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Lot Essay
Brangwyn painted this oil when he visited Fowey in 1887. He was only twenty years old, had received no formal art education, and yet it is a remarkably mature and indeed beautiful work, influenced by the plein-air naturalism of his contemporaries. Although this led the press to label Brangwyn a follower of the Newlyn School he appeared to be determined to avoid aligning himself with one particular school or stylistic tendency and his work changed considerably over the following two decades. What did not change was his innate understanding of composition, exemplified in this work where the bark strippers form a diagonal from left to right, there is a horizontal line of misty trees in the background, and a circular form of branches in the foreground centred round two fastigiated trees. And yet this arrangement is not obtrusive but subtle, mirroring the subdued tone and reticence in the use of colour, reminiscent of Whistler. Walter Shaw-Sparrow suggested that Brangwyn was on the point of giving up painting when the colourman Mr Mills supplied him with capital and sent him off to Cornwall to fix his ‘attention on subtle half-tones that vary infinitely out of doors’.
Wherever Brangwyn went, whether it was South Africa, Spain, Turkey or Cornwall he sought to illustrate the lives of what our politicians now term ‘the ordinary working man’. His figures were not the down-trodden peasants of Millet (although Shaw-Sparrow claimed this work was ‘in the vein of Millet’) or the rural idylls of George Clausen, nor were they industrial gods. There was no bathos, moralising imperatives or symbolism, just plain facts. Brangwyn was fascinated by the skills and knowledge involved in various occupations and his sketchbooks contain countless notes explaining to himself how potters’ wheels worked, how a cobbler used a last – and, probably, the shape of the wooden handled iron knife used for stripping bark. The whole process of tanning was obviously something which interested Brangwyn. He made an etching also titled Bark Strippers in 1903 which showed a scene in Portmellon, Cornwall, with Tan Yard (also 1903) on the back of the zinc plate, and produced numerous other etchings of tan pits, tan yards and men washing and scraping skins. The bark would be taken from young branches and twigs in oak coppices and was usually stripped in the early spring when the trees’ sap began to rise and the bark could be easily removed. The tannins in the bark helped soften leather.
We are grateful to Dr Libby Horner for her assistance in preparing this catalogue entry. The oil is number O16 in her catalogue raisonné.
Wherever Brangwyn went, whether it was South Africa, Spain, Turkey or Cornwall he sought to illustrate the lives of what our politicians now term ‘the ordinary working man’. His figures were not the down-trodden peasants of Millet (although Shaw-Sparrow claimed this work was ‘in the vein of Millet’) or the rural idylls of George Clausen, nor were they industrial gods. There was no bathos, moralising imperatives or symbolism, just plain facts. Brangwyn was fascinated by the skills and knowledge involved in various occupations and his sketchbooks contain countless notes explaining to himself how potters’ wheels worked, how a cobbler used a last – and, probably, the shape of the wooden handled iron knife used for stripping bark. The whole process of tanning was obviously something which interested Brangwyn. He made an etching also titled Bark Strippers in 1903 which showed a scene in Portmellon, Cornwall, with Tan Yard (also 1903) on the back of the zinc plate, and produced numerous other etchings of tan pits, tan yards and men washing and scraping skins. The bark would be taken from young branches and twigs in oak coppices and was usually stripped in the early spring when the trees’ sap began to rise and the bark could be easily removed. The tannins in the bark helped soften leather.
We are grateful to Dr Libby Horner for her assistance in preparing this catalogue entry. The oil is number O16 in her catalogue raisonné.