Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 14

William Strang, R.A., R.E.
At the Foot of the Statue - Scottish art Impressionist figurative oil painting

circa 1904

About the Item

A fine large oil painting by Scottish listed artist William Strang. This is a super evocative oil on canvas which depicts a family at "The Foot of the Statue". It was exhibited in 1904 in Bradford exhibition of fine arts lent by L W Hodson of Wolverhampton who was a patron of his work. This is a fine example of an early 20th century Scottish oil with good subject. It is a good size and signed. This wouldn't be out of place in Kelvingrove Gallery in Glasgow. Signed lower left. Provenance. Bradford Art Gallery 1904. Sotheby 19th June 2002 Guide price £20000-30000GBP. Condition. Oil on canvas. Image size 30 inches by 25 inches and in excellent condition. Housed in a fine period frame, 39 by 34 inches framed and in good condition. William Strang (1859-1921) was born at Dumbarton, the son of Peter Strang, builder, and educated at the Dumbarton Academy. He worked for fifteen months in the counting-house of a firm of shipbuilders before going to London in 1875 when he was sixteen. There he studied art under Alphonse Legros at the Slade School for six years. Strang became assistant master in the etching class, and had great success as an etcher. He was one of the original members of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers, and his work was a part of their first exhibition in 1881. Some of his early plates were published in The Portfolio and other art magazines. He worked in many manners, etching, dry point, mezzotint, sand-ground mezzotint, and burin engraving. Lithography and wood-cutting were also used by him to create pictures. He cut a large wood engraving of a man ploughing, later published by the Art for Schools Association. A privately produced catalogue of his engraved work contained more than three hundred items. Amongst his earlier works were Tinkers, St. Jerome, A Woman Washing Her Feet, An Old Book-stall with a Man Lighting His Pipe from a Flare, and The Head of a Peasant Woman on sand-ground mezzotint. Later plates such as Hunger, The Bachelor's End and The Salvation Army were also important. Some of his best etchings were done as series—one of the earliest, illustrating poet William Nicholson's Ballad of Aken Drum, is remarkable for clear, delicate workmanship in the shadow tones, showing great skill and power over his materials, and for strong drawing. Another praised series was The Pilgrim's Progress, revealing austere sympathy with John Bunyan's teaching. Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Ancient Mariner and Strang's own Allegory of Death and The Plowman's Wife, have served him with suitable imaginative subjects. Some of Rudyard Kipling's stories were also illustrated by him, and his likeness of Kipling was one of his most successful portrait plates. Other etched portraits included those of Ernest Sichel and of J.B. Clark, with whom Strang collaborated in illustrating Baron Munchausen (1895) and Sinbad the Sailor and Ali Baba (1896).Thomas Hardy, Sir Henry Newbolt and other distinguished men also sat for him. Proofs from these plates have been much valued; in fact, Strang's portrait etchings began a new form of reproductive portraiture. Strang produced a number of paintings, portraits, nude figures in landscapes, and groups of peasant families, which were exhibited at the Royal Academy, The International Society, and several German exhibitions. He painted a decorative series of scenes from the story of Adam and Eve for the library of a Wolverhampton landowner named Hodson; they were exhibited at the Whitechapel exhibition in 1910. Some of his nude model drawings in silver point and red and black chalk are very beautiful as well as powerful and true. He also painted landscapes, mostly small in size. In later years he developed a style of drawing in red and black chalk, with the whites and high lights rubbed out, on paper stained with water colour. His method gives qualities of delicate modelling and refined form and gradations akin to the drawings of Hans Holbein the Younger. He drew portraits in this manner of many members of the Order of Merit for the royal library at Windsor Castle. In 1902 Strang retired from the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers, as a protest against the inclusion in its exhibitions of etched or engraved reproductions of pictures. His work was subsequently seen principally in the exhibitions of the Royal Academy, the Society of Twelve and the International Society, to which he was elected in 1905. Strang was also elected an associate engraver of the Royal Academy when that degree was revived in 1906. William Strang was master of the Art Workers Guild in 1907. His portrait can be seen at the Art Workers Guild 6 Queen Square London WC1N 3AT. He is buried at Kensal Green Cemetery, London.
  • Creator:
    William Strang, R.A., R.E. (1859 - 1921, British)
  • Creation Year:
    circa 1904
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 39 in (99.06 cm)Width: 34 in (86.36 cm)Depth: 2 in (5.08 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    London, GB
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU853113398772

More From This Seller

View All
Ballerinas putting on their Shoes - French Impressionist art oil painting ballet
Located in London, GB
This lovely Belgian Impressionist figurative oil painting is by noted artist Henri Moreau. Although Belgian by birth, Moreau spent many years in France, moving to Paris in 1920 and o...
Category

1920s Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Ciros Life - British 50's art male portrait oil painting London theatre West End
By Laurence Henry Irving
Located in London, GB
A visually stunning original oil on panel titled Ciros Life. It was painted circa 1953 by Laurence Henry Irving and depicts a man of little means outside a London theatre doorway. Th...
Category

20th Century Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Lady in pink - British Edwardian art Impressionist portrait oil painting girl
By Thomas Edwin Mostyn
Located in London, GB
A lovely portrait oil painting by British listed artist Tom Mostyn ROI. Painted circa 1910 it depicts a beautiful smiling young woman in a pink dress holding an umbrella. A glorious ...
Category

Early 20th Century Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Brother and Sister - Scottish exhib. art 1918 portrait landscape oil painting
By Robert McGregor R.S.A
Located in London, GB
This gorgeous exhibited Scottish Impressionist portrait oil painting is by noted artist Robert McGregor. It was painted in 1918 and exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy the same y...
Category

1910s Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Portrait of Young Lady in Red - British 20's Impressionist oil painting interior
By Walter Ernest Webster
Located in London, GB
Painted circa 1920 by the noted British Impressionist portrait painter Walter Ernest Webster, this lovely oil painting depicts a beautiful young woman in an impressionist palette. Si...
Category

1920s Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Two Women in a Cafe - British 1930's art oil portrait painting Spain jugs pink
By Darsie Japp
Located in London, GB
An original oil on canvas by the British listed artist Darsie Japp. It was painted circa 1930 and depicts two woman at a table having a drink. A very evocative inter war oil painting. Provenance. James Bourlet Framers. Sotheby 12.11.86. Condition. Oil on canvas, 28 inches by 22 inches unframed and in excellent condition. Housed in a gallery frame, 36 inches by 30 inches framed in good condition. Darsie Japp (1888-1973) was born in Liverpool and attended St John's College of the University of Oxford. After he graduated he worked in the offices of his father's shipping company in the City of London between 1904 and 1907. Whilst working in the City Japp studied at the night school of the Lambeth School of Art under Philip Connard. Japp studied at the Slade School of Art between 1908 and 1909, where he became friends with his fellow student Stanley Spencer and would often visit him in his home at Cookham in Berkshire. Japp specialised in landscape and figure paintings and exhibited with the New English Art Club of which he became a member in 1919. At the start of the First World War Japp joined the British Army and, eventually, became a Major in the Royal Field Artillery commanding an artillery battery in Macedonia, for which he was awarded the Military Cross...
Category

1910s Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

You May Also Like

Nude woman
Located in Zofingen, AG
“The longer you look at an object, the more abstract it becomes, and, ironically, the more real.” Lucian Freud. "Nudes are interesting to paint; I've had people say my Ladies are ...
Category

2010s Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Egg girl in green
Located in Zofingen, AG
02 / 10 / 2023 I signed a book contract for Egg Island; it will now go through the publishing process and will be in print next year. I was overwhelmed by the editorial board's fee...
Category

2010s Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Beth Dacey, "Little Blue Coat", 12x12 Vintage Woman Oil Painting on Canvas
By Beth Dacey
Located in Saratoga Springs, NY
Beth Dacey's "Little Blue Coat" is a 12x12 oil painting on canvas of a woman with short dark hair laughing. This vintage inspired piece is unique as it crops the face of the woman to...
Category

2010s Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Beth Dacey, "Little Yellow Coat", 12x12 Vintage Woman Oil Painting on Canvas
By Beth Dacey
Located in Saratoga Springs, NY
Beth Dacey's "Little Yellow Coat" is a 12x12 oil painting on canvas of a woman leaning while wearing a yellow coat. This vintage inspired piece is unique as it crops the face of the ...
Category

2010s Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Jeune Fille en Blanc - 19th Century French Impressionist Oil Painting Portrait
By Jacques Emile Blanche
Located in Gerrards Cross, GB
‘Jeune Fille en Blanc’ by Jacques-Émile Blanche (1861-1942). The painting – which depicts one of the artist’s favourite models Wanda Zielinska – is signed and dated 1896. It is lis...
Category

Late 19th Century Impressionist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Family Picnic by the Sea" children enjoying a picnic and cake with their father
Located in Edgartown, MA
Since summer 2004, I have lived in southern Italy, in the region of Puglia, the province of Bari, in a town called Altamura. A two-week restoration project of the Jesce Masseria brou...
Category

2010s Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Recently Viewed

View All