The Brangwyn Paintings

In 1901 the court of the Skinners’ Company decided to put aside some money for decorating the banqueting hall. A past master, Thomas Lane Devitt, knew the work of the artist Frank Brangwyn as he had already sponsored him to paint a mural for the Royal Exchange, and it was decided to employ Brangwyn to paint a series of murals.

Frank Brangwyn was an extremely versatile artist and designer who was popular in his day and received honours from around the world. He was a complete polymath, the quintessential artist craftsman. Apart from his paintings and murals, he designed carpets, jewellery, metalwork, stained glass, pottery, posters and furniture. The Skinners’ paintings are typical of his murals – busy, decorative and rather like hanging draperies.

It was a frustrating commission for the Skinners as Brangwyn was not good at organizing his time and had too many commitments: the first 11 panels took eight years to complete. Ten of the paintings, placed along the side walls, illustrate important occasions in the history of the Skinners and Harmony was painted for the minstrel’s gallery. Nearly 30 years later two more panels, Charity and Education, were added in the hall corners. Brangwyn used some of his neighbours in Sussex as models in these later paintings. The well known actor Donald Sinden posed when a boy for some of the pupils in Education which also includes a self portrait of the artist as a schoolteacher.

Brangwyn’s work was rather neglected after his death but there is a revival of interest in this superb draughtsman and the Company is lucky that members in the past had the foresight to commission such a magnificent series of murals.

 

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