Muirhead Bone: St. Mary Le Strand, Circa. 1902 (Pastel and charcoal, signed 290 x 170 mm)

Muirhead Bone (1876 - 1953)

About this Item

Muirhead Bone (1876 -1953): ST. MARY LE STRAND, CIRCA.1902. Pastel and charcoal, signed 290 x 170 mm. A beautifully atmospheric record of St. Mary Le Strand at night with St. Clement Danes in the distance, a characteristic Bone portrayal. The foreground activity depicts the redevelopment which took place in the early years of the last century, when the graveyard was flattened, and the graves moved out of London in order to widen the Strand. Excellent condition. (Framed). 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 # 1443ABD

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Muirhead Bone: St. Mary Le Strand, Circa. 1902 (Pastel and charcoal, signed 290 x 170 mm)
• Edition: Exceptional Pastel And Charcoal Drawing.
• Condition: Fine
• Signed: Signed by the artist
• Seller catalogs:
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