FAMAG 1943.1
British or Continental Neoclassical-revival fluted scotia frame; top edge flat with ripple moulding; wide scotia with cross fluting; stylised acanthus leaf-tip sight; finished with brilliant gilding in the German fashion; possibly a regilded original nineteenth-century version rather than a twentieth-century replica, as the flutes at the corners have been carefully joined across the mitres. British or Continental Neoclassical-revival fluted scotia frame; top edge flat with ripple moulding; wide scotia with cross fluting; stylised acanthus leaf-tip sight; finished with brilliant gilding in the German fashion; possibly a regilded original nineteenth-century version rather than a twentieth-century replica, as the flutes at the corners have been carefully joined across the mitres.
About this work
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Parsons, Alfred RA RWS (1847-1920): The Pear Orchard, signed, oil on canvas, 78.5 x 110.5 cms. Presented by Miss C.Dobbing.
More information about the frame
The fluted hollow frame was, with the ?Watts? frame, perhaps the most ubiquitous, common and versatile design of the nineteenth century in Britain. It was also internationally popular, and had been since its beginnings in the 1760s with the rise of the Neoclassical style. These early fluted frames tended to consist of the carved hollow between very small mouldings; they gradually became wider and more concave as the pattern progressed into the 1820s, and when a revival of the style came into fashion in the second half of the nineteenth century, it had a wider top moulding (often ornamented), inner mouldings and the characteristic wide slip or insert of the Victorian period.
The present frame is a good example of the revival of the style; there is a possibility that it is Continental rather than British, as British fluted frames tended to cover the collision of flutes over the mitres with an acanthus leaf, rather than work out their joining points so neatly; the stylised acanthus-leaf tip at the sight edge may point in the same direction, as may the intense, undistressed gilding.
The fluted frame was functional as well as decorative; the hollow caught light and threw it onto the painting, which was still important, even when argand lamps and artificial gaslight began to replace candles. And the flutes themselves lead the eye into the painting, creating a sense of spatial recession similar to that generated by gadrooning, raked ornaments of other kinds, and prominent mitres.
About the Artist
Alfred Parsons was a distinguished landscape painter whose pastoral English landscapes were based on direct observation. He was born in Beckenham in Somerset, the son of a doctor. He studied art at South Kensington Schools from 1865 whilst also working as a post clerk. He was a keen botanist and gardener, and there is a freshness and accuracy of detail in all his work. His paintings were first shown at the Royal Academy in 1871 and from 1871 and from 1874 he exhibited there every year until his death. He became the President of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolour in 1913.