-
Eric Gill
Canterbury Tales The Summoner's Tale
Woodblock Print Published Hague & Gill 1934 in an unnumbered edition of 300 23x21cm Following Chichester Technical and Art School, Gill moved to London in 1900 to train with the ecclesiastical architects W D Caroe. Finding architecture somewhat pedestrian he took stonemasonry lessons at Westminster Technical Institute and calligraphy lessons at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, coming under the influence of Edward Johnson, the designer of the London Underground's own typeface. In 1903 he ceased his attempts to become an architect, instead becoming a monumental mason, letter-cutter and calligrapher. Based in Ditchling, he began direct carving of stone figures, the semi-abstract figures taking their influence from mediaeval statuary, mixed with influences from Classical statuary from the Greeks and Romans, with a little post-Impressionism added in. With major commissions from Westminster Cathedral for its Stations of the Cross (1914), a series of War Memorials including the Grade II* memorial in Trumpington, and three of the sculptures for Charles Holden's 1928 headquarters of London Underground at 55 Broadway, St James's, and a series of sculptures for the new 1932 Broadcasting House. The list continues. Never one to rest on his laurels, he was at the same time engaged in typographical adventures. He had collaborated with Edward Johnson on the latter's initial thoughts on his London Transport typeface, but in 1925 designed Perpetua on his own, and Gill Sans between 1927-30. For the Golden Cockerel Press he created, in 1929, a bolder typeface to complement wood engravings. And of course Gill was publishing decorated books. His 1929 Canterbury Tales was an epic work, with a whole series of beautiful wood engravings such as this one. The present print is from the 1934 edition for Faber & Faber ('Engravings 1928-1933 by Eric Gill') he printed with his son-in-law, Rene Hague, produced with the original engraved wood blocks. In Chaucer's Tales, the Summoner's Tale tells the story of the man who summonsed people to the ecclesiastical courts. It satirises the friar, considering him to be corrupt. Philip Hofer was a curator and collector, and commissioned this fine Ex Libris plate from Gill. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. Condition: Generally very good condition. -
Eric Gill
From the Books of Philip Hofer Woodblock Print
Published Hague & Gill 1934 in an unnumbered edition of 300 23x21cm Following Chichester Technical and Art School, Gill moved to London in 1900 to train with the ecclesiastical architects W D Caroe. Finding architecture somewhat pedestrian he took stonemasonry lessons at Westminster Technical Institute and calligraphy lessons at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, coming under the influence of Edward Johnson, the designer of the London Underground's own typeface. In 1903 he ceased his attempts to become an architect, instead becoming a monumental mason, letter-cutter and calligrapher. Based in Ditchling, he began direct carving of stone figures, the semi-abstract figures taking their influence from mediaeval statuary, mixed with influences from Classical statuary from the Greeks and Romans, with a little post-Impressionism added in. With major commissions from Westminster Cathedral for its Stations of the Cross (1914), a series of War Memorials including the Grade II* memorial in Trumpington, and three of the sculptures for Charles Holden's 1928 headquarters of London Underground at 55 Broadway, St James's, and a series of sculptures for the new 1932 Broadcasting House. The list continues. Never one to rest on his laurels, he was at the same time engaged in typographical adventures. He had collaborated with Edward Johnson on the latter's initial thoughts on his London Transport typeface, but in 1925 designed Perpetua on his own, and Gill Sans between 1927-30. For the Golden Cockerel Press he created, in 1929, a bolder typeface to complement wood engravings. And of course Gill was publishing decorated books. His 1929 Canterbury Tales was an epic work, with a whole series of beautiful wood engravings such as this one. The present print is from the 1934 edition for Faber & Faber ('Engravings 1928-1933 by Eric Gill') he printed with his son-in-law, Rene Hague, produced with the original engraved wood blocks. Philip Hofer was a curator and collector, and commissioned this fine Ex Libris plate from Gill. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. Condition: Generally very good condition. -
Rosemary Ellis (1910-1988) Lily
36x23cm Pen, ink and watercolour Provenance: the family of the artist, by descent. ROSEMARY ELLIS (1910-1988) Born in North London in 1910, Rosemary’s father died in the Spanish Flu epidemic in 1919 and the family moved in with her mother’s parents in the New Forest. This was an environment where she grew to love nature and animals, constant themes in her artistic works. In 1928 she began studying art at the Regent Street Polytechnic, meeting her tutor Clifford Ellis – a mere three years her senior, who was to become her husband and life-long artistic collaborator. They married in 1931 and after this date almost all their freelance work bears both their signatures. They developed a joint cipher, C&RE, which includes their names in alphabetical order, not representing any order of seniority. They produced posters in the 1930s for big clients such as London Transport, Shell, and The Empire Marketing Board. Clifford Ellis became head of Bath School of Art, and then served during the Second World War as camoufleur and official war artist – with the Grenadier Guards. Rosemary was also an official war artist, working on the Recording Britain project whereby artists were set to record the buildings and landscape of Britain lest it be permanently damaged by the Germans. Following the war Lyons Tearooms chose the Ellises to produce one of their famous lithographs, to be hung in their tearooms and the Ellises chose a view of Teignmouth – we have some views of Teignmouth for sale painted from this time. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. Condition: Old fold to centre as visible in photograph. -
Clifford Ellis (1907-1985) Swallow
16x25cm Watercolour and pencil Provenance: the family of the artist, by descent. Born in Bognor in Sussex and trained at St Martin’s School of Art and Regent Street Polytechnic, Ellis was a graphic artist and illustrator who is best known for the posters he produced for London Transport during the 1930s. He generally collaborated with his wife Rosemary – whom he married in 1931 – on their posters. The General Post Office, Shell, and The Empire Marketing Board were also clients for their posters. They signed their posters C&RE, their initials being in alphabetical order and they are readily recognisable by their ebullient use of colour and form. Employed during the war as a camoufleur, along with so many other artists, Clifford was also an official war artist, serving with the Grenadier Guards. Rosemary, meanwhile, was an artist for the Recording Britain project. Following the war they trained art teachers at Bath Academy of Art. They also designed a series of nearly one hundred book jackets for Collins New Naturalist series, published between 1945 and 1982 and were always fascinated by animals and natural history, as with this sketch. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. Condition: Generally very good. -
Percy Drake Brookshaw (1907-1993) Marching Band
Linocut c. 1930s 30x30 cm Inscribed 'Artist's trial proof 1A' Provenance: the family of the artist, by descent. Brookshaw was born in Southwark, in London, and educated at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. He was a particularly accomplished lithographer, skilled also as a painter in both oil and watercolour. Identifying the former talent, F Gregory Brown - the poster and textile designer - encouraged him to become an illustrator and poster designer. Producing posters for London Transport and Shell, inter alia, between 1928 and 1958, many of his posters depict sporting events. His two posters for the annual University Boat Race are well known and highly sought after, and his wonderful posters often evoke a feeling of movement, whether rowers straining on their oars, or horses or greyhounds racing. In this carefully executed linocut, Brookshaw brings the band members to life with the same skill and enthusiasm he brings to his posters. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. Condition: Generally very good, some spotting to external margins outside image area. -
Percy Drake Brookshaw (1907-1993) Marching Band
Linocut c. 1930s 30x30 cm Inscribed 'Artist's trial proof 1A' Provenance: the family of the artist, by descent. Brookshaw was born in Southwark, in London, and educated at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. He was a particularly accomplished lithographer, skilled also as a painter in both oil and watercolour. Identifying the former talent, F Gregory Brown - the poster and textile designer - encouraged him to become an illustrator and poster designer. Producing posters for London Transport and Shell, inter alia, between 1928 and 1958, many of his posters depict sporting events. His two posters for the annual University Boat Race are well known and highly sought after, and his wonderful posters often evoke a feeling of movement, whether rowers straining on their oars, or horses or greyhounds racing. In this carefully executed linocut, Brookshaw brings the band members to life with the same skill and enthusiasm he brings to his posters. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. Condition: Generally very good, some spotting to external margins outside image area. -
Rowland Suddaby (1912-1972) English Roses - Still Life
Oil on board 39x29cm (frame 58x46cm) c. 1950s Artist's label to reverse In a fine hand-finished frame Born in Kimberworth, Yorkshire, Suddaby commenced study in 1926 at the Sheffield College of Art on a scholarship, coming to London at nineteen in 1931. Following an early marriage and an initial struggle as an artist his first successful show was at the Wertheim Gallery in London in 1935, followed by a series of shows at the Redfern Gallery from 1936. For the latter he was their replacement for Christopher Wood (who had sadly killed himself in 1930 by jumping under a train) and he painted assured oils and watercolours - some showing Wood influences - in London and Cornwall. Popular with both art critics and the buying public he had great success. Early in World War Two, Suddaby moved - with his family - to the Suffolk countryside near Sudbury to become curator of the Gainsborough's House Museum, East Anglia providing him with the foundations for the pictures for which he is now well known. In 1940 he was chosen for the 'Recording Britain' project. Showing something of the influence of John Nash, his distinctive depiction of the East Anglian countryside, with its hedges and fences is instantly recognisable. His still life paintings which he also painted in the 1940s and 50s were exhibited at the Leger Galleries and at the Colchester Art Society of which he was a founder member. By the 1960s he had evolved his style towards abstraction. He was also a noted designer, producing textiles and furnishings and designing posters for Shell. His work is in many major collections such as the V&A Museum and the Government Art Collection If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. Condition: Good. -
Douglas L Hadden (British, 20th century) Design for a Marquetry Panels for furniture for Geo. M Hammer with castle
25x18cm Watercolour signed and dated 1927 Hadden was a senior designer for Geo M Hammer, designers and retailers of school and ecclesiastical furniture. Their lift-top school desks are particularly well regarded, and always carried their brass name plate. Hammer were renowned for their interior woodwork, they were commissioned to undertake the choir stalls in Sir Basil Spence’s ground-breaking Coventry Cathedral. Dick Russell (brother of Gordon Russell and who worked for his brother before World War Two) famously designed the chairs to be used by the congregation; as all-wood stacking chairs they were innovative at the time. As senior designer, Hadden was at the heart of the Coventry project. Hadden was educated at the Wycombe School of Art and quickly rose to the position of chief designer at Burkles, early in his career. During the World War Two he worked as an air warden in Cowley and later within the Royal Artillery, before returning to work for the Italian firm BIANOS, helping to shift its production of spitfires propellers back to peace-time wood-work. For his 7th and finale job he worked as chief designer for one of the largest and oldest firms in Britain, Geo. M Hammer. With a wide experience of designing furniture to a high standard, Hadden worked for colleges, universities, schools, libraries, monasteries and nunneries, churches and abbeys, cathedrals, synagogues and private houses. In addition to furnishings, Hadden took pride in producing fine pianos for many of these residences. Through Geo M Hammer, Hadden's designs can be found across the British Isles today, with many further appearing in America. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. Condition : Good. Wrapped in transparent sleeve for protection. -
Claude Muncaster (1903-1974) Cardiff Castle Wales
Dated May 1962 Signed lower right Watercolour 14x26cm Muncaster's watercolours capture the British countryside feel with great competence and passion. Here the ancient scheduled monument of Cardiff castle is made to feel both grand and imposing, yet reflecting the softness of the countryside. A few elegant motorcars are parked before it. Claude Grahame Muncaster, RWS, ROI, RBA, SMA was the son of Oliver Hall RA. At the age of fifteen his career as a landscape painter began, and he soon took to the seas, spending the 1920s and 30s travelling the world with his sketchbook in a series of vessels. With the outbreak of war and he joined the RNVR training as a navigator. Having left school at fifteen his mathematics was very weak and it was a relief for all when his artistic talents meant he was recruited as a camofleur. A master of capturing seascapes he was therefore able to hide huge ships ‘in plain sight’ with clever disguises. After the war he painted for the Royal Family and was a frequent guest at Sandringham. Claude Muncaster was a watercolourist known for his landscapes and maritime scenes. He was born Grahame Hall, the son of the Royal Academician Oliver Hall who taught his son to paint from an early age; Grahame first exhibited his work aged 15 and a few years later was showing at the RA. However, he adopted the name Claude Muncaster in 1922 to dissociate his career from that of his father. Muncaster’s primary choice of subject matter came from a genuine love of the sea. He made several long-distance sea voyages, including one around the Horn as a deckhand in the windjammer Olivebank in 1931, which he described in ‘Rolling Round the Horn’, published in 1933. Armed with a sketchbook, his aim was to be able to ‘paint ships and the sea with greater authority’. This he certainly achieved, perfectly capturing the limpid first light of morning over the Port of Aden, the choppy rain-grey waters of the Bay of Biscay and a streak of sunlight through gathering storm clouds at dusk in Exeter. He became an Associate of the Royal Watercolour Society in 1931 and was a founder member, and later President, of the Royal Society of Marine Artists. During the Second World War, Muncaster served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) from 1940-44, training as a navigator before going on to advise on the camouflage of ships, and also worked as an official war artist. In ‘Still Morning at Aden’ (1944) he depicts Allied warships in this safe anchorage in the Middle East; the back is stamped with Admiralty approval. In 1946-7 he was commissioned by the Queen to produce watercolours of the royal residences at Windsor, Sandringham and Balmoral; the Duke of Edinburgh, in a foreword to a biography of Muncaster, recalls looking at these and considering the artist’s ‘unerring instinct for a subject’, his sense of atmosphere. Other commissions included large panoramas of the Thames and of Bradford. His career also included work as an etcher, illustrator, writer, lecturer and broadcaster, and his paintings can be found in the Royal Academy, Tate, National Maritime Museum Cornwall, National Railway Museum and Royal Air Force Museum. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. Conditon: Conservation mounted and wrapped in transparent sleeve for protection. Generally good condition. -
Claude Muncaster (1903-1974) Shap Farmhouse
Watercolour 19 x 29 cm Signed and inscribed to reverse. Here Muncaster records a farmhouse in the Market Town of Shap in Cumbria. This remote village has had a market charter since the seventeenth century. Claude Grahame Muncaster, RWS, ROI, RBA, SMA was the son of Oliver Hall RA. At the age of fifteen his career as a landscape painter began, and he soon took to the seas, spending the 1920s and 30s travelling the world with his sketchbook in a series of vessels. With the outbreak of war and he joined the RNVR training as a navigator. Having left school at fifteen his mathematics was very weak and it was a relief for all when his artistic talents meant he was recruited as a camofleur. A master of capturing seascapes he was therefore able to hide huge ships ‘in plain sight’ with clever disguises. After the war he painted for the Royal Family and was a frequent guest at Sandringham. Claude Muncaster was a watercolourist known for his landscapes and maritime scenes. He was born Grahame Hall, the son of the Royal Academician Oliver Hall who taught his son to paint from an early age; Grahame first exhibited his work aged 15 and a few years later was showing at the RA. However, he adopted the name Claude Muncaster in 1922 to dissociate his career from that of his father. Muncaster’s primary choice of subject matter came from a genuine love of the sea. He made several long-distance sea voyages, including one around the Horn as a deckhand in the windjammer Olivebank in 1931, which he described in ‘Rolling Round the Horn’, published in 1933. Armed with a sketchbook, his aim was to be able to ‘paint ships and the sea with greater authority’. This he certainly achieved, perfectly capturing the limpid first light of morning over the Port of Aden, the choppy rain-grey waters of the Bay of Biscay and a streak of sunlight through gathering storm clouds at dusk in Exeter. He became an Associate of the Royal Watercolour Society in 1931 and was a founder member, and later President, of the Royal Society of Marine Artists. During the Second World War, Muncaster served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) from 1940-44, training as a navigator before going on to advise on the camouflage of ships, and also worked as an official war artist. In ‘Still Morning at Aden’ (1944) he depicts Allied warships in this safe anchorage in the Middle East; the back is stamped with Admiralty approval. In 1946-7 he was commissioned by the Queen to produce watercolours of the royal residences at Windsor, Sandringham and Balmoral; the Duke of Edinburgh, in a foreword to a biography of Muncaster, recalls looking at these and considering the artist’s ‘unerring instinct for a subject’, his sense of atmosphere. Other commissions included large panoramas of the Thames and of Bradford. His career also included work as an etcher, illustrator, writer, lecturer and broadcaster, and his paintings can be found in the Royal Academy, Tate, National Maritime Museum Cornwall, National Railway Museum and Royal Air Force Museum. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. Condition: Conservation mounted and wrapped in transparent sleeve for protection. -
Angela Stones (1914-1995) Helianthus
Oil on canvasboard 44x55cm Signed lower left Stones was a member of an artistic dynasty. Her mother Dorothy Bradshaw (1893-1983) studied under Jack Merriott - the artist famous for his British Rail posters, and her son, Christopher Assheton-Stones (1947-1999) was probably the foremost pastel artist of his time. Here a generous use of impasto captures the texture of a Helianthus - Sunflower. A suggestion perhaps of surrealism in choice of colours helps with the mid-century feel of the painting. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. Condition: Good. -
Clifford Ellis (1907-1985) Broad Chalke, Wiltshire
20x33cm Carbon pencil Provenance: the family of the artist, by descent. Born in Bognor in Sussex and trained at St Martin’s School of Art and Regent Street Polytechnic, Ellis was a graphic artist and illustrator who is best known for the posters he produced for London Transport during the 1930s. He generally collaborated with his wife Rosemary – whom he married in 1931 – on their posters. The General Post Office, Shell, and The Empire Marketing Board were also clients for their posters. They signed their posters C&RE, their initials being in alphabetical order and they are readily recognisable by their ebullient use of colour and form. Employed during the war as a camoufleur, along with so many other artists, Clifford was also an official war artist, serving with the Grenadier Guards. Rosemary, meanwhile, was an artist for the Recording Britain project. Following the war they trained art teachers at Bath Academy of Art. They also designed a series of nearly one hundred book jackets for Collins New Naturalist series, published between 1945 and 1982 and were always fascinated by animals and natural history, as with this sketch. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. Condition: Generally very good. -
John Piper C.H. (British 1903-1992) Nursery Frieze II
500 x 1250 mm Lithograph 1936 One of Piper's many seascapes, Frieze II is an exercise in abstract capriccio. Piper draws together the muted grey, pink, and blue of the lithograph's fragmented background with foreground details in black, white, and bright red, picking out particular moments of the frieze for the viewer. The lighthouse has no keeper; the beach and the pier are empty; the train has neither passengers nor driver. The church at the top of the rocky hill is a brilliant cubist borrowing, showing both the West end and the North side simultaneously - and it has no congregation. The only human figures present in the frieze are those collected around the bonfire, watching the flames and the show of fireworks. The scene is at once devoid of people and intensely human. Piper was just 24 when he made Frieze II. If you are interested, please email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. Condition: Generally very good, backed to linen with small - and largely not visible - areas of restoration. -
Eric Gill (1882-1940) Canterbury Tales Border - Two nudes i
Woodblock Print Published Hague & Gill 1934 23x21cm Condition: very good Click here for biographical details and other prints by Gill. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Eric Gill (1882-1940) The Deposition from the Cross
Woodblock Print Published Hague & Gill 1934 23x21cm Christ's body is taken down from the Cross, Mary assists by holding the ropes, and two men - Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus climb the ladder - one of the instruments of the passion. Click here for biographical details and other prints by Gill. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Angela Stones (1914-1995) Chelsea Old Church
Watercolour 31x41 cm Stones was a member of an artistic dynasty. Her mother Dorothy Bradshaw (1893-1983) studied under Jack Merriott - the artist famous for his British Rail posters, and her son, Christopher Assheton-Stones (1947-1999) was probably the foremost pastel artist of his time. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Angela Stones (1914-1995) Holy Trinity Brompton Church
Watercolour 31x41 cm Signed 'Angela Stones' Stones was a member of an artistic dynasty. Her mother Dorothy Bradshaw (1893-1983) studied under Jack Merriott - the artist famous for his British Rail posters, and her son, Christopher Assheton-Stones (1947-1999) was probably the foremost pastel artist of his time. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Peter Collins ARCA (1923-2001) The Schoolroom
Pen, ink and whitening 19x27cm Provenance: The Artist's Studio A stongly-painted image, with a wonderful sense of the light available in a new, post-war classroom. The schoolboys wear short trousers and - together with schoolgirls - are engrossed in a task. Click here for other items by the artist and for biographical details. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Peter Collins ARCA (1923-2001) Adam Brunskill Book Jacket Design
for Collins publishers (no relation) Watercolour and collage 22x17cm Provenance: The Artist's Studio Signed lower right Peter Collins Typical Collins, with his bright colours and captivating scene, very reminiscent of his travel posters. Click here for other items by the artist and for biographical details. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Peter Collins ARCA (1923-2001) Colliery Mining Scene
Pen, ink 20x35cm Provenance: The Artist's Studio The use of pen ank ink creates a powerful image, emphasising the stark nature of the colliery. Yet the scene is softened by the presence of figures, dwarfed against the mighty machinery. The strong vertical lines on the timber-clad buildings emphasise the vertical lines of the pit machinery, and suggest the depths of the earth to which the mine reaches; yet at the same time the horizontal nature of the drawing provides a contrast. Click here for other items by the artist and for biographical details. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Peter Collins ARCA (1923-2001) School Children in a Cloakroom
Pen, ink and whitening 15x24cm Provenance: The Artist's Studio A stongly-painted image, ensuite with Collins' schoolroom scene that we have listed with a wonderful sense of the light available in a new, post-war school. The schoolboy wears short trousers and - together with schoolgirls - is engaged in the task of time immemorial of waiting in the cloakroom. Shoes are stacked under the benches and coats hang from the hooks. Click here for other items by the artist and for biographical details. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Peter Collins ARCA (1923-2001) Mid Century Modern Lounge Interior
Pen, ink and watercolour 10.5x20.5cm Signed Peter Collins lower right Provenance: The Artist's Studio A stongly-painted image, with a wonderful sense of the light and brightness of a modernist interior. Whether the scene on the back wall is intended to be an extraordinary wallpaper, or whether the view to the garden, we do not know. But the viewer is encouraged to take a seat in an interior that at the time will have felt modern yet comfortable. Click here for other items by the artist and for biographical details. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Peter Collins ARCA (1923-2001) St Mary le Strand Church
Watercolour 17 x 21 cm Signed lower right. Provenance: The artist's studio. Typical Collins, with his bright colours and captivating scene, reminiscent of his travel posters, here a passerby in red walks purposely towards the foreground. Click here for other items by the artist and for biographical details. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Peter Collins ARCA (1923-2001) Design for BEA Holiday Brochure 1966 BEA Panorama Holidays
Mixed media on paper 30x21cm Provenance: The Artist's Studio As a graphic designer, Collins produced many brochures such as these. With his fondness for life drawing, he was perhaps a natural choice for the bikini-clad inhabitants of the pages of a holiday brochure. Click here for other items by the artist and for biographical details. If you are interested 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. -
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. -
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. -
Edward Bawden (1903-1989)
White Collar Worker Cat
Pen and ink 27 x 23 cm Signed and inscribed lower right. Bawden developed a love of cats at a young age, copying Louis Wain's cat pictures. In his later years, his drawings of cats became yet more frequent; his cat Emma featured in much of his work. In an interview with House and Garden in 1987 he said: "No cat will suffer being lifted up and dropped into an empty space intended for her to occupy; that procedure led inevitably to Emma, tail up, walking away at once, so I had to wait patiently until Emma had enjoyed a good meal of Coley and was ready to choose her daily sleeping place, wherever it might be. I would then spring into action." Doubtless he found it easier to draw an imaginary cat, such as this one. For other cats - and other works - by Bawden, please click here. If you are interested, please email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Edward Bawden (1903-1989)
House Proud Mum Cat
Pen and ink 38 x 27 cm Signed and inscribed lower right. Bawden developed a love of cats at a young age, copying Louis Wain's cat pictures. In his later years, his drawings of cats became yet more frequent; his cat Emma featured in much of his work. In an interview with House and Garden in 1987 he said: "No cat will suffer being lifted up and dropped into an empty space intended for her to occupy; that procedure led inevitably to Emma, tail up, walking away at once, so I had to wait patiently until Emma had enjoyed a good meal of Coley and was ready to choose her daily sleeping place, wherever it might be. I would then spring into action." Doubtless he found it easier to draw an imaginary cat, such as this one. For other cats - and other works - by Bawden, please click here. If you are interested, please email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Edward Bawden (1903-1989)
Hot Cat
Pen and ink 38 x 27 cm Signed and inscribed lower right. Bawden developed a love of cats at a young age, copying Louis Wain's cat pictures. In his later years, his drawings of cats became yet more frequent; his cat Emma featured in much of his work. In an interview with House and Garden in 1987 he said: "No cat will suffer being lifted up and dropped into an empty space intended for her to occupy; that procedure led inevitably to Emma, tail up, walking away at once, so I had to wait patiently until Emma had enjoyed a good meal of Coley and was ready to choose her daily sleeping place, wherever it might be. I would then spring into action." Doubtless he found it easier to draw an imaginary cat, such as this one. For other cats - and other works - by Bawden, please click here. If you are interested, please email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056.
