Frank Brangwyn
(1867 - 1956)
Jesus Falls for the Second Time
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Frank Brangwyn (1867 - 1956)
Unique trial lithographic proof with overprinting and heightened colour
Size:
Height – 101.5cm
Width – 152.2cm
Literature: Brangwyn at WAR !, Libby Horner, Horner and Goldmark 2014, W1930, page 116-117
This poster is related to Put Strength in the Final Blow, W2340. The action is similar in this later version of W2340, with the British soldier bayonetting his adversary. However the ground is level and the German’s fall is not so vivid, although his facial expression is more terrified than in the previous poster. The proportions have also been altered, in that the graphic is in landscape rather than portrait, and the action is confined to the left-hand side.
The autumn War Bonds campaign started on 30 September 1915, shortly before the war ended, and Walton points out that the posters have identical production codes, so it would appear that this marginally milder version was hurriedly produced either to minimise offence or perhaps because it was sensed that hostilities were drawing to a close.
Preliminary study for W1930
Final version
W2340 Put Strength in the Final Blow
We are grateful to Dr. Libby Horner for assistance
Frank Brangwyn was born in Bruges, Belgium, the son of an English father and Welsh mother. The family returned to London in 1874, Brangwyn’s father gaining work as a designer of buildings, embroideries and furniture. Although Brangwyn appears to have had little formal education, whether academic or artistic, his earliest mentors were three of the most influential men in design at the turn of the century: Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo, William Morris and Siegfried Bing. Between 1884 and 1887 Brangwyn travelled to Kent, Cornwall and Devon, before venturing further with trips to Turkey in 1888, South Africa in 1891, Spain in 1892 and Morocco in 1893.
Brangwyn was an independent artist, an experimenter and innovator, capable of working on both large and small scale projects, ranging from murals, oil paintings, watercolours, etchings, woodcuts and lithographs to designs for architecture, interiors, stained glass, furniture, carpets, ceramics and jewellery, as well as book illustrations, bookplates and commercial posters. It is estimated that he produced over 12,000 works during his lifetime. Mural commissions included the Worshipful Company of Skinners, London (1902-09), St Aidan’s church, Leeds (1908-16), Manitoba Legislative Building, Winnipeg, Canada (1918-21), Christ’s Hospital, Horsham (1912-23), State Capitol, Jefferson City, USA (1915-25), the British Empire panels, Swansea (1925-32), and Rockefeller Center, New York (1930-34). Brangwyn married Lucy Ray in 1896 and took on the lease of Temple Lodge, Hammersmith, in 1900. In 1918 the artist purchased The Jointure, Ditchling, where he spent most of his time following his wife’s death in 1924. Elected RA in 1919, knighted in 1924, holder of countless artistic awards, Brangwyn was modest about his singular achievements, regarding art as an occupation and describing himself as a designer.
