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Mortimer Menpes Figurative Prints

Australian, 1855-1938
Mortimer Luddington Menpes was born in Port Adelaide, South Australia on February 22, 1855, the second son of property developer James Menpes, who with his wife, Ann, had settled in Australia in 1839.Educated at Adelaide Educational Institution, he attended classes at the Adelaide School of Design, and did some excellent work as a photo-colourist, but his formal art training began at the School of Art in London in 1878, after his family had moved back to England in 1875. Edward Poynter was a fellow student at the school. Menpes first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1880, and, over the following 20 years, 35 of his paintings and etchings were shown at the Academy. Menpes set off on a sketching tour of Brittany in 1880, during which he met James McNeill Whistler. He became Whistler's pupil, and at one stage shared a flat with him at Cheyne Walk on the Chelsea Embankment in London. He was taught etching by Whistler, whose influence, together with that of Japanese design, is evident in his later work. Menpes became a major figure in the etching revival , producing more than seven hundred different etchings and drypoints , which he usually printed himself. As early as 1880, a selection of ten of his drypoint portraits, donated to the British Museum by Charles A. Howell, brought him critical acclaim. In 1875, Menpes married fellow Australian Rosa Mary Grosse (d. 23 Aug 1936) in London. They had a son, Mortimer James (b. 1879) and two daughters, Rose Maud Goodwin and Dorothy Whistler. A visit to Japan in 1887 led to his first one-man exhibition at Dowdeswell's Gallery in London. Menpes moved into a property at 25 Cadogan Gardens, Sloane Square, designed for him by A. H. Mackmurdo in 1888 and decorated it in the Japanese style. Whistler and Menpes quarreled in 1888 over the interior design of the house, which Whistler felt was a brazen copying of his own ideas. The house was sold in 1900, and Menpes moved to Kent. In 1900, after the outbreak of the Boer War, Menpes was sent to South Africa as a war artist for the weekly illustrated magazine Black and White. After the end of the war in 1902, he travelled widely, visiting Burma, Egypt, France, India, Italy, Japan, Kashmir, Mexico, Morocco, and Spain. Many of his illustrations were published in travel books by A & C Black. His book on the Delhi Durbar was an illustrated record of the commemoration in Delhi of the coronation of King Edward VII. Menpes became a member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers (RE) in 1881, Royal Society of British Artists (RBA) in 1885, Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (RI) in 1897, and Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI) in 1899. In 1904 he published the memoir of his time with Whistler, Whistler as I Knew Him. Mortimer Menpes died in Pangebourne on April 1, 1938.
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Artist: Mortimer Menpes
Bassin d'Apollon, Versailles (Fountain of Appollo, Versailles).
By Mortimer Menpes
Located in Storrs, CT
Bassin d'Apollon, Versailles (Fountain of Appollo, Versailles). Drypoint. Menpes 364. 7 1/8 x 9 1/8 (sheet 8 13/16 x 10 7/8). A very rich impression with drypoint burr and plate tone...
Category

Early 20th Century Modern Mortimer Menpes Figurative Prints

Materials

Drypoint, Etching

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Low Country (South Carolina)
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By John Taylor Arms
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Previously Available Items
Portrait of Mrs. Monkton Hill
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A beautiful haunting portrait of Mrs Monkton Hill Born in Adelaide, South Australia, Mortimer Menpes came to England in 1875. By the time of his momentous meeting with Whistler in 1...
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Portrait of Whistler with the White Lock, Wearing a Monocle.
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Mortimer Menpes figurative prints for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Mortimer Menpes figurative prints available for sale on 1stDibs. Not every interior allows for large Mortimer Menpes figurative prints, so small editions measuring 10 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Donald Shaw MacLaughlan, William Walcot, R.E., Hon.R.I.B.A., and Georges-Henri Tribout. Mortimer Menpes figurative prints prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $400 and tops out at $400, while the average work can sell for $400.

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