Sir Frank Brangwyn, RA (British, 1867-1956)


Study for Britain's Call to Arms signed with initials 'FB' (lower left)black and red crayon51.5 x 64.5cm (20 1/4 x 25 3/8in).
|ProvenanceThe Fine Art Society, London.Private collection, UK (acquired from the above 10 November 1953).Property of a Charitable Trust.The present lot is a study for an 'Underground' Recruiting Poster Britain's Call to Arms, designed in 1914 depicting war victims. The British Parliamentary Recruiting Committee commissioned a number of posters to assist with enlistment numbers. The manager of the Underground Electric Railways, Frank Pick, was disappointed with the poor design of the posters they had commissioned, so instead requested that Frank Brangwyn and Gerald Spencer Pryse create new designs. The final version of the present lot was at first considered too graphic by the War Office and they threatened to remove it. However the image was so successful in boosting recruitment numbers that the War Office reneged on their decision.The finished work was well regarded by critics, one noting that it was 'the first great poster of the War' (Hardie & Sabin, War Posters issued by Belligerent and Neutral Nations 1914-1919, London, 1920). Writing in The Studio, Alfred Yockney noted of the finished poster that 'this fine design makes a powerful appeal and it forms an epitome of war... gives us a story of broken ties, patriotism, heroism, vandalism and tragedy' (Vol. LXIII, no. 262, January 1915). For a similar study, please see Dr Libby Horner's Brangwyn at WAR!, London, 2014, p. 35.We are grateful to Dr Libby Horner for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.