Francis Danby Art

The Great Fire of London in September 1666 was one of the greatest disasters in the city’s history. The City, with its wooden houses crowded together in narrow streets, was a natural fire risk, and predictions that London would burn down became a shocking reality. The fire began in a bakery in Pudding Lane, an area near the Thames teeming with warehouses and shops full of flammable materials, such as timber, oil, coal, pitch and turpentine. Inevitably the fire spread rapidly from this area into the City. Our painting depicts the impact of the fire on those who were caught in it and creates a very dramatic impression of what the fire was like. Closer inspection reveals a scene of chaos and panic with people running out of the gates. It shows Cripplegate in the north of the City, with St Giles without Cripplegate to its left, in flames (on the site of the present day Barbican). The painting probably represents the fire on the night of Tuesday 4 September, when four-fifths of the City was burning at once, including St Paul's Cathedral. Old St Paul’s can be seen to the right of the canvas, the medieval church with its thick stone walls, was considered a place of safety, but the building was covered in wooden scaffolding as it was in the midst of being restored by the then little known architect, Christopher Wren and caught fire. Our painting seems to depict a specific moment on the Tuesday night when the lead on St Paul’s caught fire and, as the diarist John Evelyn described: ‘the stones of Paul’s flew like grenades, the melting lead running down the streets in a stream and the very pavements glowing with the firey redness, so as no horse, nor man, was able to tread on them.’ Although the loss of life was minimal, some accounts record only sixteen perished, the magnitude of the property loss was shocking – some four hundred and thirty acres, about eighty per cent of the City proper was destroyed, including over thirteen thousand houses, eighty-nine churches, and fifty-two Guild Halls. Thousands were homeless and financially ruined. The Great Fire, and the subsequent fire of 1676, which destroyed over six hundred houses south of the Thames, changed the appearance of London forever. The one constructive outcome of the Great Fire was that the plague, which had devastated the population of London since 1665, diminished greatly, due to the mass death of the plague-carrying rats in the blaze. The fire was widely reported in eyewitness accounts, newspapers, letters and diaries. Samuel Pepys recorded climbing the steeple of Barking Church from which he viewed the destroyed City: ‘the saddest sight of desolation that I ever saw.’ There was an official enquiry into the causes of the fire, petitions to the King and Lord Mayor to rebuild, new legislation and building Acts. Naturally, the fire became a dramatic and extremely popular subject for painters and engravers. A group of works relatively closely related to the present picture have been traditionally ascribed to Jan Griffier...

Paper, 2020, Daniel Blagg, Oil on canvas, 38 x 58" By meticulously depicting forgotten road signs and roadside debris, Daniel Blagg invites his viewers to re-consider objects that ...

Moonlite, 2021, Daniel Blagg, Oil on canvas, 38 x 58" By meticulously depicting forgotten road signs and roadside debris, Daniel Blagg invites his viewers to re-consider objects th...

Tribute, 2009, Daniel Blagg, Oil on canvas, 60 x 90" By meticulously depicting forgotten road signs and roadside debris, Daniel Blagg invites his viewer...

Rene Genis (French 1922-2004) Monument Valley. 1967. Beautiful oranges, browns, greens against a turquoise blue sky. Oil on canvas, laid on mat. Si...

Jim Woodson, Bifurcation: B16 Bend with Mediated Disjunctions, Oil on canvas, 10" W x 36.25" L x 2.5" D, 1996

Jim Woodson, Compelling Embedded Emergence, Oil on canvas, 36 x 48", 2020

This vibrant oil painting is brought to you by the incredible hand of Dan Blagg. His works are filled with themes of nostalgia, a rustic lifestyle, and Americana. Add a pop of color to any space by collecting a Daniel Blagg. This may be a conversation piece, but when the conversation runs dry, you can look deep into Dan's work and feel at peace with the silence. This work is titled, "Stars" by Daniel Blagg. 2021. Oil paint on canvas. 44 x 55." A well-known figure of the contemporary Fort Worth art scene, Daniel Blagg has worked in the DFW area for over four decades. Blagg creates compositions that are both large-scale and intimate, familiar and unfamiliar, through his realistic style and chosen subject matter. Inspired by the surroundings of his studio warehouse on the outskirts of Fort Worth, his paintings of deteriorating road signs, empty streets, and vacant buildings examine urban decay and the byproducts of American capitalism. Blagg is interested in portraying what society discards; what once was useful is now abandoned and left to rot with no thought of recycling or re-use. According to Blagg, this wastefulness is particularly evident in American culture, where advertising is driven by the constant and even desperate desire to make a profit, without regard for the ramifications of this model of economic enterprise. By meticulously depicting forgotten road signs and roadside debris, Blagg invites his viewers to re-consider objects that are often ignored or forgotten. He masterfully crafts his paintings to create moody, unsettling compositions that feel desolate and neglected through his detailed depictions. Quick brushstrokes or soft washes of paint form fields of grass, distant mountains, and stretches of roads, while sharp shadows and the lack of figures heighten the feeling of loneliness and seclusion in these landscapes. Blagg’s representations evoke the work of Edward Hopper through a similar use of light and dark contrasts, as well as an emphasis on the urban subject matter. However, unlike Hopper, Blagg’s explorations ominously foretell the effects of the passage of time. These signs and objects act not only as markers of the past but also as forewarnings for the future. What will we as a contemporary society build and forsake? How will our creations stand the test of time? What will outlive its use in our culture but may ultimately outlast us, the creators? Blagg visually poses these questions to his audiences, hinting that the answers will only be realized with the next generation of creators and builders. Until that time comes, we are responsible for the creations of past generations, whether we preserve, restore, or ignore those objects. We are also accountable for what we leave behind, whether it is art, architecture, or physical waste. Blagg’s paintings have been exhibited in over sixty prominent shows across the United States, and his work is collected by numerous institutions and companies, such as the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, the Museum of South Texas in Corpus Christi, the Old Jail House Arts Center, Shell Oil, Fidelity Investments, and The Coca-Cola Company. He has curated multiple exhibitions at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center and was President of the Exhibition Advisory Panel from 2006 to 2008. In 2012 and 2009, he was a finalist for the Hunting Prize, an annual competition in Houston, Texas, that supports Texas artists. He has also received the Cynthia Brants...

Rene Genis (French 1922-2004) “Les Falaise Normande” / The Cliffs of Normand. A sea scape with high cliffs, the beach, and two fishermen. The cliffs are in browns, tans and olives a...

Playland, 2018, Daniel Blagg, Oil on panel, 26 x 50" By meticulously depicting forgotten road signs and roadside debris, Daniel Blagg invites his viewer...

Chinese Restaurant, 2009, Daniel Blagg, Oil on canvas, 80 x 60" By meticulously depicting forgotten road signs and roadside debris, Daniel Blagg invites...

Jim Woodson, Transforming Embedded Emergents, Oil on canvas, 72 x 96", 2020