awarded a First Class degree and the Donaldson Medal of the RIBA (for the best result in his year group) by the Bartlett, and then went on to the Slade School of Art. He subsequently trained with Sir Albert Richardson - we also have several Richardson works in our collection. After the war, Osman busied himself as an architect. His work included contributions to Westminster Abbey, and Lincoln, Exeter, Ely, and Lichfield Cathedrals, Staunton Harold Church in Ashby de la Zouch for the National Trust, and of course his folly: the Grade I listed Elizabethan manor house, Canons Ashby in Northamptonshire, now a National Trust property. At Canons Ashby he established a workshop and had a team of silversmiths and goldsmiths working for him. In 1976 he made the gold enamelled coffin that holds the copy of the Magna Carta on view in the United States Capitol, Washington, DC. Condition: generally very good; one or two small brown spots to periphery. In artist's original lead-edged frame. If you’d like to know more, please email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Norman Clayton Hadlow Nisbet ARIBA
Design for Fairfield House, Droxford, Hampshire (c. 1910)
Watercolour and pencil 33 x 51 cm Signed and extensively inscribed. Exhibited at the Royal Academy, 1910. A fine design for an Edwardian country house in England by Norman Nisbet ARIBA, an architect who at the time was practising at 45 Jewry Street, Winchester. The house still stands today, although it is subject to proposals for extension and conversion to a hotel. Condition: very good. -
Edmund J Thring (1906 - 1985)
Design for St Nicholas House, High Street, Bristol
Gouache 46 x 54 cm Signed lower left and inscribed 'Alec F French & Partners, Architects, Bristol' (home to the Commercial Union Group and remodelled in 1959 by Alec French and partners). An architectural drawing of St Nicholas House, a 1930s Art Deco building on the corner of St Nicholas Street and High Street in the heart of Bristol. It was originally built as a banking headquarters, and is recognisable for its curved facade. Today St Nicholas House is a co-working space owned by The Office Group; the interiors have been remodelled in an Art Deco-inspired style, in honour of the building's architectural origins. Edmund J Thring was an architectural perspectivist who produced over 2,500 perspectives in his lifetime. He spent much of the Second WorId War in the Photographic Reconnaissance Interpretation Unit at RAF Nuneham Park, interpreting aerial photographs and making models. In 'A History of Architectural Model Making in Britain', David Lund notes that Thring was the chief instructor for the hundred or so recruits in the model-making department. He was described as ‘a sweetly patient man with a merciless eye and inflexible standards of quality’ who pushed his recruits hard. The team made over four hundred models for the D-Day invasion, and a thousand further models over the rest of the war. Pilots bombing German warships in Norwegian fjords found maps almost useless, so carried cardboard models of the topography in their cockpits. Thring also served with the Observer Corps, scanning the English Channel from the Sussex coast. Following the war, he began taking commissions for architectural perspectives (there were plenty of these available on account of the extensive postwar rebuilding works). We are grateful to the artist’s daughter for providing this information. Condition: generally very good, mounted to board, old time-staining to very margins under mount area. If you are interested, please email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. Click here for our other architectural drawings. -
John Dean Monroe Harvey (1895-1978)
A design for Barclays Bank, Walthamstow (1964)
Signed and dated ‘J D M Harvey 64.’ Gouache on paper. A very fine architectural perspective by Harvey with his customary distinctive clouds and elegant people. The scheme was built, but the ground floor has since been rebuilt in a rather less satisfactory fashion. 41 x 60 cm (16 x 23 inches) For biographical details and more works by JDM Harvey, please click here. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Cyril Farey (1888-1954)
Berners Street
Signed ‘Cyril A Farey’ and inscribed ‘Proposed New Premises Nos 3 & 4 Berners Street London W.’ Pencil and watercolour 39.5 x 23.5 cm Biographical details and other works by Cyril Farey can be found here. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Sir Albert Edward Richardson K.C.V.O., F.R.I.B.A, F.S.A., P.R.A. (1880-1964)
Antwerp Cathedral
33x20cm Watercolour Sir Albert Edward Richardson K.C.V.O., F.R.I.B.A, F.S.A., P.R.A. (1880-1964) was a traditionalist, renowned for his distaste of modern architecture. Rooted firmly in the classical period, he lived a Georgian life, refusing to have electricity in his Georgian house – until his wife finally insisted. Professor of Architecture at UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture from 1929-1955, this was evacuated to Cambridge during the war and he became a fellow of St Catharine’s College. Amongst his other achievements, Richardson was President of the RA, editor of Architect’s Journal and founder of the Georgian Group. For pleasure he painted architectural fantasies; capriccios of buildings he pictured in his mind. Richardson was recipient of the Architectural Association’s Professor Bannister Fletcher Medal in 1902 which was an award for the study of post-Fire London architecture. Amongst his achievements were Professor of Architecture at University College London, President of the RA, editor of Architect’s Journal and founder of the Georgian Group. Click here for other works by the artist and biographical details. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Sir Albert Edward Richardson K.C.V.O., F.R.I.B.A, F.S.A., P.R.A. (1880-1964)
The Dawn of the Renaissance in Central Europe, A Caprice
28x43cm watercolour Signed, with further detail to backboard (title, date etc.) Sir Albert Edward Richardson K.C.V.O., F.R.I.B.A, F.S.A., P.R.A. (1880-1964) was a traditionalist, renowned for his distaste of modern architecture. Rooted firmly in the classical period, he lived a Georgian life, refusing to have electricity in his Georgian house – until his wife finally insisted. Professor of Architecture at UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture from 1929-1955, this was evacuated to Cambridge during the war and he became a fellow of St Catharine’s College. Amongst his other achievements, Richardson was President of the RA, editor of Architect’s Journal and founder of the Georgian Group. For pleasure he painted architectural fantasies; capriccios of buildings he pictured in his mind. Richardson was recipient of the Architectural Association’s Professor Bannister Fletcher Medal in 1902 which was an award for the study of post-Fire London architecture. Amongst his achievements were Professor of Architecture at University College London, President of the RA, editor of Architect’s Journal and founder of the Georgian Group. Click here for other works by the artist and biographical details. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Fahye Design Consultants for Cunard
Queen Elizabeth 2 - Staircase G
Gouache and lettraset 59 x 83 cm A fabulously mid-century design for a staircase in the QE2, a luxury ocean liner operated by Cunard from 1969 to 2008. Glamorous passengers in black tie mingle on the staircase landing before dinner. Fahye's gouache designs illustrate the mid-century modern aesthetic of the golden age of ocean travel. The Queen Elizabeth 2 was designed in Cunard's offices in Liverpool and Southampton and built in Clydebank, Scotland. She was retired in 2018 and is now a floating hotel in Dubai. Condition: very good; mounted to foamboard. If you are interested, please email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Fahye Design Consultants for Cunard
Queen Elizabeth 2 - Midships Lobby
Gouache and lettraset 59 x 83 cm A fabulously mid-century design for a lobby in the QE2, a luxury ocean liner operated by Cunard from 1969 to 2008. Glamorous passengers in black tie mingle in the lobby before dinner. A sunken conversation pit marks the mid-century interior style of the ship. The Queen Elizabeth 2 was designed in Cunard's offices in Liverpool and Southampton and built in Clydebank, Scotland. She was retired in 2018 and is now a floating hotel in Dubai. Condition: very good; mounted to foamboard. If you are interested, please email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
John Chessell Buckler (1793 - 1894)
Horham Hall, Essex (1830)
Watercolour 25 x 34 cm Signed and dated lower right; titled below. Horham Hall was built in Thaxted, Essex by Sir John Cutte in the early sixteenth century. The original hall was a timber-framed moated manor house built circa 1470, but it was largely demolished by Cutte, who built the present house between 1510 and 1515. Cutte was under-treasurer in the households of Henry VII and Henry VIII. The mansion was built in brick in two storeys in a quadrilateral layout with a gatehouse and incorporated some elements of the former building. The house was visited three times by Elizabeth I as the guest of Sir John Cutte. It is believed that the Tower was built for her to watch the local hunt. It was while staying at Horham in 1578 that the Queen received the envoy of the Duke of Alençon proposing marriage. John Chessell Buckler was a British architect, the eldest son of the architect John Buckler. His work included restorations of country houses and at the University of Oxford. Buckler received art lessons from the painter Francis Nicholson. He began working for his father's architectural practice in 1810, and ran it from 1830 onwards with his younger brother George. They worked in partnership until 1842. Buckler did a lot of work in Oxford, carrying out repairs and additions to St. Mary's Church, and Oriel, Brasenose, Magdalen, and Jesus Colleges. He also restored Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk, and Hengrave Hall, Suffolk, and designed Dunston Hall, Norfolk, and Butleigh Court in Somerset. In 1836 he came second, behind Charles Barry, in the competition to rebuild the Palace of Westminster following its destruction by fire. Buckler's writings included the text accompanying his father's engravings of Views of the Cathedral Churches of England and Wales (1822). In 1823 he published 'Observations on the Original Architecture of St. Mary Magdalen College, Oxford', in which he expressed his hostility towards changes in the quadrangle of Magdalen College. Some of his later writings, such as 'A History of the Architecture of the Abbey Church of St Alban' (1847), were written in collaboration with his own son, Charles Alban Buckler. He wrote a further polemical work, 'A Description And Defense Of The Restorations Of The Exterior Of Lincoln Cathedral' (1866), a scathing response to accusations that, in capacity as honorary architect to Lincoln Cathedral, he had overseen a damaging restoration involving the 'scraping' of the cathedral fabric. He died at the grand old age of 100 in 1894. Condition: good. Some spots to the sky, as visible in photograph. If you’d like to know more, please email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Robert Tavener (1920 - 2004)
Cheltenham College
Watercolour and pen 28 x 35 cm Signed lower right. What is particularly interesting about this picture is the contrast between the rugged watercolour wash of the lawn and the fine pen expression of the college's architecture. Tavener painted several views of the city of Cheltenham and its architectural landmarks; Cheltenham College is a public school just outside the city, and Tavener expertly elicits its mid-nineteenth century architectural style here. -
John Dean Monroe Harvey (1895 – 1978) Architectural Drawing: Design for a factory for VC Bond
for Barnes Challen & Cross, Architects and Engineers Mixed Media 38x68cm Even the factory commissioned by the manufacturers of a furniture company deserved the attention of a drawing by the famous JDM Harvey in the Board Room. Unusually, perhaps, for Harvey, here he is drawing fields, carefully catching the texture of a ploughed field with the confident diagonal strokes of his hand. The factory is busily occupied, men are unstacking great piles of timber at the back of the building. A further lorry-load of raw materials enters through the gate and the Directors' fine saloon cars are parked towards the front. Even in this obviously rural environment Harvey draws his usual pedestrians. All these aspects give life to what in the hands of a lesser man would probably be a rather clinical drawing - instead of a picture of which to be proud. Probably unrivalled as an architectural perspectivist working after the second World War, Harvey trained as an architect but after 1944 worked almost solely on drawing architectural perspectives for other architects. “The architectural draughtsman who is equally competent at drawing such incidentals [as landscape and figures] is as rare as the landscape or figure painter who is equally competent at architecture. Harvey was one of those rare men. He would draw a building with a slightly freer hand than an architect would, and his landscape in a slightly more architectural manner than that of a painter.” Perspective in Perspective, Lawrence Wright (Routledge 1983) p234. Harvey was born in Newfoundland, where his father was a railway engineer, and came to England aged 17, studying at St Paul’s School, London and at the School of Architecture, University College London 1914-1918, being awarded the Donaldson medal. In 1920 he went into practice on his own, designing several interiors with J A Bowden. Amongst his works were the reconstruction and interior decoration of 4 Cleveland Place, London (1936-37), and a house – including all furnishings – in Herne Hill for Dr M I Elliot (1938). After 1944 he primarily worked as a perspective artist and illustrator, a role to which he was particularly well suited. During the war he was a member of St Paul’s Watch, a group of over one hundred architects and surveyors and artists who kept watch over St Paul’s Cathedral during the blitz, extinguishing fires and helping St Paul’s to survive the war virtually unscathed. The Watch was described as the ‘Best dining club in London’ on account of its influential members. He retired to Italy, living on the shore of Lake Como, and enjoying the local red wine. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. Condition: Excellent. In original frame (which has been repolished and with new mount). Glass will be removed for overseas shipping, or subject to a significant shipping surcharge. -
Sir Albert Edward Richardson K.C.V.O., F.R.I.B.A, F.S.A., P.R.A. (1880-1964)
La Giralda Seville
38x28cm Watercolour Sir Albert Edward Richardson K.C.V.O., F.R.I.B.A, F.S.A., P.R.A. (1880-1964) was a traditionalist, renowned for his distaste of modern architecture. Rooted firmly in the classical period, he lived a Georgian life, refusing to have electricity in his Georgian house – until his wife finally insisted. Professor of Architecture at UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture from 1929-1955, this was evacuated to Cambridge during the war and he became a fellow of St Catharine’s College. Amongst his other achievements, Richardson was President of the RA, editor of Architect’s Journal and founder of the Georgian Group. For pleasure he painted architectural fantasies; capriccios of buildings he pictured in his mind. Richardson was recipient of the Architectural Association’s Professor Bannister Fletcher Medal in 1902 which was an award for the study of post-Fire London architecture. Amongst his achievements were Professor of Architecture at University College London, President of the RA, editor of Architect’s Journal and founder of the Georgian Group. Click here for other works by the artist and biographical details. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Richard Beer (1928 - 2017)
Dieppe Cathedral
Oil on canvas 66 x 76 cm A mountaintop cathedral and surrounding houses; broad blue sky fills the rest of the canvas. This oil painting is a fantastic example of Beer's focus on architecture, the central and recurring theme of his pictorial idiom. Born in London in 1928, just too late to serve in the Second World War, Richard Beer studied between 1945 - 1950 at the Slade School. Subsequently, a French Government scholarship allowed him to spend time in Paris at Atelier 17, working under Stanley William Hayter (1901 - 1988), one of the most significant print makers of the 20th Century – having spent the War in New York, advising as a camofleur, Hayter only returned to Paris in 1950. Subsequently Beer studied at the École des Beaux Arts, Paris. Working for John Cranko, choreographer for the Royal Ballet, Beer designed the sets and costumes for his The Lady and the Fool at Covent Garden, subsequently working for him following his move in 1961 to Stuttgart Ballet. Additionally he produced book illustrations and designed book jackets. Beer later taught print-making at the Chelsea School of Art, where he was a popular teacher. Probably his greatest work was a collaboration with John Betjeman to produce a portfolio of prints of ten Wren Churches in the City for Editions Alecto, copies of which are in The Government Art Collection. That collection contains a total of 54 prints by Beer, and the Tate Gallery’s collection holds seven. His Oxford series was also produced for Editions Alecto as was a series of predominantly architectural views in Southern Europe. Most of his prints are of architectural subjects. Condition: excellent. If you’d like to know more, please email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. Click here for other views by Richard Beer. -
Robert Tavener (1920 - 2004)
Lansdown Parade, Cheltenham
Watercolour and pen 38 x 46 cm Signed lower right. The thin watercolour wash of the lawns and the fine ink pen expression of the college's architecture create a contrast between the natural and the man-made in this picture by Tavener. He painted several views of the city of Cheltenham and its architectural landmarks, including of Cheltenham College (this picture is available here). Condition: generally very good. -
Claude Muncaster (1903-1974)
View of the Clyde from Lyle Hill
Monochrome watercolour with ink Signed and dated 1952, and inscribed 'Sphere' 18x50cm DRAWN FOR 'THE SPHERE' ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE Click here for biographical details and other works by the artist. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
S Clapham (active 1940 - 1960)
St Paul's Cathedral
Watercolour 51 x 68 cm Signed lower right. This architectural watercolour is a panegyric to the English Baroque grandeur of St Paul's Cathedral. Three small figures climb the steps, emphasising the size and magnificence of the architecture around them. St Paul's was built between 1675 and 1711 by Sir Christopher Wren. The foundation stone was laid in 1675 when Wren was 43 years old, and the building works were completed 35 years later by Wren's son. Its construction was part of a major rebuilding programme in the city after the Great Fire of London. Clapham was an architect based in Stockwell in London. Condition: generally very good; a couple of spots. Mounted to board by artist and signed to board. If you are interested, please email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. Click here for other works by the artist. -
S Clapham (active 1940 - 1960)
Puslinch House
Watercolour 49 x 70 cm A beautifully-coloured watercolour of Puslinch House, a fine Christopher Wren-style Georgian mansion in Devon. The estate was owned by the Poslylinch, Mohun, and Upton families before being taken over by the Yonge family in 1718, following the marriage of John Yonge and Mary Upton. The Queen Anne House mansion was built on the occasion of their wedding and an earlier mediaeval house still exists in the grounds as a country cottage. During the war, the house was used as a voluntary hospital for wounded officers. Clapham was an architect based in Stockwell in London. Condition: generally very good; a little faint spotting to top right corner. If you are interested, please email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. Click here for other works by the artist. -
David Loggan (1634-1692)
Frontispiece Public Schools Oxford
Engraving 33x42cm If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056.