FAMAG 2007.16
A nineteenth-century British Arts and Crafts-style oak cassetta frame, gilded directly on the wood, supplied by Paul Mitchell Limited (r). A nineteenth-century British Arts and Crafts-style oak cassetta frame, gilded directly on the wood, supplied by Paul Mitchell Limited (r).
About this work
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Hemy, Charles Napier RA RWS (1841-1917): Fading light, Falmouth, signed, oil on millboard, 35 x 40 cms.
More information about the frame
This is a reproduction of a nineteenth-century revival of a sixteenth-century cassetta frame, made in the gilded oak which was introduced by Ford Madox Brown and Dante Gabriel Rossetti around 1860. Their practice revolutionised the appearance of Victorian frames during the last third of the nineteenth century, and continued well into the twentieth.
Gilding onto the wood with just a layer of size to bind it, instead of onto layers of smooth gesso, was recommended by Charles Eastlake in his Hints on Household Taste (fourth edition, 1878): ?The effect of oak-grain seen through leaf-gold is exceedingly good, and the appearance of texture thus produced is infinitely more interesting than the smooth monotony of gilt ?compo?.?
In work such as Hemy?s, where a painterly technique of scumbling and visible brushstrokes replaces a polished, unmarked academic finish, the natural appearance of wood grain and matt gilding complements the painting far better, as can be seen here. Many of Hemy?s works were originally framed by the artist in gilded oak.