William Strang (artist)

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Self-portrait , 1895

William Strang (born February 13, 1859 in Dumbarton , Scotland, † April 12, 1921 in Bournemouth , England) was a Scottish painter and printmaker who also created book illustrations. He was a member of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers and the Royal Academy in London.

life and work

After a short apprenticeship with a shipbuilding company in the Scottish town of Clydesdale, William Strang studied art at the Slade School of Fine Art in London from 1876 to 1880 , his teacher was among others Alphonse Legros . After graduating, Strang was Legros' assistant in the printmaking class for a year. He then worked mainly as an eraser for the next 20 years . His subjects were landscapes in the tradition of Rembrandt , biblical and macabre subjects as well as 150 portraits of leading artistic and literary figures such as Thomas Hardy , Rudyard Kipling and Robert Louis Stevenson . Examples are the etchings Death of the Plowman's Wife (1888), The Socialists (1891) and the painting The Temptation (1899).

Lady with a Red Hat , 1918, Glasgow Museums

His commitment to realism and psychology continued in the paintings that dominated the second half of his career. The influence of the Belgian and French symbolists mark his mature style with its linear clarity and colors, one example is Bank Holiday from 1912, on display at the Tate Gallery , London. Vita Sackville-West's portrait as Lady with a Red Hat from 1918 was particularly well-known . Vita Sackville-West was a friend of the writer Virginia Woolf .

Strand had five children. His sons Ian Strang (1886–1952) and David Strang (1887–1967) were also graphic artists. David Strang published the Catalog Raisonné of the Printed Work of William Strang in 1962 .

Strang's memberships: Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers 1881, Art Workers Guild 1895, Royal Society of Portrait Painters 1896, Society of Twelve 1904; elected Associate Royal Academician (ARA) of the Royal Academy in 1906 as an etcher, full member (RA) in 1921; President of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers 1918.

Strang was known with his Scottish artist colleagues, the etchers David Young Cameron, Muirhead Bone and James McBey, under the name "The Big Four" ("The Big Four").

Strang's paintings and graphics can be found in London's Tate Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery and the Louvre in Paris . Over 2000 works, including a large collection of Strang's graphic work from 1879 to 1920, are on display at the Glasgow Museums Resource Center and the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow .

  • Book illustration for Sinbad the Sailor and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves , 1896

  • Portrait of Rudyard Kipling , 1898, British Museum, London

  • The Temptation , 1899, Tate Gallery, London

  • The Japanese Fan , around 1910

  • Bank Holiday , 1912, Tate Gallery, London

Illustrations

  • Gotthold Ephraim Lessing : Nathan The Wise , with etchings by William Strang. J. Maclehose, Glasgow 1894
  • The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen , illustrated by William Strang and JB Clark. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 1895
  • Sinbad the Sailor and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves , illustrated by William Strang and JB Clark. Lawrence & Bullen, London 1896 (published online by the University of Florida Digital Collections)
  • Illustrations for the art and literary magazines The Yellow Book and The Dome

literature

  • Drawings by William Strang. Fifty plates with collotype prints based on the master's originals with an introduction by Professor Dr. Hans W. Singer. Schumann, Leipzig 1912. ( online)
  • H. Furst: The Paintings of William Strang RA , In: The Studio May 1921, pp. 171-177.
  • Hans Wolfgang Singer : William Strang Memories. In: Die Kunst 49, 1924, pp. 23–32.
  • David Strang (Ed.): William Strang RA. Catalog Raisonné of the Printed Work of William Strang . Glasgow 1962.
  • Philip Athill (Ed.): William Strang 1859-1921. Painter, Etcher. Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, December 6, 1980 to January 18, 1981; Glasgow Museums and Art Galleries, February 7 to March 8, 1981; National Portrait Gallery, London, March 27 to June 28, 1981. City Art Galleries, Sheffield 1980.
  • Benezit Dictionary of British Graphic Artists and Illustrators , Oxford University Press, New York 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-992305-2 , Vol. 2, pp. 431-433 ( online) .

Web links

Commons : William Strang  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Fig. Death of the Plowman's Wife
  2. ↑ Quoted from the web links of the Tate Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery
  3. ^ William Strang , collections.glasgowmuseums.com, accessed February 5, 2014
personal data
SURNAME Strand, William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British painter and printmaker of realism
DATE OF BIRTH February 13, 1859
PLACE OF BIRTH Dumbarton
DATE OF DEATH April 12, 1921
Place of death Bournemouth