Articles Acquaintances Artists Munn, George Frederick | Munn, George Frederick |
|
|
|
|
This page is a work in progress, and will be updated with additional information about George Frederick Munn. Relationship to john william waterhouse:Fellow artist. Brief Biography:MUNN, George Frederick Munn, R.B.A. (1852-1907) American landscape and still-life painter; sculptor. Born at Utica, New York, and studied at the National Academy, New York. Came to England and studied at the R.C.A., later entering the R.A. Schools. Exhibited at the principal London galleries from 1875, mainly at Suffolk Street but also at the R.A. and Grosvenor Gallery. Visited Brittany. Student of G.F. Watts. Source: Dictionary of British Artists Working 1900-1950, Grant M. Waters, Eastbourne, 1975. "His face was pale, his hair was dark and parted in the middle, a sort of outrage of the fashion of those days; big, sad and thoughtful eyes, a slight mustache, and wearing the clothes of a man of the large world; a strong contrast to us all, for Thackeray's art student of the velvet jacket and long hair lingered with us yet. Here was an object for the insolent patronage of the older students! But we were not to hold that hectoring attitude long, for we soon found that what the gracious American stranger said on art "went," and we hung on his words, uttered with a very slight but most engaging stammer." (Sir Johston Forbes-Robertson) Source: The Art of George Frederick Munn, edited by Margaret Crosby Munn and Mary R. Cabot, with an Introduction by Sir Johston Forbes-Robertson, Dutton & Company, New York, 1916. R.A.: Royal Academy R.C.A.: Royal College of Art R.B.A.: Royal Society of British Artists DOCUMENTED RELATIONSHIP:- Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson describes his time with Munn when they were fellow students with Waterhouse at the Royal Academy Schools of Art: Some of the great men were to come of us--Frank Dicksee, Alfred Gilbert, Waterhouse, Thornycroft, Waterton and Swan, all in after years to add R.A. to their laurels. Percy Macquoid, the archaeologist and painter, was also one of us. What an audacious and dictatorial crowd we were, laying down the law--and pretty good law it was too--with all the world before us, and each and all convinced we were to be of the elect! A later passage from the same book, edited by Munn's wife, tells of Munn's travels in the English countryside whilst an art student - there is no proof that one of his fellow travellers was Waterhouse, but it is an evocative description of that period: He loved London with a lover's enthusiasm and romance. Its age, its vastness and complex life,--its darkness and fogs were beloved and stimulated his imagination. During the summers he went sometimes alone, but often with one or more of his artist friends, on walking tours through the most beautiful counties of England. These were happy days. Many pictures were painted, and his sketch-books are filled with impressions of these journeys, and of journeys in France and Italy. At night, at the close of a long day of open-air painting and tramping, they would walk, six abreast, singing, through the sleepy English hamlets, finally stopping for bread and cheese and ale at some village tavern, where they talked and sang with the ruddy-cheeked farmers and teamsters who gathered there nightly. Source: The Art of George Frederick Munn, edited by Margaret Crosby Munn and Mary R. Cabot, with an Introduction by Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson, Dutton & Company, New York, 1916.
|
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
