Frederick Griggs (1876-1938)
The Architecture Of Dreams
At The Fine Art Society
8 - 22 February 2007
The Fine Art Society will present an exhibition of etchings by Frederick Griggs (1876-1938) from 8 to 22 February 2007 at 148 New Bond Street, London W1.
The exhibition consists of 16 of the finest prints by F L Griggs from a private collection assembled over the past 25 years. It marks the publication of The Green Fuse: Pastoral Vision in English Art 1820-2000 by Jerrold Northrop Moore, author of the recently published biography of the artist. His new book traces the pastoral element in English art from its origins in the work of Blake, Palmer, Calvert and Richmond to its later flowering in Sutherland, Drury, Tanner, Piper, Minton, Vaughan and then the Ruralists.
Griggs was passionate about the landscape of England and his work commemorates the architectural creations of forgotten mediaeval craftsmen, and the spiritual power of the buildings they left behind. He was also a pioneer conservationist who brought about his own financial ruin in the meticulous restoration of his house in Chipping Campden, in the Cotswolds: Dover’s House. He died suddenly in 1938 and his work and reputation might have been forgotten in the upheaval of the Second World War. However a book on his work and a catalogue raisonné by Francis Comstock published in 1966 stimulated new interest and the recent biography by Jerrold Moore confirmed the importance of Griggs as an artist and his continuing appeal.
The etchings of Griggs made in the early part of the 20th century were inspired by the architectural masterpieces of a bygone age, but they have themselves become established in the canon of great English art. The show includes his masterpiece, The Almonry (1925), Sellenger (1917) and St Botolph’s, Boston (1924) and two of his most evocative etchings, Memory of Clavering (1934) and Stoke Poges (1918), a view of the churchyard which inspired Gray’s Elegy.
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The Almonry, 1925
Etching, 25 x 16.5 cm
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