Studio RT Ltd

Description

We are offering this subtly toned gouache painting by the artist Frank Holme, who has signed the painting in the lower left hand corner. The painting depicts a Venetian Cappriccio, with a group of covered gondolas tied up to their moorings, one of which has a gondolier on board. Beyond and to the right is a faint group of fishing boats, and the backdrop is a view of the Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute.

The artist Frank Holme was born in Four Ashes, near Cannock, in Staffordshire in 1879. As he obviously never exhibited his work, there is virtually no information available in the reference books, but we have found from Census records that in 1901, he was working as an enameller in Wolverhampton and by 1911, living at 87 Upper Zoar Street, he had married his wife Lena and they had had two sons, Frank Junior 1904-1988, who went on to become a commercial artist, George Herbert 1906- 1968 and a daughter Dorothy Mary, born 1910. In 1911, he was listed as a Japanner's artist.

Japanning put simply, is the ornamentation of black items with lacquers and varnishes, such as could be found on sewing machines, for example.

Wolverhampton and Bilston were important centres for the manufacture of japanned ware. Trade directories for 1818 list 20 firms of japanners in Wolverhampton and 15 in Bilston. According to Samuel Timmins' book Birmingham and the Midland Hardware District, published in 1866, there were 2000 people employed in the japanning and tin-plate industries in Wolverhampton and Bilston at the time. Japanning firms ranged in size from small family workshops, which often adjoined the proprietor's home, to a few large factories employing over 250 people. In the larger workshops, the production of tin plate and papier-mâché articles and the japanning process all took place under one roof, while small workshops tended to carry out only one or two of the trades, usually tin-plate working and japanning.

At the height of its popularity, richly decorated japanned ware was to be seen in every middle-class home, but from the mid-19th century, this began to change. By the 1880s, the japanning and tin-plate industries were in decline. This was due partly to changes in fashion and taste and partly due to the development of electroplating. In response, makers of japanned ware began to focus on more utilitarian items, including japanned cash boxes. Many turned to other trades, including enamelling, electroplating and the manufacture of copper and brass coal scuttles, fire screens and kettles. By the 1920s, the West Midlands' decorative japanned ware industry had largely died out.

We have found nothing about the art education of Frank Holme, so can only presume that he had a natural talent and, with the japan trade in decline, took to painting for a living. He painted in gouache, moorland scenes, Venetian capriccios, arab scenes with camels and pyramids, which were much in fashion during the early years of the twentieth century. We cannot find an exact date for his death, but as his wife was listed as a widow in the 1939 Register, he presume it to be around the early 1930s. Examples of his work may be found at the usual auction sites and on google.

Please note that many of the auction sites list Frank Holme as Frank Holmes, which is incorrect but due to his rather ornate signature which has an upcurve after the e and which people take as an s. Also, there is an American newspaper illustrator called John Francis Holme, whose rare work (drawings) are often listed as by Frank Holme. There is another artist who was painting in the 1980s by the name of Frank Holmes and his paintings are often confused with the gouaches of Frank Holme.

The painting has been newly double mounted in two tone acid free mountboard and is newly framed in a soft silver/gilt frame. It will be supplied wired and ready to hang.

Image size: 15 1/2" x 10" - 39.35cm x 25.6cn

Frame size: 23" x 18" - 58.45cm x 45.75cm

Medium: Gouache

Condition: Very good. The mounts and frame are new.