Sir Frank Brangwyn, 1867-1956

Brangwyn loved what he called the 'soft air' of Venice and between 1895 and 1931 produced over 150 images of the city in a variety of media - woodcuts, etchings, drawings, watercolours and oils, as well as designing the British Room at the Venice Biennale in 1905 and 1907 and producing illustrations for John Lane's Pageant of Venice published in 1922. Brangwyn's early Venetian works were either drawn in situ or from sketches whilst later works relied on old sketchbooks, photographs, memory and a healthy imagination becoming generic images of Venice. This particular oil depicts either fishermen's quarters or a squero, Venetian boatyard, and depicts similar architecture and activities to those shown in the etching 'Boatbuilders, Venice' (Gaunt 112) dated 1907; 'Venice: Boat Building' (Bunt 685) also dated 1907; and 'Venice, Boatyard' (Galloway 739) dated 1922.
We are grateful to Libby Horner for her assistance with the cataloguing of this lot.