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ROBERT ANNING BELL, R.A. (1863-1933)Robert Anning Bell was an artist particularly admired by Peter & Albert. Much of the South Bedroom was given over to his work in tempera and plaster relief, and many items were lent to the Last Romantics exhibition at the Barbican in 1989. Perhaps their interest lay in the ease with which the artist moved between the fine and decorative arts. Anning Bell studied at the Royal Academy Schools and then in Paris. He then shared a studio with the sculptor George Frampton, and thereafter spent a period studying in Italy. During the 1890s he became deeply involved with the Arts and Crafts and became well known as an illustrator. This fusion of influences led him to develop, with Frampton, a line in plaster reliefs, hand-coloured in imitation of Della Robbia plaques. Appointed to teach painting and drawing at the School of Architecture, University College, Liverpool he became associated with Harold Rathbone’s Della Robbia Pottery at Birkenhead, supplying designs for reliefs. Although he painted in oil and tempera, his preferred medium was watercolour. Amongst prominent designs for stained glass and mosaic were the entrance to Westminster Cathedral and the Central Lobby of the Houses of Parliament. His work was well known abroad: he exhibited in Paris, Brussels and Turin, and acquired medals in Vienna, Milan and Barcelona. He was elected RA in 1922, and was Professor Design at the Royal College of Art (1918-1924). A memorial exhibition was held at the Fine Art Society in March 1934 following his death the previous November.

ROBERT ANNING BELL, R.A. (1863-1933)

The arrow

Details

ROBERT ANNING BELL, R.A. (1863-1933)
The arrow
signed and dated 'Robert. Anning Bell. 09' (lower right)
pencil and watercolour on paper laid on board
27 x 29 ½ in. (68.5 x 75 cm.)

Provenance

J.W.R. Brocklebank, by 1909.
with The Fine Art Society, London, March 1973, where purchased for the present collection.

Literature

T. Martin Wood, 'Mr Anning Bell's Work as a Painter', Studio, 49, p. 254.

Exhibited

London, Royal Society of Painters in Watercolour, Summer exhibition, 1909, no. 76.
London, Barbican Art Gallery, The Last Romantics: The Romantic Tradition in British Art, Burne-Jones to Stanley Spencer, 9 February - 9 April 1989, no. 242.

Conditions of sale

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Adrian Hume-Sayer Director, Specialist

Lot Essay

John Christian noted that this painting ‘demonstrates Bell’s tendency to take an abstract idea – shooting an arrow, listening to music, winding wool – and use it as the basis for a picturesque composition. This is perhaps his most original characteristic as an artist’. (The Last Romantics, London, 1989, p. 156).
T. Martin Wood, an earlier commentator, noted that the picture is ‘of great interest, because it is so expressive of Mr Bell’s later mood, that of a romanticist trying to be classic … The romanticists at the beginning of the nineteenth century waged war upon the classics: we are as romantic as ever, but we regard the classic itself romantically’. (Studio, 49, p. 245.)

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