British Post-Impressionism
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SOLDFrank Brangwyn (1867-1956):
Study of Dahlias, mid 1920s
Framed (ref: 17)
Signed with monogram
Oil on canvas board, 13 1/2 x 16 1/2 in. (34.3 x 42 cm.)
See all works by Frank Brangwyn oil panel flowers
Provenance: Fine Art Society, 1952; Mrs Barton Chadwynd; private collection, Montevideo
Literature: Galloway Vincent, The Oils and Murals of Sir Frank Brangwyn,
F Lewis, Leigh-on-Sea, 1962, p. 28, no. 159 Exhibited: Fine Art
Society, October 1952 (31)
This painting shows a giant dahlia, a flower of South American origin.
It is typical of the dense and richly coloured foliage that Brangwyn
used to great effect in the murals he painted for the House of Lords in
1926.
Brangwyn was a keen horticulturist: through his apprenticeship with
William Morris he developed a love of traditional English flora; through
his travels abroad he developed a love of the exotic. His garden at the
Jointure in Ditchling, Sussex, combined the two. As a painter, Brangwyn
responded to all forms of nature, making large numbers of spontaneous
sketches on scraps of paper in response to the environment around him.
This plein-air sketch is unusual for being in oil.
We are grateful to Dr Libby Horner for her assistance. The work is
number O2512 in her forthcoming catalogue raisonné. Six other still
lives with dahlias are recorded.
