Frank Brangwyn 1867-1956

Bud Plant has the best material on Frank Brangwyn, one of Britain's most renown painters, etchers and illustrators. Suffice to say he was much admired and has been duly imitated by generations of marine painters. The following are illustrations from a lead article entitled, "The Spanish Galleon and Pieces of Eight," by John C. Fitzpatrick in Scribner's Monthly Magazine for November 1907. Click on images to enlarge.

The caption reads, "The Immortal Fight of the Little 'Revenge'."

"The first galleons sailed from Cadiz in January of each year."

Frank Brangwyn in his studio, from Scribner's Monthly Magazine for January 1904. Not the size of the painting behind him. The article is full of gushing praise by the noted author and critic, M.H. Spielmann, who also compliments G.F. Watts as an artist of real greatness, and writes of Alfred Gilbert as "a sculptor such as is produced but once in a century."

"Queen Elizabeth goind aboard the 'Golden Hind'." From Scribner's Monthly Magazine for January 1904.

"The Departure of Lancaster for the East Indies," Scribner's Monthly Magazine for January 1904.

"Shipbuilding," from a charcoal drawing, Scribner's Monthly Magazine for January 1904.

The drawing of this piece is incredibly competent and is included to show how thorough Brangwyn was about his work. His talents were many though he had little, if any, formal art training.

He was born of Welsh parents living in Bruges, Belgium, where his father was a church decorator. The formidable William Morris engaged the young Brangwyn immediately as an examiner, rather than as a student, at the South Kensington Museum of London.

Young Frank decided to escape London and shipped aboard a merchant ship which plied the Mediterranean and the coast of South Africa. He compiled a portfolio of sketches during calls at exotic ports along the route.

There isn't enough space here to chronicle Brangwyn's accomplishments of his later years. Renowned as painter, etcher, decorative artist, he also designed furniture and textiles as well as jewelry.

This is entitled "The Bathers," and it appeared in Scribner's Monthly Magazine for September 1909. It's not one of Brangwyn's best in my opinion but I'm including it to show how sappy some of the images in the popular press had become. The style was copied by other illustrators, such as the famous Saturday Evening Post cover artist, J.C. Leyendecker.

Comments

[Paul Giambarba]

Thanks, Bob. Coming from Bob Staake that's quite a compliment! Restraint is what it's all about. Less is indeed more. Well, most of the time. Good to hear from you and all the best, Paul

[Bob Staake]

Terrific blog, Paul.
You know, the thing that I find so inspiring about the great book illustrators of the early 20th Century is how they exercised such restraint in their designs and compositions. On the surface, the work of Leyendecker, Wyeth and Pyle APPEAR clincially "heroic", but on close scrutiny, their play between characters, blocked staging and structured scenes evoke significant nuance and subtlety. They also understood that within the venue of a classic storybook that they did NOT resign themselves to create a singular, quintesentially heoric image -- but could use each illustration (as a series) to create their own narrative -- regardless of whether recurring characters, environments or visual elements were common in each. When you study their work carefully, you begin to appreciate their sense of restraint -- one that enabled their reader to become the causal and integral part of the literary experience.
Again, bravo on this fine blog -- I'll definitely be back!