Early 20th Century British Art - Artists Groups
#SUBHEADING#New English Art Club, Fitzroy Street and the Camden Town Group#SUBHEADINGEND# A leading member of the New English Art Club, the artist and critic Roger Fry, decided to organise major exhibitions of a new generation of French and Continental artists, following in the wake of Impressionism. These included Cezanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh and Seurat, which Fry gave the collective title of 'Post-Impressionist' in 1910. Another exhibition in 1912 also introduced radical modernist works by Matisse, Picasso, Braque and Russian painters. These examples can be seen in a work by Roger Fry when he painted his own son Julian between the two Post-Impressionist exhibitions. The more radical artists of the Fitzroy Street Group then reformed as the Camden Town group in 1910 under the leading urban painters, Sickert, Gore and Gilman. Therese Lessore, as Sickert's wife did not join the group, but she continued to draw and paint in sympathy with their principles into the 1920's. #SUBHEADING#Bloomsbury, Vorticism and WWI#SUBHEADINGEND# In 1913, Roger Fry formed the Omega Workshop in collaboration with other Bloomsbury artists and intellectuals, which applied the theory and practices of Post-Impressionism to decorative and applied arts, which included the fine artists Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell, Wyndham Lewis and Nina Hamnett. This was the point reached by the outbreak of WWI in the movement of British art away from traditional narrative subjects, towards a more open and individual perspective. At the same time Wyndham Lewis made a radical break from 'Post-Impressionist' ideas to set up the Rebel Art Centre and published the magazine 'Blast' (1914-15) for the promotion of 'Vorticism', a movement based on the ideas of French Cubism and Italian Futurism. In opposition to the naturalist origins of Post-Impressionism, these artists were inspired by urban machinery and industrial design, but only organised one one exhibition before the Great War. Examples of these artists in the Ferens can be seen in works by Wadsworth, Nevinson, Roberts and Bomberg, from after the War, by which time they had rejected their more radical ideas. There are few representations of WWI in the Ferens collection except in the works of artists like Frank Brangwyn, who was not an official War Artist, but made drawings of soldiers in action for various War Services. There is also a sombre memorial panel by Ewart of soldiers standing in a trench. #SUBHEADING#The London Group#SUBHEADINGEND# Founded in 1913, the London Group took over the role of exhibiting progressive modern art from the NEAC. The selection committee exhibited the widest range of art movements at the time, including Camden Town, Bloomsbury and Vorticist artists. It was strongly supported and influenced by the ideas of Roger Fry, and included both Harold Gilman and Walter Sickert as Presidents. The first exhibition in 1914 covered the radical works of modernist painters such as Bomberg, Epstein and Gertler, whose works reached a peak of production and development in the 1920s. Other exhibitors were artists inspired by the colourist techniques of French 'Fauve' artists. They included Louise Pickard, Adrian Allinson and Matthew Smith, using emotionally charged colour in bold forms, who were also highly influenced by the masters of colour from the Renaissance and Baroque periods of art.
Early 20th Century British Art - The Rise of Modernism
The period of British Art dating from the turn of the 20th century, marked the rise of modernism in response to the influences of French Impressionism and reaction against the Art establishment in the form of the Salon in Paris and the Royal Academy in London. This gave rise to the various movements into which impressionism divided through the works of Cezanne, Degas, Renoir, Van Gogh, Gauguin. It also led to the recognition of 'Post-Impressionism' and the ideas and methods of European modernism from Fauvism to Cubism.
History of the Ferens Art Gallery (part 2)
The Ferens Art gallery was completed in eighteen months and opened in 1927. Read about the changes and develpments the gallery has been through from its opening to the present day.
History of the Ferens Art Gallery (part 1)
At the turn of the twentieth century Hull's art collections were housed in variety of locations. Thomas Robinson Ferens decided that a purpose built art gallery should be constructed and so work began on the Ferens Art gallery in 1926.
Hull & Barnsley Railway Albums
Wonderful photographic images of the construction of the Hull & Barnsley Railway, now available to view on our collections website.
Early 20th Century British Art - Artists Groups
From the creation of 'Post-Impressionism' by Roger Fry in London, further groups began to form around the studios of particular artists, following the example of the leading independent artists in France. It is from this point that London began to contribute to the direction and development of modernism on an equal footing with Paris, with radical artists moving easily between both cities.
Late 18th and early 19th British and European Landscapes
Read on to discover how the genre of landscapes developed in eighteenth and nineteenth century Britain and Europe.
Early 20th Century British Art - Between the Wars
After the devastation of WWI, radical movements in art had retreated to more conservative forms that celebrated the local and familiar, representing a national character in relation to European art movements. However, some developments were completely original responses to the art that had gone before and an attempt to encompass the state of the natural and human world as it appeared to British artists of the time. This led to new forms of visual expression that represented the cutting edge of the Art World at the outbreak of WWII.
Dutch 17th Century Landscapes
The Ferens Art Gallery collection has a particularly good representation of the 17th century Dutch landscape tradition. Read on to find out more about how this genre developed and who was involved.
Fred Elwell
Frederick William Elwell was born in 1870 in Beverley, a market town situated seven miles from Hull. His father James was a cabinet-maker, and it is to him that Fred owed his high standards of achievement and his love of craftsmanship. Fred began to study art at evening classes at the Lincoln School of Art. In 1887 he won a scholarship which enabled him to embark upon full time studies. It was during his period at Lincoln that he developed an interest in the work of the French Impressionist painters.
