FAMAG 1923.12
A British nineteenth-century Régence-revival frame, with applied moulded composition ornament; ogee profile with straight rails; scrolling foliate cartouche corners and centres with centre rosettes, the corners with shells; small sanded frieze; acanthus-&-shell sight moulding; ornamented back edge; gilded finish.
About this work
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Strang, William RA (1859-1921): Dr Warre-Cornish, Vice-Provost of Eton College (1839-1916), signed, oil on canvas, 59.5 x 49.5 cms. Presented to the Corporation of Falmouth in 1923 by Alfred A. de Pass, in memory of his sons.
More information about the frame
This revival style (one of the so-called ?neo-Louis? patterns beloved by the nineteenth century in all European countries and especially in America) apes the hand-carved original French and British Régence frames of the late seventeenth to early eighteenth century. Its source in the later nineteenth century can be observed by the shallowness of the relief ornament, the fact that scrolls and sprigs are flattened out rather than arching into three-dimensional loops, the cut-out pastry quality of the cartouches and florets, and the perceptible cracks where the composition has shrunk slightly.
The original Régence and Régence-style frames were designed in line with a decorative Zeitgeist which caused them to fit admirably around portraits of sitters with curling coiffeurs and swirling clouds of silk and lace which seemed to reflect similar curlicues in their frames. In the late nineteenth century, women might still dress in a fashion which could live up to a Régence frame, but their male counterparts had lost any hint of Baroque detail in their costume, and the austere lines of the morning suit are less appropriately served in this type of frame than in, for example, a ?Carlo Maratta?, a Neoclassical-revival frame, or a more contemporary ?Watts? or ?Whistler? frame.
About the Artist
William Strang was born in Dumbarton, Scotland. His first job, at the age of 15, was as an apprentice clerk for a shipbuilding firm, William Denny and Bros. He studied art at the Slade School of Art under Poynter and Legros, and at the Academie Julian, Paris. He started his career as a greatly accomplished etcher but also showed great promise as a painter and in 1879 he was awarded the Gold Medal at the Dresden International exhibition. Between 1880 and 1900 he produced over 750 prints. He exhibited his paintings, mostly portraiture, at the Royal Academy and the New England Arts Club. Two of his paintings, 'Bank Holiday' (1912) and Self Portrait (1921), were bought for the nation by the Chantrey Bequest.