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Richard Beer (1928 - 2017)
Lecce Cathedral, Puglia
Oil on canvas 122 x 85 cm Provenance: the artist's studio. A momentous depiction of Lecce Cathedral in all its glory. 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: generally very good. If you are interested, please email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. Click here for other works by Richard Beer. -
Edward Bawden (1903 - 1989)
Aesop's Fables: Peacock and Magpie (1970)
Linocut print 63 x 75 cm Signed, numbered 11/50, and titled in pencil. A delightful print illustrating Aesop's fable of the Peacock and Magpie. In the fable, the birds are searching for a king, and the Peacock puts himself forward. The birds are about to make him king because of his charming plumage, but a Magpie asks the Peacock how he might defend the birds from predators. The Peacock has no answer. Aesop's moral is that those in power must be suited to the task, and not just vain pretenders. The artist's use of vibrant colour brings the tale to life. Edward Bawden was an English painter, illustrator and graphic artist, known for his prints, book covers, posters, and garden metalwork furniture. Bawden taught at the Royal College of Art, where he had been a student, worked as a commercial artist, and served as a war artist in World War II. He illustrated several books and painted various public murals, and his work and career are often associated with that of his contemporary, Eric Ravilious. Condition: generally very good; small stain to extremity that will be hidden under mount. If you’d like to know more, please email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Anonymous King's College Cambridge with the River Cam and Bridge to foreground
51x63.5cm Watercolour Probably 1920s A fine, and large, view of King's College. The artist paints in an art deco style, picking out the stones of the bridge in different colours, the colours all having a heightened sense of reality. Born from cubism, the art deco era is characterised by a fragmented, geometric character particularly evident here. It gives the impression of a shimmering dream. The twenties was an incredible period of change, moving from heavy elaborate styles to a pared back and sleek style expressing more dynamism, an interest in dimension and abstraction. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Duncan Grant (1885 - 1978)
Interior (1973)
Lithograph 36 x 30 cm (paper size 77 x 57 cm) Signed 'Grant' and numbered 9/90 in pencil; part of the Penwith Portfolio. Published by Penwith Galleries, St Ives in 1973 with works by Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Peter Lanyon, Alan Davie, Merlyn Evans, John Piper, Ben Nicholson, Robert Adams, Bernard Leach, Michael Rothenstein, and F E McWilliam. An excellent example of Duncan Grant's late work. Duncan Grant was a member of the Bloomsbury Group. He was a painter and also designed textiles, pottery, theatre sets, and costumes. He was a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Condition: generally very good; a few light handling creases in margins. If you are interested, please email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. Click here for more Modern British Art. -
J Phillip Davies (British, 20th Century)
Selwyn College Cambridge
Oil on board c. 1970 60x89cm A rare view of Selwyn College Cambridge, captured here in all the glory of its Victorian red brick. -
Alfred Daniels RBA RWS (1924-2015)
Christ’s College, Cambridge
Gouache, watercolour and ink on board 40x56cm (15.7×22 inches). In a hand-finished cream frame. 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. -
Robert MacDonald Fraser (1870-1947) 'Landscape with Footbridge'
Oil on canvas Signed 20" x 24" (50.5 x 61cm) Though of Scottish descent, an Englishman who was born, lived and died in and around Liverpool. He is believed to have become interested in painting during his secondary school years at the Liverpool Institute and Art School (where the principal was the distinguished landscape artist John Finnie), however his early career was in commerce. By the age of thirty he was well established in Liverpool's art circles but it was to be another decade before he took to painting full time. Between 1910 and 1938 he showed approximately fifty paintings at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, also having seven paintings accepted for the Royal Academy's summer exhibitions. He additionally exhibited at the Manchester Art Gallery, Liverpool Bluecoat and Royal Cambrian Academy, becoming - in 1929 - Vice President of the Liverpool 'Artists' Club.' He mostly painted the landscapes of North Wales and the North West of England. His family owned holiday cottages in North Wales, and Snowdonia provided him with much inspiration, it is believed that this painting is of a Snowdonia scene. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. Condition: Excellent. -
Lionel Bulmer (1919-1992) 'The Edge of the Field' (c. 1950s)
Oil on board 43 x 51 cm Signed lower right. Lionel Bulmer (1919-1992) attended Clapham art school before war intervened; after the war he started again at the Royal College of Art which had been relocated during the conflict to Ambleside in the Lake District. Here he met his lifelong partner Margaret Green who provided the model for many of his works. They returned to London where they studied under painters such as Ruskin Spear and Carel Weight, successors to the Camden Town and Euston Road schools. In the 1950s they moved to West Suffolk and much of Bulmer's work from this point on documents the Suffolk landscape and the coast at Aldeburgh and Walberswick. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. Condition: Excellent. -
Trevor Bell (1930 - 2017)
Way Out Blue (1961)
Acrylic on paper 35 x 43 cm Signed and dated lower right. Bell's rosy-hued abstract composition is perhaps evoking an interior with window and curtains. The deep azure blue of the picture's title appears at the top right of the composition, curving away from the rest of the image. A sunny golden yellow drips in through the window panes, imbuing the scene with a hot, heady romanticism. Bell's idiosyncratic pictorial language allows us to experience the scene's hazy summer heat via the forms of sun, window, and wall. Bell was born in Leeds in 1930 and attended Leeds College of Art from 1947 to 1952 in a scholarship. The artist Terry Frost encouraged him to move to Cornwall, where he soon became a leading figure in the younger generation of the St Ives school. His first solo exhibition came in 1958, and the year after he was awarded the Paris Biennale International Painting Prize. The Tate began collecting his work in the 1960s, and Bell spent more time working and teaching in America. The Tate's 1985 St Ives exhibition featured Bell's work, and he was also included in the Tate St Ives' inaugural show. He returned from America in 1996 and settled down in isolated barn- and farmhouse-conversion studios near Penzance in Cornwall. He exhibited across England and America for the rest of his life, notably with his major solo exhibition at the Tate St Ives in 2004. Much of his work considers form and landscape via a dramatic use of colour and often on unusually-shaped (and sometimes multi-part) canvases. Condition: very good. If you’d like to know more, please email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
John Piper (1903–1992)
Exeter College, Oxford (1977)
Screenprint Signed in pencil 81.9x61cm (32.2x24 inches) One of Piper's largest and most impressive prints, here featuring Gilbert Scott's chapel at Exeter. It is often claimed that Gilbert Scott based it on Paris's Sainte Chapelle. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. Condition: slight even age toning to paper, small area of repair to print. -
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. -
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. -
Kenneth Rowntree
Abstract Australian Landscape
Watercolour 27.5 x 33cm Signed (top left) and dated 'Kenneth Rowntree '85' Provenance: Anderson & Garland Studio sale of Kenneth Rowntree lot 263 Tuesday 8 September 2009 For biographical details and other works by Rowntree click here. Rowntree visited Australia in 1984/85. In this painting he picks up various vignettes from the Australian landscape in six separate blocks. Two relate to the sky, with almost-unbroken blue skies stretching from horizon to horizon, three relate to desert areas, with a whole array of different textures, and one is a luscious green. In one of the desert scenes he has picked out two road signs, in typical Rowntree fashion, reducing them to their simplest form. In her essay Kenneth Rowntree: A Strange Simplicity (published in Kenneth Rowntree A Centenary Exhibition Published by Moore-Gwyn Fine Art and Liss Llewellyn Fine Art, on behalf of the artist’s estate, on the occasion of the centenary of Kenneth Rowntree’s birth) Alexandra Harris makes reference to this painting noting:Later, in 1986, just when the young David Hockney was collaging the signs and road-markings of Route 138 in Pearblossom Highway, Rowntree was in Australia painting yellow diamond-shaped road-signs as bright icons in open country. Wherever he went, Rowntree captured both the unfamiliarity of places and their relationship to things he knew. Heading into the Australian outback, he painted a road-sign as he would paint a rail signal at Clare in Suffolk or nautical markers at Swansea.
Hockney's 1986 Pearblossom Highway may be seen here in the Getty and it is worth noting that Rowntree was in fact painting the yellow sign in 1985, so a year before Hockney. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Gwyneth Johnstone (1915 - 2010)
The Railway Bridge
Mixed media 64 x 83 cm Signed lower left in paint, and monogrammed lower left in pencil. Provenance: the estate of the artist. Johnstone explores the possibilities of abstraction in this semi-delirious depiction of a railway bridge. Painted in tones of burnt umber, orange, grey, and black, the picture is populated by warped railings, bending trees, and staring onlookers, all of which centre around a railway line and bridge. Tanya Harrod described Johnstone's painting style a 'a hallucinogenic, haunting pastoral', and that is immensely evident in this picture. Johnstone was an English painter who worked mostly in oils and often depicted poignant modern landscapes. Her parents were the musician Nora Brownsford and the artist Augustus John. She studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, where she established lifelong friendships with fellow artists Mary Fedden and Virginia Parsons. After the Slade, Johnstone was taught academicised cubism by the painter André Lhote at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. For a brief period in the early 1950s she took life classes with the surrealist artist Cecil Collins at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. -
Paul Ayshford Methuen (1886 - 1974)
Barrage Balloons, Regents Park, 9 March 1940
Oil on board 36 x 52 cm Signed lower left and titled and dated lower centre. Lord Methuen's oil painting of Regent's Park on a winter's day, with barrage balloons above. Barrage balloons were set up - stationed at an altitude of around 4,000 ft - as a barrier to enemy aircraft. The steel cables used to tether the balloons would take an enemy aeroplane out of the sky if it were to hit the cable. The UK had thousands of them, filled partly with hydrogen and operated largely by women, to protect significant towns, cities, and military installations. These strange blobs floated over the country, just asking to be captured by artists. Methuen had rejoined his regiment (serving as a Captain) in 1939 but was likely stationed in London for a while, when he might have had the opportunity to capture this scene. When Methuen painted the scene in 1940, Britain was still in the stage of the phoney war. The Battle of Britain did not commence until 10 July, and the Blitz not until 7 September - but Britain's defences were ready. Barrage balloons were important all the way through the War: they defended London against the V2 missiles; they defended the D-Day invasion fleet; and they protected the invasion army for months. Indeed, it was said that the vast amount of material brought into the UK from the States prior to D-Day would have caused Britain to sink under the sea, were it not for the huge number of barrage balloons holding the country up... Condition: excellent. Recently revarnished. If you’d like to know more, please email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056.
