Frank Brangwyn

The 1924 Olympic painting judge Sir Frank Brangwyn was an established painter who practiced most of the visual arts from architecture, to murals, to book illustration. Many of his mural works required an entire wall to enable him to express himself. Some of his best works can be seen in notable buildings like the Skinner’s Hall in the City of London, the Royal Exchange, Christ’s Hospital, the central hall at Selfridges and, probably, his best known work, The House of Lords Panels. Away from London, other fine examples of his work could be found at St. Aidan’s Church, Leeds, the Canadian House of Parliament in Ottawa, and the Cleveland Court House in Ohio.

Brangwyn was born in Bruges, Belgium, where his father was an ecclesiastical architect and deigned the city’s Church of St. André. When the family returned to England, Brangwyn worked at the Victoria and Albert Museum as a 15-year-old, and his first painting, “A Bit of the Esk, near Whitby”, was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1885, when he was just 18. This painting was sold to a ship-owner, and Brangwyn decided he wanted to see the world and he went to sea as a cabin-boy, visiting many Mediterranean ports, as well as seeing Russia and South Africa.

Back on dry land, Brangwyn, along with a Spanish and Mexican painter, were commissioned in 1932 to paint panels for “Radio City” in New York, depicting modern-day life in America. In 1936 the Brangwyn Museum in Bruges was inaugurated in his honour. Having been an associate member of the Royal Academy since 1904, he was elected a full member in 1919, and in 1941 was knighted.