Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 4

Francis Plummer
The Prelude, Early 20th Century Egg Tempera on board

$16,521.56
£12,000
€14,134.20
CA$22,633.72
A$25,114.01
CHF 13,155.26
MX$307,965.24
NOK 167,330.39
SEK 157,952.75
DKK 105,407.57
Shipping
Retrieving quote...
The 1stDibs Promise:
Authenticity Guarantee,
Money-Back Guarantee,
24-Hour Cancellation

About the Item

Francis Plummer 1930 - 2019 The Prelude Egg Tempera on board Image size: 39 ½ x 49 ¼ inches Original Frame This work comes from a rare collection of works directly from the artist's estate, painted in the 1950s, is a fascinatingly original take on the human form. Francis Plummer studied at the Royal Academy between 1949 and 1959, he was championed by Stanley Spencer and Sir Herbert Read and was the recipient of the coveted Leverhulme Scholarship. He was an artist who specialised in portraits and figurative works, the latter forming the basis of our exhibition. His background as an anatomical artist is apparent in the portrayal of every muscle and tendon. This collection of work is in the medium of egg tempera, a technique little used since the frescos of the Renaissance. He often worked on a large scale, but in tremendous detail, combining classical iconography and formal composition with visual exploration evocative of William Blake and Stanley Spencer. His principle focus is the depiction of the human form. He was featured doing just this in a wonderful Pathe short film, An Artist in Eggs (1958), which can be found on YouTube. Be sure to look out for one of the paintings in our exhibition on the wall of Plummer's studio. The medium of egg tempera, used as a method of painting successive layers and the resulting translucency was ideal in portraying the subtleties of skin tone and physical detail. Francis Plummer exhibited widely during his lifetime at venues including the Leicester Galleries, Leighton House Galleries and the Alwyn Gallery in Mayfair in 1975. Few words by the artist: The human form is used as the chief vehicle of expression. I regard the nude not nakedness as a distinct art form, and in it I identify with some of the greatest expressions in classical European painting and sculpture. It is extremely difficult to paint a convincing nude which contributes an insight of genuine and significant originality freed from direct dependence on models, but this is what I try to do, as-did the masters. Therefore, many studies from the life have been made as exercises to build up a background of knowledge and skill. "In these works the Figure Man is used as icon, without reference to history or fashion. Over time it has evolved into the art form of the nude, something quite other than the portraiture of naked bodies. The endeavour is to show as real a spiritual existence, never to be endorsed by science or have the benefits of mercantile credit. Yet our space/time world does not exist in vacuo. Beauty is sought through definitive design existing always; and the appreciation of figure shapes and forms must stand without regard for any literary or other source for meaning, though gnosis underpins everything as far as possible. The themes are allegories, not reality theatre."
  • Creator:
    Francis Plummer (1930 - 2019)
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 39.5 in (100.33 cm)Width: 49.25 in (125.1 cm)
  • More Editions & Sizes:
    39 ½ x 49 ¼ inchesPrice: $16,522
  • Medium:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    London, GB
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU5246141832

More From This Seller

View All
Exiled, Early 20th-Century Pre-Raphaelite Oil on board
By Francis Plummer
Located in London, GB
Francis Plummer 1930 - 2019 Exiled Oil on board Image size: 20 ½ x 24 ½ inches Framed This rare collection of works from the artists estate, painted i...
Category

Mid-20th Century Pre-Raphaelite Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

The Triple Deity, 20th Century Egg Tempera
By Francis Plummer
Located in London, GB
Francis Plummer 1930 - 2019 The Triple Deity Egg Tempera on board, signed lower left Image size: 24 x 20 inches Gilt Framed Plummer specialised in th...
Category

1950s Art Deco Figurative Paintings

Materials

Egg Tempera

Three Ages of Man, 20th Century Oil on Board Figurative Painting
Located in London, GB
Oil on board Image size: 16 3/4 x 10 1/4 inches (42.5 x 26 cm) This work depicts the three stages of life: infancy, adulthood and old age.
Category

20th Century Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

The Dance, 20th Century Oil Painting
By Francis Plummer
Located in London, GB
Oil on board Image size: 30 ¼ x 23 ½ inches Gilt frame Plummer specialised in the medium of egg tempera, a technique little used since the frescos of the Renaissance, he often work...
Category

Mid-20th Century English School Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

The Death of Cyllarus
By Doris Zinkeisen
Located in London, GB
Gouache on board, signed lower left Image size: 18 x 15 inches  (46 x 38 cm) Contemporary frame This painting illustrates a passage from Ovid's 'Metamorphoses', specifically from th...
Category

Mid-20th Century Figurative Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board

Forgotten Journey, 20th Century British Artist, Signed and Dated 1939
By Harold Yates
Located in London, GB
Watercolour and ink on paper, signed and dated '1939' bottom left and entitled on the reverse Image size: 18 x 9 inches (45.75 x 23 cm) Original frame This is a wonderfully moving w...
Category

1930s Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Ink, Watercolor

You May Also Like

Antique American Modernist Period Male Nude Surrealist Masterpiece Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Amazing early American surrealist nude male portrait landscape. Painted by Charles W St Clair. Oil on board. Framed. Image size, 24L x 30H. Super detailed and rare!
Category

1930s Surrealist Nude Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

[Bruce Sargeant (1898-1938)] Artist's Studio, Contemporary Figurative Painting
By Mark Beard
Located in New York, NY
A classical anatomical figure in an artist's studio, surrounded by brushes and a palette, with muted tones creating a contemplative and intimate atmosphere. Contemporary figurative painting by Mark Beard [Bruce Sargeant (1898-1938)] Artist’s Studio n.d. Signed in red, u.r. Oil on canvas 36 x 18 inches $4,000 + $300 framing The pure and brilliant world of Bruce Sargeant’s art seems terribly removed from our own, unhampered by the prevalent inconsistencies of today’s world. Peopled with comely thoroughbreds, his paintings project a world vision unchanged from the models cherished by idealist writers like E. M. Forster and Rupert Brooke in that golden decade that led up to the Great War. Neither buff nor narcissistic, his fair-haired young athletes pose, somewhat uncomfortably, before the painter’s gaze, not wanting the attention yet feeling their duty to submit. Though tantalized by the New World dabbings of Robert Henri and John Sloan, Sargeant found his true inspiration in the art and ethos of fifth-century Athens, where the achievement of the kaloi kagathoi, young men who were “beautiful to look at and worthy of admiration,” were the perfect models for artistic rendering and public adulation. At base, Sargeant’s models, like the sculptures of Lysippus and Praxiteles, are idealized heroes whose achievements on the playing field earn them their renown. However, unlike his precursors, the painter requires no civic responsibility from his ephebes, only physical stamina, gymnastic prowess, and good looks. His work bespeaks a class that existed briefly, but was prolonged and attenuated in the languorous novels of writers such as Denton Welch...
Category

2010s Contemporary Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"The Cognoscenti", Contemporary Symbolist Figurative
By Michael Pauker
Located in Soquel, CA
"The Cognoscenti", a large-scale contemporary charcoal on canvas figurative scene by Bay Area artist Michael Pauker (American, b. 1957), 2008. A group of bearded men, whom the title ...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Canvas, Charcoal

Untitled. 1990. Cardboard, tempera. 50.5x39.8cm
By Vladimir Glushenkov
Located in Riga, LV
Vladimir Glushenkov (1948-2009) (May 21, 1948, Riga - December 26, 2009, Riga) - painter, graphic artist, poet, translator. Vladimir Glushkenkov was born in family with Russian-Poli...
Category

Early 1900s Expressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Tempera, Cardboard

Helen Steinthal (1911-1991) - 20th Century Watercolour, The Warning
Located in Corsham, GB
A striking scene depicting a boy on horseback alerting a group of people on the beach pointing into the distance as the concerned people gather. The scene shows classical inspiration...
Category

20th Century Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Myth III - British 1936 Modern art tempera painting Ida Graves poet family
By Blair Hughes-Stanton
Located in London, GB
This superb British 1930's modern art tempera painting is by noted interwar artist Blair Hughes-Stanton. Painted in 1936 it is part of the myth se...
Category

1930s Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Egg Tempera