FAMAG 2010.2
Original artist?s cassetta frame with oak fillet top edge, broad canvas-covered frieze and inner oak moulding; water-gilded gesso slip beneath the glazing; outer frame gilded, directly on the wood in the case of the top and inner mouldings.
About this work
view without frame
Ingram, William Ayerst (1855-1913): Bathing, Gyllyngvase Beach, Falmouth, signed, watercolour, 16.8 x 8.5 cms.
More information about the frame
Ingram was an exact contemporary of the Australian artist Mortimer Menpes who, like himself, was a friend of Whistler?s, and also exhibited at the Dowdeswell Galleries. This series of coincidences makes it highly likely that Ingram derived the design for this frame from those designed by Menpes for his own watercolours.
Menpes had travelled to Japan in 1887, having been introduced to Japanese design by Whistler, and again in 1895−96, the pictures being exhibited at Dowdeswell?s. Many of his watercolours from these travels were framed alike in a design very like that on the present work by Ingram: they had a fillet at the top and sight edges, and a very broad frieze covered with a pattern of vertical fillets and flutes. The frieze was asymmetrical, being broader at the top than the sides, and even broader at the bottom. The whole was gilded. They may have been made for him in Japan.
The proportions on Ingram?s frame are precisely similar to those on Menpes?s; only the finish, with gilded wood mouldings and canvas frieze is different. It forms a perfect setting for this watercolour, with its distinctly Japanese influence.