Monday, April 30, 2012

Master Copy #6

Edward Hopper after Lord Leighton

In the 1882 Academy appeared two of the most popular of Sir Frederic's pictures, Wedded and Day Dreams.  …Still more famous is Wedded,—"one of the happiest of Sir Frederic's designs," said a critic at the time, "and as a composition of lines, difficult, subtle, and original, may be called one of the most remarkable productions of this decade."

Edward Hopper (1882-1967)  Couple (Study After a Painting) Ink and graphite on paper, 11 1/4" x 6 1/2" Provenance: The artist (until 1967) to his widow, Jo Hopper (until 1968); Estate of Jo Hopper; Private Collection, New York

Lord Frederic Leighton (1830–1896) Wedded, 1882, oil on canvas, 145.4 x 81.3cm

When standing with me before Leighton's picture "Wedded" in the studio Robert Browning exclaimed, "I find a poetry in that man's work I can find in no other." ~ Mrs. Russell Barrington (The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton)



Saturday, April 28, 2012

Inspired By(?) #5

or: Pyle inspired by de Neuville?

The Attack upon the Chew House, 1898 - Howard Pyle 1912-92 
Two days after Howard Pyle died, muralist Edwin Howland Blashfield eulogized him in a letter to their mutual friend, architect Cass Gilbert: 

Dear Mr Gilbert

I was shocked to hear of Howard Pyle’s death and very very sorry too for I think he had before him years of work and I believe that his European trip would have put even more of interest into his beautiful talent. His canvas in the State Capitol of Minnesota is the finest battle-piece I’ve ever seen except that of the Bourget by De Neuville (which latter depends largely on its episodical quality).

His death is a very great loss 

Yours

Edwin H Blashfield

I wish I had known him better
[The letter comes from the Cass Gilbert Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.]


Le Bourget, 30 octobre 1870, 1873 - Alphonse Marie de Neuville (1835-1885)

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Edmund J. Sullivan

from a 1950 American Artist magazine: 'Illustration Q & A' with Robert Fawcett

Q: "I have often wondered if your work at the Slade School of London and under Edmund Sullivan was of value to you as an illustrator."

A: Fawcett replied, "At Slade, academic and searching drawing was so insisted upon that draftsmanship became second nature. I did nothing but draw from the model eight hours a day for two years. This experience created a backlog to which I constantly refer even now. I may disagree with some of the preceps laid down, but I will never regret the Spartan grind we went through then." 



E. J. Sullivan [Edmund J. Sullivan, Edmund Joseph Sullivan] (1869-1933)
Illustrator, teacher, author; The Art of Illustration, 1921 and LINE: An Art Study, 1922



"A drawing rightly begun starts with the points and
lines of the most vital significance; so that no matter
how little time may be given to it, or what interruption
may prevent its carrying to the intended conclusion,
nothing can rob it of this vitality, arising from the artist's
energy of mind as well as from the character of the object.
Something of value is put there from the very start;
whereas if the attack is indirect, and the work be interrupted
from any cause whatever, there may be nothing
left behind but the pathetic evidence of a vague frustrated
intention to draw something. Failure, in short." ~ Edmund J. Sullivan










Grateful Dead poster featuring appropriated art

Monday, April 16, 2012

R.F. • Hiram Walker ('51 ~ '53)

Robert FAWCETT (1903-1967)

Hiram Walker's Cordials
ads 1951 ~ 1953

Three rerun approximately one year after they initially saw print.

1951




1952





1953


Sunday, April 8, 2012

Master Copy #5


Robert Fawcett after The Pan Painter



The study of Greek vase paintings is obligatory for the student whose chief interest is line. ~ Robert Fawcett




Artemis shooting an arrow at Aktaion who has fallen to the ground attacked by his hunting dogs. Aktaion was a hunter, and the goddess of the hunt killed him by turning him into a stag, so that his own dogs tore him to pieces. This elegant rendering of the myth, with Artemis drawing her bow for the coup de grace, and the helpless hero sinking beneath the onslaught of the hounds, is considered one of the greatest of all Athenian vase paintings.


Thursday, April 5, 2012

Robert Fawcett • Good Housekeeping

Robert FAWCETT (1903-1967)

Please excuse the scan quality, they are presented here for identification in the interest of completeness.

Good Housekeeping : 1939~1943
Good Housekeeping - July 1939
Encounter at Sunrise / I.A.R. Wylie / Robert Fawcett

Good Housekeeping - January 1940
Dutch Victoria / Jerry Allen / Robert Fawcett

Good Housekeeping - March 1940
Espionage--Life of Peril / Richard Wilmer Rowan / Robert Fawcett

Good Housekeeping - August 1940
Family Motor Trip / Katharine Brush / Robert Fawcett

Good Housekeeping - September 1940
Our Own Worst Enemy / William Frederick Bigelow / Robert Fawcett

Good Housekeeping - April 1941
Some of my Favorite Villains / William Lyon Phelps / Robert Fawcett

Good Housekeeping - July 1941
Your Son Graduates / Katharine Brush / Robert Fawcett

Good Housekeeping - August 1941
Six of the Meanest Women in Fiction / Philippe de Croisset / Robert Fawcett

Good Housekeeping - April 1942
"I Burn, I Freeze, But I Cannot Be Lukwarm" / George Marek / Robert Fawcett

Good Housekeeping - July 1942
The Day We Celebrated / Frank Sullivan / Robert Fawcett

Good Housekeeping - September 1942
Footnotes Only / Katharine Brush / Robert Fawcett

Good Housekeeping - January 1943
We Have Got Ourselves a Horse / Alberta Williams / Robert Fawcett

Fawcett • Fellows


"(thanks) to Stephen Bone, Richard Murry, and James Fitton, R.A., of London, former fellow students, whose suggestions have been invaluable." ~ Rober Fawcett, from On the art of Drawing (Acknowledgements)


Richard Arthur Crossthwaite Murry, N.E.A.C. (1902-1984)


Richard Murry was a painter, etcher and illustrator.

He attended the Central School of Art where he had won a London County Council scholarship in 1922.

In 1925 he won a further scholarship to the Slade School of Art.

Murry was secretary at the NEAC for 3 years and then, in 1928 became assistant Art Master at the Architectural Association. He left the Architectural Association in 1930 to become a teacher at Surbiton Grammar School where he remained for 5 years.

In 1935 he became Librarian at the Architectural Association, retiring in 1967. 

During the war he was in the Royal Marines and the Royal Naval Film Unit.

He showed at the Gampil and Leger Galleries the NEAC, RBA and ROI.





Stephen Bone (1904-1958)


Born in Chiswick in 1904, as a son of Muirhead Bone, a Scottish craftsman and etcher.



English and Scottish landscape painter, war artist, author, critic and broadcaster educated at Bedales School and the Slade Art School. 
Winner of the gold prize for wood engraving at the Paris Decorative Arts Exhibition 1926, member of The New English Art Club, art critic for The Manchester Guardian, broadcaster in the 'Brains Trust' radio series and in the 'Critics' on television. 



Exhibited (generally small landscape panels) at the NEAC, the Royal Academy and at several one man shows and shared exhibitions. He was appointed an official naval war artist in 1944. His paintings and drawings of submarines and the Normandy Landings are in The Imperial War Museum. 
A portrait of Hugh Walpole by Stephen Bone is at the National Portrait gallery; his paintings are also in the Tate collection and in other UK public galleries. 



He wrote 'Albion an Artists Britain', 'The Shell Guide to the West Coast of Scotland', 'British Weather', 'The Landscapes of Britain' and three children's books (' The Little Boy and His House' , ' The Little Boy and His Boat' and 'The Silly Snail'). He illustrated other books with woodcuts. 



Stephen Bone was married to Mary Adshead, also an English painter (1904-1995).