Frank Brangwyn was born in Bruges to Welsh parents who were seeking a better life on the Continent, Frank spent the first ten years of his life in Belgium. His early informal training came from his Welsh architect father, and his only formal training was as a draughtsman to William Morris.
As well as paintings and drawings, he produced designs for stained glass, furniture, ceramics, art glass tableware, book illustrations, buildings, and interiors. He was an exceptional printmaker, excelling in etchings, lithographs, and woodcutting.
Brangwyn was made an Official War artist in World War I, gaining repute through his posters (please see my interesting war poster by him that I have for sale in my online shop). He was appointed a Member of the Royal Academy in 1919 and was later given a knighthood in 1941. He was given a major retrospective exhibition at the Royal Academy, the first time this honour had been accorded to a living artist.
This is an early dark print printed from a large zinc etching plate - and made in Belgium by Brangwyn in 1906. It comes from an edition of 100 impressions.
It was printed in his lifetime and has a light pencil signature by the artist - in the margin, bottom right. It shows a grain barge on a busy canal that has been drawn up against a mechanical corn elevator at the dockside, The composition features a selection of bargemen added to give a sense of scale and feeling of bustling activity to the scene, as photographed.
It is entitled Barques a Bruges and it was etched on the spot by Brangwyn. It is his 60th lifetime etching - he did some 330 etched works. The print was etched and deeply bittern onto a zinc plate and it has been wiped to give rather dark plate tones to the printed sheet.
Dimensions: 56.5 x 60 cm. The image size is 35 x 37.5 cm
It is a beautiful crisp impression with no condition issues - and ready for you to just hang on your wall. It has been printed in black ink on light-coloured paper - rather than brown paper with brown ink.
The print comes with a good substantial black wooden frame and is glazed, as photographed. It will be sent to you in the UK with Parcelforce24. This will be charged at £20 and applied to your order at the checkout.