BRANGWYN GIFTS
Brangwyn's generosity is rarely recorded, so, to make amends, I'm compiling a list of his donations to art galleries. The reasons for his patronage were probably three fold - a genuine desire to share art and make it accessible to all (he specifically targeted art galleries in poorer, industrial areas of the UK); a wish to circumvent the tax man and art dealers; and lack of dependents to inherit his estate. An article in the Sunday Express, 26 March 1944, estimated Brangwyn's gifts would have earned the artist more than £100,000 (roughly equivalent to £2.4 million at 2002 prices).
Brangwyn's Gifts included the following (list ongoing as I work through collections!), listed alphabetically and by country:
AUSTRIA
Vienna, Albertina - date of gifts 1914 and 1923 - the 1914 gift, Brangwyn's first to an art gallery, was valued at £1200
BELGIUM
Bruges, Arents House - date of gifts 1927, 1936, 1937, making the largest collection of Brangwyn works in the world
Brussels Museum - date of gift 1935 - painting by Albert de Belleroche, The Fortune Teller
ENGLAND
Bath, Victoria Art Gallery - date of gift 1943 - 67 prints and 21 drawings
Bewdley Museum - date of gift 1933 - 45 prints (transferred from Kidderminster)
Birmingham - date of gift 1931 - 45 drawings
Brighton Art Gallery - date of gift 1935 - 208 etchings and lithographs
Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum - date of gifts 1935 and 1943 - 28 Brangwyn drawings, 48 drawings by European artists, together with a collection of Persian miniatures
Coventry, Herbert Art Gallery - date of gift 1942 - 91 etchings valued at 702 guineas
Doncaster Art Gallery - date of gift 1944
Dundee
Kingston upon Hull, Ferens Art Gallery - Brangwyn presented a Botzaris bronze bust, a marble bust by Professor Gelles of Vienna, 3 Brabazon watercolours, 2 Alfred East watercolours, 1 Frank Richards watercolour, 2 Albert Goodwin watercolours, 5 A C Watson etchings, 1 Frank Short etching and 1 Joseph Simpson etching. He also gave the gallery a sizeable collection of his own work, including, in 1931, 21 proof etchings; a large gouache cartoon in 1941; a further 10 etchings and 30 lithographs in 1932 and 17 drawings in 1951.
Lincoln, Usher Gallery - date of gift 1954 - 5 prints
Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery - date of gifts 1915 and 1936 - about 60 prints
London: Royal Academy, drawings and sketchbooks. Victoria and Albert Musuem - ceramics, print cabinet
Oxford, Ashmolean - date of gift 1950 - walnut cabinet, collection of Persian, Chinese and other ceramics, drawings and plates for Book of Job. Also large number of drawings for St Francis book (unpublished).
Scarborough Art Gallery. In 1943 Brangwyn sent a large collection of works to the V&A, probably for safe storage. These were not acquisitioned by the V&A and after the war were re-allocated, many of them being presented to the Gallery by the Regional Arts Officer in 1956/7. The Gallery has 63 etchings, 57 drawings and 10 lithographs, most of which are from the V&A deposit.
Walthamstow, William Morris Gallery - date of gift 1936 - British and Continental paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture of the 19th century, including works by Burne-Jones, Rossetti and other members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a selection of Eastern prints and a large collection of Brangwyn's own works.
Wolverhampton Art Gallery - date of gifts 1950 and 1956 - 4 oils, 1 print, 50 drawings
FRANCE
Paris, Luxembourg - date of gift 1915 - set of etchings
ITALY
date of gift 1917 - collection of etchings
NETHERLANDS
date of gift 1928 - over 250 etchings and lithographs
SOUTH AFRICA
Cape Town, South African National Gallery - date of gift 1929 - 93 etchings and lithographs
WALES
Bangor, University of Wales - date of gift 1956 - 250 books on art and history of art together with portfolios of prints, woodcuts, lithographs and engravings by Brangwyn and other artists.
Cardiff, National Museum of Wales - date of gift 1925 - 30 watercolours and collection of etchings