Frank Brangwyn (1857-1956), a rare hand-woven carpet/wall hanging

Frank Brangwyn (1857-1956), a rare hand-woven carpet/wall hanging
Vine pattern, circa 1896-97, worked with a trellis of stylised fruiting vines, flowers and foliage in tones of pink, red, blue, yellow and lavender.
217cm x 151cm

Purchased by the vendor from Liberty & Co., 1998.

An identical carpet to the present lot was commissioned by Bing for his Galerie L'Art Nouveau, Paris. Although the carpet was admired in Europe, Brangwyn himself was not entirely happy with the design because he pointed out that 'one does not tread on grapes and trellis work'. Shaw-Sparrow stated that Brangwyn intended the work to be a wall hanging rather than a carpet. The plant motifs may have grown out of the murals Brangwyn painted for Bing, whilst the trellis may hark back to the use of this form by Morris.

Becker in Origins of L'Art Nouveau suggests that the carpet was inspired by Morris' wallpapers, for example 'Vine' of 1874, and was a forerunner of carpet designs by Gustave Serrurier-Bovy or Georges Lemmen. Entries in a sketchbook dated 1895-98 indicate that Brangwyn produced a number of carpet designs for Bing during this period:

“sent to S Bing...
2 designs for carpets
1 large design for carpet
one large carpet £100.0.0
1 small carpet 20.0.0” [1]

In March 1897 Gabriel Mourey noted that ‘M. Bing has given the following commissions in connection with the ‘Art Nouveau’: M. Brangwyn, two cartoons for carpets.’[2] The Vine carpet (T2817/806), designed 1896-7 was given pride of place in the centre of the principal hall, and, taking into account the date and jute warps, was, according to Michael Haslam, probably woven by J Ginskey of Maffersdorf, Bohemia.[3] As with all Brangwyn’s future carpets and rugs, it has a plain border - in this case a cream colour containing a few apparently haphazard leaf forms as if they had blown into the border, reminiscent of the leaves in his oil painting The Road, 1891 (0363/732). An even more interesting comparison can be made with leaves on the border of a hand-woven Hammersmith rug designed by Morris 1879-82, which Gere notes shows Morris’ familiarity with Chinese designs, whilst commenting that this is unusual in his oeuvre.[4] The enclosed asymmetrical design placed around a central medallion is two-dimensional, with abstract square-shaped vine leaves and grape clusters twining around a trellis grid which produces a stabilising effect on the otherwise rampant growth. The colours, not strident but confidently muted, are reminiscent of a Persian carpet and have not faded — petrol blue, red, brown, rust, with tinges of pink and yellow in the grapes. The plant motifs probably developed from the stencil designs for the exterior, whilst the trellis may hark back to the frequent use of this form by Morris.[5] Although the carpet was admired in Europe, Brangwyn himself was not entirely happy with the design, pointing out that ‘one does not tread on grapes and trellis work’.[6]

Using this carpet to illustrate his point, the German architect Hermann Muthesius described Brangwyn as:

‘. . . the only artist who has designed really modern carpets in the present day continental sense. His patterns have a mysterious ambiguity which is extremely attractive, but the really excellent thing about his carpets is the colour, which is fresh without being startling, lush without becoming brutal’.[7]

Muthesius discerned something new in Brangwyn’s work; something beyond the plant and floral ornament of Morris, Voysey, Crane, Lewis F Day and George Walton whose designs were based on the curving, realistic lines of Persian carpets whereas Brangwyn’s owed more to the tradition of the Caucuses, Turkey and Central Asia with geometrical, conventionalised floral patterns and ‘designs of flowers and vines in stiff straight lines’.[8] One might question how a twenty-nine year old artist could reach this pinnacle of achievement without extensive training, and then recall that he spent the first seven years of his life in Bruges, surrounded by the tapestry weavers’ towns of Arras (which gave its name to the craft), Tournai, Valenciennes, Lille, and Douai. William Morris noted that ‘in the last years of the fourteenth century there is much mention made of the craft, and the names of two designers are mentioned, John of Bruges and Nicolas Battailles’.[9] Perhaps Morris, who had begun his tapestry weaving experiments in 1879 and started weaving the hand-knotted Hammersmith rugs the following year, discussed the merits of Flemish tapestry with his young apprentice in 1882 or introduced him to the glories of Persian carpets. The early training with Morris certainly gave Brangwyn an eye for form, design and colour, which, combined with a natural capacity for draughtsmanship, enabled him to design confidently and instinctively. Morris considered that, to attain the ‘satisfying mystery, which is an essential in all patterned goods’, the mystery of which Muthesius spoke, designers should ‘mask the construction of [the] pattern enough to prevent people from counting the repeats [and] to be careful to cover the ground equably’.[10] It is noteworthy that Brangwyn, probably due to his training with Morris, was prepared to allocate time to transferring his designs in colour on ‘point paper’.[11]

Literature:
H. Furst, The Decorative Art of Frank Brangwyn, The Bodley Head London 1924 p224
Tilbrook, Truth, Beauty and Design, London 1986 p74 No174
Dominique Marechal, Frank Brangwyn: Collection Catalogue, Bruges General Bank & Stedelijke Musea 1987 p296
Magazine of Art, May 1903, p.394, Konody, ‘The Decorative Designs of Mr Frank Brangwyn'
Shaw-Sparrow, Frank Brangwyn and his Work, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co Ltd London 1915 p212-213 Weisberg
Becker, Posseme, The Origins of L'Art Nouveau, Van Gogh Museum Amsyerdam 2005 p119, 160
Art et Decoration, July 1899 , p.30 H Fierens-Geveart, 'Franck Brangwyn'
Marechal Dominique, Frank Brangwyn and the Gallery Art Nouveau, in Bulletin of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Belgium, 2010, No 1, pp.176-193

Illustrations:
H Furst, The Decorative Art of Frank Brangwyn. The Bodley Head London 1924 facing p224
Art et Decoration, p.30 H Fierens-Geveart, ‘Frank Brangwyn', July 1899
Architectural Record, 1902
Tilbrook, Truth, Beauty and Design, London 1986 p.74 No. 174
Dominique Marechal, Frank Brangwyn: Collection Catalogue, Bruges General Bank & Stedelijke Musea 1987 p.93, 296
Magazine of Art, May 1903, p.395, Konody, ‘The Decorative Designs of Mr Frank Brangwyn'
Hermann Muthesius, The English House, Rizzoli International Publications Inc New York 1904 1979 p.180
Connoisseur, December 1969, Vol 172 p.294, Weisberg, ‘Bing's Salons of Art Nouveau', showing carpet in interior of shop
Malcolm Haslam, Arts and Crafts Carpets, David Black Oriental Carpets London 1991 pp.172-173
The Old Matsukata Collection, Kobe, Japan 1989 p.81
Weisberg Gabriel P, Art Nouveau Bing: Paris Style 1900, Harry N Abrams New York 1986 p.80
Marechal Dominique, Frank Brangwyn and the Gallery Art Nouveau, in Bulletin of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Belgium, 2010, No 1, p.184
The Origins of Art Nouveau, 2005, p.152
Dekorative Kunst, 1898, No 9 (British dining room at Bing’s)
Horner and Naylor (Eds), Frank Brangwyn 1867-1956, pp.7, 129
G Lemmen, Modeme teppiche, Dekorative Kunst, Oct 1897, in colour facing p.100

References:

[1] Sketchbook, private collection

[2] Gabriel Mourey, ‘The Decorative Art Movement in Paris’, The Studio, March 1897, p.124

[3] Ginskey produced hand-knotted carpets cheaper than the Donegals. Joseph Hoffman, Hans Christiansen, Alphonse Mucha and Voysey all designed for Ginskey and he may have also manufactured the Mackintosh rugs for Hill House.

[4] Since Brangwyn began working for Morris in 1882 he may have seen this particular rug. It is illustrated in Architect-Designers Pugin to Mackintosh, p.30, catalogue no.24. The rug measured 203.2x134.0cm (80x50 3/4in).

[5] Brangwyn frequently used the trellis/foliage motif, for example stained glass panels designed for Tiffany in 1899 (G2599/624 and G2600/628), in page layouts for Fitzgerald's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, 1910 (B1284/342), Phillpott's The Gir and the Faun, 1916 (B1280/340), and a bookplate for James Grun, 1920 (X608/826). The sketchbooks in the RA contain many studies of trellis, vines and grapes.

[6] Furst, op cit, p.224

[7] Muthesius, The English House, New York, 1979 (1904), p.179

(8] Jacobsen, Oriental Rugs. A Complete Guide, Tokyo, 1962, p.23

[9] Morris May (Ed), ‘Textile Fabrics’, The Collected Works of William Morris, Vol XXIl, London, 1914, p285

[10] Morris May (Ed),'Some Hints on Pattern Designing’, The Collected Works of William Morris, op cit, p.191

[11] Konody, The Decorative Design of Mr Frank Brangwyn op cit, p.394

Condition Report

Good overall, retaining full pile and good colour. No tears, repairs or restorations.

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