Frank Brangwyn. Decorated Screen. oil on 3 canvases

It would appear that Brangwyn was commissioned to paint two large decorative panels for the American businessman Robert McQueen Grant of the Pennsylvanian firm Grant Bryn & Mays.  In later life Brangwyn signed his works with a monogram or left them unsigned, but Grant obviously requested the unusual dedication.  Having received the large canvases Grant took the unusual step of cutting them into three pieces and having them mounted into a three part folding screen – the brush strokes across the works are continuous and none of the known studies imply that the canvas was to be painted in sections.

The seated female figure lower left appears on both canvasses.  The Eastern Market canvas bears similarities to the Odhams Press lunette, also dated 1936 and some of the figures recall those in the British Empire murals, 1925-1932 whilst the mother and baby are taken from a photograph of Mrs Cox and Barry (Mrs Cox was a Ditchling resident who helped with housework at The Jointure, Brangwyn's house).  The figure with basket on the right and the two standing female figures are also taken from photographs.  The men with barrels on the left are reminiscent of an early grisaille oil, Smugglers.  The central grouping of Children with Flowers is taken from a photograph.

The finished item of furniture is highly unusual in that it incorporates two large Brangwyn oils and no other Brangwyn screen is known to exist.

We are grateful to Dr Elizabeth Horner for her assistance in cataloguing this picture which will be included in her forthcoming catalogue raisonné.