An Improvisation

 

Frank Lewis Emanuel

  1865 - 1948 (biography)

c. 1930  

drypoint 

4 x 6" platemark 

pencil, lower right 

not stated 

 

from the collection of Georg Brochner 

thin, fibrous laid tissue 

published 

artist 

2194 

$250.00 

Known especially for his balanced, complex, and precise renderings of the antique and rural architecture of England, Frank Lewis Emanuel’s “An Improvisation” is one of his spare, sketch-like images that appears as much a moment of freedom for the artist as it is a study. A quiet river or canal runs through flat farmland on an overcast day. Trees growing along its banks are tilted, their trunks twisted most likely by a strong and steady sea wind. The effect is like witnessing a slow, grand dance. The title and the almost playful touch of the needle to the plate indeed make this composition an improvisation of light and form.

From the collection of Danish critic and author Georg Bröchner, who wrote for the British art magazine "The Studio" in the early 20th century.

Frank Lewis Emanuel, painter, illustrator, printer and art critic studied in London at the Slade School under Legros and later at the Academy Julian in Paris. He traveled widely in Europe, South Afrirca and Ceylon, and he exhibited from 1881 at the Royal Academy in London and in Salons of Paris. He staged watercolor exhibitions and published articles on topographical subjects in the Architectural Review and Manchester Guardian, and Illustrations de Montmartre. He also taught etching at the Central School between 1918 and 1930.