Ken Donaldson

Louis Osman was born on January 30, 1914, in Exeter. He was an architect, artist, goldsmith, silversmith and medallist. Very few people matched his creations as a goldsmith and consequently, Osman was chosen to make the crown for the investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1969. Many of his other works are in public collections in the UK and worldwide. After Hele's School in Exeter, he studied at the Bartlett School of Architecture which was part of University College London, in 1931. Osman later attended the Slade School of Art and he left the Bartlett and was awarded the top first and won the Donaldson Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Subsequently, he trained with Sir Albert Richardson. Serving during the Second World War as a Major in the Intelligence Corps, Osman was a specialist in Air Photography and served on the Beach Reconnaissance Committee before the June 1944 Normandy landings. Following the war, he was busy as an architect and worked for Westminster Abbey, Lincoln, Exeter, Ely and Lichfield Cathedrals. During the 1970s, Osman and his wife lived at Canons Ashby House in Northamptonshire, which was given to the National Trust in 1981 when he was not able to keep the tenancy any longer. At Canons Ashby, he established a workshop and had a team of silversmiths and goldsmiths working for him. In 1974, he created an exhibition celebrated by a lavishly illustrated catalog. Osman's 1969 crown for the investiture of the Prince of Wales was on display, together with many other items of his creation and also by other silversmiths such as Malcolm Appleby, Philip Noakes and Stephen Nunn and also acknowledging the work of Desmond Clen-Murphy, Peter Musgrove and Chris Philipson in his works. In 1976, he made the gold enameled casket that holds a copy of the Magna Carta on view in the United States Capitol, Washington, DC. Osman died on April 11, 1996.

The first decades of the 20th century were a period of artistic upheaval, with modern art movements including Cubism, Surrealism, Futurism and Dadaism questioning centuries of traditional views of what art should be. Using abstraction, experimental forms and interdisciplinary techniques, painters, sculptors, photographers, printmakers and performance artists all pushed the boundaries of creative expression.

Major exhibitions, like the 1913 Armory Show in New York City — also known as the “International Exhibition of Modern Art,” in which works like the radically angular Nude Descending a Staircase by Marcel Duchamp caused a sensation — challenged the perspective of viewers and critics and heralded the arrival of modern art in the United States. But the movement’s revolutionary spirit took shape in the 19th century.

The Industrial Revolution, which ushered in new technology and cultural conditions across the world, transformed art from something mostly commissioned by the wealthy or the church to work that responded to personal experiences. The Impressionist style emerged in 1860s France with artists like Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne and Edgar Degas quickly painting works that captured moments of light and urban life. Around the same time in England, the Pre-Raphaelites, like Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, borrowed from late medieval and early Renaissance art to imbue their art with symbolism and modern ideas of beauty.

Emerging from this disruption of the artistic status quo, modern art went further in rejecting conventions and embracing innovation. The bold legacy of leading modern artists Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dalí, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, Piet Mondrian and many others continues to inform visual culture today.

Find a collection of modern paintings, sculptures, prints and other fine art on 1stDibs.

Landscape drawings and watercolors show the world through the lenses of different cultures and perspectives. They were also incredibly important for displaying natural scenes before the invention of photography.

There are many ways to effectively arrange art on your walls so that you’re maximizing your wall space. You can introduce peace and serenity within the confines of a living room or bedroom if landscape drawings and watercolors are part of the art that you choose to bring into a space.

Watercolor landscapes have a rich history dating back to ancient China, where they dominated painting genres by the late Tang dynasty. Ink-on-silk paintings in China featured mountains and large bodies of water as far back as the third century. The Netherlands was home to landscapes as a major theme in painting as early as the 1500s, and by the Renaissance, watercolors had made their way to the West and into European culture, becoming a staple of decorative art.

It wasn’t until the Industrial Revolution that watercolor paints became more widely available and embedded in fine arts. Despite their broad distribution today, some artists have chosen to revive the old craft of preparing their own watercolor pigments, paying homage to the medium’s roots.

The variety of brush combinations and painting methods makes watercolor landscapes some of the most stunning pieces in any collection. Find landscape drawings and watercolors on 1stDibs.