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Frank Brangwyn:
Steam Train (Nocturn), circa 1910
_folio (ref: 9567)

Signed in pencil

Lithograph

Tags: Frank Brangwyn lithograph industrial men Metropolitan night scenes and sleep painted en plein air transport work

Provenance: Given by the artist to Count Albert de Belleroche; William Belleroche; private collection

‘Mr Brangwyn’s splendid design must be hailed as a sign that “the poor man’s art gallery” is not entirely doomed, and that we may experience a revival in the art of the hoarding.’P G Konody, ‘The Decorative Art of Frank Brangwyn’, Magazine of Art,July 1903, discussing Brangwyn’s poster for the Orient-Pacific Line.

Brangwyn  produced  about  280  lithographs  between 1890  and  1940 (including war posters and commercial work).  Many lithographs were for special editions of magazines (Neolith, The Studio); books (Verhaeren’s, Les  Campagnes  Hallucinees)  and  art  folios. Although  the  works  generally  depicted  Brangwyn’s  muscular  men  in fields and  factories, some early lithographs are unusually soft and gentle in  character,  with  Art  Nouveau  figures.  Brangwyn  used  lithographs  to quite different effect in his war work and commercial posters and also in the  fourteen Stations  of the  Cross.  Instead of using  the  more traditional  limestone for the Stations  o f the  Cross,  Brangwyn  used  zinc  plates,  and  commissioned James  Richardson  of Warminster  to  print  some  copies  on  to  sycamore blocks in order to avoid the occurrence of foxing from damp church walls.Brangwyn  was  one  of a  small  but  dedicated  number  of artists  who prepared his own stones and drew directly on the stone rather than using transfer paper, which would be applied to a stone by an assistant.  Unlike other practitioners, Brangwyn used coarse  rather than  smooth surfaced stone,  mixed  lithographic  chalk,and  brush  and  used  snakestone  to  add highlights,  thereby gaining a variety  of tone. Although  Brangwyn could print his own proofs, most of his lithographs were printed byTRWay  and the Gouldings in Britain and probably by Clot in France, whilst The Avenue Press,  London, printed the majority of his war and  commercial posters.Although  Brangwyn  produced  over  80  poster  designs  during World War I, 61  of which were printed, he was not, surprisingly, an official war artist. The compositions and details of the  posters were based on memories  of  the  Messina  earthquake  (see P84),  news  agency  photographs and  the  daily  illustrations  of destruction  which  appeared  in The  Times, together with loans of German  and  British uniforms and guns from  the Imperial War Museum and the  United States Naval Authorities.A  large proportion of Brangwyn’s work during this period was given free of charge to charitable groups, for example the Red Cross, National Institute  for  the  Blind  (St  Dunstan’s  Hostel  for  Blinded  Soldiers  and Sailors),  Belgian  and  Allied  Aid  League  and  probably  Orphelinat  des Armees, an American charity in aid of a  French Army  Orphanage.Other clients included the National War Savings Committee, Frank Pick of  UERCL  (Underground  Electric  Railways  Company  of  London),  the United  States  Navy and  various companies  who desired  Rolls of Honour. Newspapers  were  also  keen  to  prove  their  patriotism  and  Brangwyn designed six recruiting posters for the Daily  Chronicle (one of which car­ried  the  comical  notation  that  ‘Daily  Chronicle  readers  are  covered against  the  risks  of  bombardment  by  zeppelin  or  aeroplane.  The Canadian War  Memorials  Fund  commissioned  six  lithographs  showing their troops in France and Belgium, and Brangwyn was involved with the Ministry of Information’s Britain's  Efforts and Ideals of War, producing one design  for  Ideals  (The  Freedom  of  the  Seas)  and a series of six  for  Efforts, entitled Making Sailors. In addition to the war posters Brangwyn produced over 40 posters for commercial enterprises between.The artist expressed the desire  to  ‘see  more  Art  used  in  advertising,  because  advertising  is  a tremendous force which needs handling with much more Art and com­mon sense than it is getting at present’ ,7+The posters are quite different from the war production, more stylised,  less emotive, bolder in outline and  frequently combine image and lettering.Clients included London & North East Railway, London Underground, E Pollard & Co., Royal Institute of British Architects, Stephenson’s Floor Polish, The  Studio magazine, Zambrene rubberless coats and the  Orient­ Pacific  Line  (see  p 137).  Brangwyn’s  humanitarian  concerns  led  him additionally  to  design  posters  for the Abolition  of Capital  Punishment, St Bartholomew’s Hospital (donated without charge), French Benevolent Society,  and  General  Relief  Fund  for  Women  and  Children  in  Spain.

This lithograph has been used for the cover of The Thirty Nine Steps by John Buchan