SIR FRANK BRANGWYN AND THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE (BRITAIN).
Item
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Title
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SIR FRANK BRANGWYN AND THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE (BRITAIN).
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Identifier
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AAI8515640
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identifier
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8515640
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Creator
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LAMB, ROBERT JOHN.
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Contributor
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William H. Gerdts
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Date
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1985
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Fine Arts | Biography
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Abstract
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The painter and designer Sir Frank Brangwyn (1867-1956) was one of the most famous British artists of his time. His career spanned over sixty years but his most active period was during the Edwardian age. He was then the foremost British exponent of an internationally popular mural painting revival. He was also a major link between British art and such new artistic movements as art nouveau, both in Europe and America. He dealt with the grand themes of Edwardian public discourse: nature, progress, labour, commerce, war and empire. His treatment of them was often seen to embody British national virtues that were threatened in a changing world. This identification of Brangwyn with the spirit of the nation is the core of the dissertation. Though much of his work does not appeal to contemporary taste and is riddled with a rich mix of contradictory traits, it is these that make him typical, that make him of major importance for the study of Edwardian art. Brangwyn was typically eclectic, intellectually and stylistically. He absorbed influences from the gothic revival, the arts and crafts movement, the plein air realist tradition, impressionism, seascape painting, orientalist painting and the classical revival of the 1890's. His synthesis of them well suited the spirit of the Edwardian age but, after World War I and changed political and economic fortunes, their contradictions became more obvious and Brangwyn gradually fell from critical favour.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Art History
