Muirhead Bone: Marble Arch, 1915 (Original pencil drawing, signed, inscribed and dated 'Aug 18 1915 Marble Arch' 187 x 287 mm)

Muirhead Bone (1876 - 1953)

About this Item

Muirhead Bone (1876 -1953): MARBLE ARCH, 1915. Original pencil drawing, signed, inscribed and dated 'Aug 18 1915 Marble Arch' 187 x 287 mm. A fascinating visual record of life on a specific day in London during The Great War. Marble Arch is on the immediate left, whilst the artist observes both the demolition of the imposing building at the heart of the picture and the daily activity in the street below. This drawing is dated an exact year to the day before Bone painted the picture, 'Battle of the Somme', on 18 August 1916, as the newly appointed first War Artist, which is now in The British Museum. Excellent condition. (Framed). Provenance: Garton & Co, 1989. Exhibited: Crawford Centre For The Arts, University Of St. Andrews, 1986; Glasgow Art Gallery, 1987. SIR MUIRHEAD BONE 1876 -1953: Muirhead Bone was born in Partick, a suburb of Glasgow in 1876. As a young man he was apprenticed to a firm of architects and in the evenings attended classes at the Glasgow School of Art. Aware his vocation was art, and not architecture, he devoted his time almost exclusively to drawing. He continually sketched the streets, buildings and slums of Glasgow imbuing the urban decay with a dignity and sentiment he so admired in the work of the Dutch artists whose townscapes he had studied in the Glasgow Corporation Art Galleries. Bone moved to London in 1901, holding his first exhibition at the Carfax Gallery in 1902. His success both critically and financially was rapid. His status as an etcher in the early years of the last century placed him amongst the worlds most celebrated artists. It is not an exaggeration to say that his international reputation among collectors and the curators of the 'Great Print Rooms' of Europe and America was without parallel. He was appointed the first Official War Artist in World War I and was the doyen of War Artists in the Second World War. He was instrumental in the foundation of The Imperial War Museum, and became a Trustee of The Tate and The National Gallery. He was knighted for his services to art in 1937. Taste, fashion and the culture of the period have inevitably changed, but the essence of his inspiration and the 'curious hard beauty' of his work remains. 'Few drawings have been seen to equal his, since the time of Rembrandt, and in his studies of scaffold-covered buildings in the breaking or the making, he has followed an individual path and shown a feeling for the great harmonies of line which is beyond praise', Arthur M. Hind, Keeper of the Department of Prints, British Museum, 1933-1945. Seller Inventory # 1436ABD

Bibliographic Details

Title: Muirhead Bone: Marble Arch, 1915 (Original ...

Condition: Fine

Signed: Signed by the artist

Edition: Exceptional Pencil Drawing.