ART SUNDAY, DO YOU WANT TO KNOW A SECRET?? | for everyone |
Art Sunday, Do you want to know a secret??
Phoebe
Traquair was a truly wonderful Scottish arts and crafts artist, she was
multi talented but it is her mural work that I’m looking at today. I
may be wrong but I believe her unique murals must be
'one of the best kept secrets of the Scottish Art world,'
not with in Scotland of course but so few people outside of Scotland seem to know who she was or how remarkable her work is.
THE MANSFIELD TRAQUAIR CENTRE; (click on picture to enlarge)
Phoebe Anna Traquair (1852-1936)
Phoebe Anna Traquair's place in history is unique. She was the first important professional woman artist of modern Scotland.
To
rank as such might be enough to ensure her fame, but Traquair was also a
central figure within Scottish Arts and Crafts practice, working
prolifically in such diverse fields as embroidery, enamelwork, leather
book-cover tooling and, not least, manuscript illumination and mural
decoration.
Inspired
by a wide range of arts and cultures, she was driven by a quest for
ideas and a passion for materials. She considered that the arts should
collectively express and celebrate the spiritual depth and wholeness of
life. She ignored traditional boundaries of ‘fine’ and ‘applied’ art,
and was therefore refused even associate membership of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1900. Only in 1920 was she eventually elected an Honorary Academician.
Born Phoebe Anna Moss, near Dublin,
she was inspired from childhood by ‘The Book of Kells’. Following
marriage in 1873 to Scots palaeontologist Dr Ramsay Heatley Traquair
(1840-1912), she moved with him to Edinburgh. She provided detailed illustrations for his research papers until his retirement in 1906 from the Museum of Science and Art (today the Royal Museum).
Such detailed drawing of fossils prepared her for the closeness of
manuscript work, but the latter gave new scope for the imagination.
Traquair
exhibited her crafts internationally from 1893 and painted the
interiors of no fewer than four Edinburgh buildings between 1885 and
1901, including the chapels of the Royal Hospital for Sick Children
(1885-1886 and 1896-1898) and the Song School of St Mary’s Episcopal
Cathedral (1888-1892). The best known is the vast former Catholic Apostolic Church (1893-1901) in East London Street which has been called ‘Edinburgh’s
Sistine Chapel’ and was decorated in parallel with her manuscripts of
the ‘Sonnets from the Portuguese’ and ‘The House of Life’.
Traquair’s
reading of poetry and related work in manuscript illumination was
initially inspired by her close friendship with John Miller Gray
(1850-94), first curator of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Gray
admired the poetry of Garth Wilkinson and Dante Gabriel Rossetti,
encouraging Traquair to produce modern manuscripts of their work. In
1887 she wrote to the critic John Ruskin for advice, and received in
return the loan of French manuscripts to copy and understand.
From
1890 Traquair leased dedicated studio space in the Dean Studio, a
disused church (a gap site since the 1950s) next to Drumsheugh Swimming
Baths in Lynedoch Place,
where her major manuscripts, including ‘Sonnets from the Portuguese’
and ‘The House of Life’, were illuminated. Her first major multi-page
manuscript was of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s ‘In Memoriam’ (1890-1892) for
Sir Henry Hardinge Cunynghame. It was immediately followed by ‘Sonnets
from the Portuguese’.
While
working on her ‘Sonnets’, Traquair also illuminated Robert Browning’s
‘Saul’ (1893-1894), William Morris’s ‘Defence of Guinevere’ and ‘The
Song of Solomon’ (both 1897). Her last great manuscripts were of Dante
Gabriel Rossetti’s ‘The Blessed Damozel’ (1897-1898), Sir Thomas
Browne’s ‘Religio Medici’, Rossetti’s ‘The House of Life’ and Dante’s
‘La Vita Nuova’ (1899-1902). Several of these manuscripts, including
‘Sonnets from the Portuguese’, were published on completion by William
Hay of Edinburgh.
In
the 1900s Traquair changed direction. She took up enamelling, to be set
as jewellery and formal display pieces such as triptyches and caskets.
From this time watercolour paintings for reproduction as commercial book
illustrations replaced illumination.
The Mansfield Traquair Centre is a former Catholic Apostolic Church building at Mansfield Place, beside the roundabout at the foot of Broughton Street.
(click on picture to enlarge)About the Architect
The Catholic Apostolic Church in Edinburgh was the first of a series of major commissions in the 1870s that were to transform Robert Rowand Anderson's career. The Catholic Apostolic Church was an important step in Anderson's career and it remained the most ambitious of his churches.
Anderson left the office of George Gilbert Scott in 1859 and set up his own practice in Edinburgh
in 1860. During the 1860s his main work was small churches in the
'first pointed' style that is characteristic of Scott's former
assistants. By 1880 (after the Catholic Apostolic Church) his practice was designing the most prestigious public and private buildings in Scotland: the University of Edinburgh Medical School and the McEwan Hall, The Scottish National Portrait Gallery, and Mount Stuart for the Marquess of Bute. These buildings demonstrate two notable qualities in Anderson's
work: his ability to revive any of a variety of historical styles
intelligently and his preference for massive, imposing forms.
THE MURAL IN THE SOUTH CHAPEL
And that my friends is my Art Sunday Secret, the secret of Phoebe Traquair's little known murals.
greenwytch wrote on Jan 17, '10
i know she still smiles at us on Sundays. i still miss her, too. HUGS.
|
forgetmenot525 wrote on Jan 17, '10
Thanks
Deb...............but like I said, this is a very old post but I
thought maybe some would like to see it cos Nemo posted on her this
week. Oh...............big sigh..............just seen that Lina
commented on this when it was first
posted...........Sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
|
greenwytch wrote on Jan 17, '10
fantastic as always, loretta. you always find such amazing things to share with us.
|
lauritasita wrote on May 18, '08
Very beautiful and educational presentation. Thank you also for visiting my Art Sunday post today.
|
brendainmad wrote on May 18, '08
I understand why the church would be called the 'Edinburgh Sistine Chapel' - these murals are fantastic
|
stillwandering wrote on May 18, '08
What a wonderful post! Thanks so much for posting. The colours and light are amazing, very beautiful.
http://stillwandering.multiply.com/journal/item/235/Art_Sunday |
jayaramanms wrote on May 18, '08
I have posted another blog and photo album of paintings of Daeni Pino -under Art Sunday Links - for blog http://jayaramanms.multiply.com/journal/item/167 and painting album - http://tinyurl.com/5zaulk. Please have a look.
|
starfishred wrote on May 17, '08
Oh so much wonderful info thank you for the tour
ty for visitng my site to |
wickedlyinnocent wrote on May 17, '08, edited on May 17, '08
Excellent post about a remarkable artist with an impressive work. Thanks for sharing Phoebe Traquair's "secrets" with us.
I see you are a nightowl, just like me, I slept for a few hours though, now I feel quite alert. Good night to you. |
vickiecollins wrote on May 17, '08
Wow,
Nemo, interesting choice. Isnt it bizarre how sometimes the people are
the most profilic are the least well known outside an immediate circle,
or in Phoebe Traquair's case, a particular country or region.
In addition to her contributions to her husbands work as a paleo.... she is indeed an artists worth knowing about. |
jayaramanms wrote on May 17, '08
Thank
you for introducing a new artist - Phoebe Anna Traquair and the full
details and exhibiting her paintings here. An excellent post. Thanks
again for sharing.You have already visited my blog on secrets of Mona
Lisa.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment