T. B. & R. Jordan Arthur A. Friedenson 1872

Staithes Group Art :English Landscape Paintings of the 20th Century:Arthur A. Friedenson 1872 - 1955


	A Dartmoor Road near Okehampton Oils on panel, 12½"x15½", signed by Arthur Friedenson. Wonderful clouds, lit from behind by the sun dominate a strong moorland landscape to which they lend strongly varied tones. Strong, large brush srokes give the additional dimension of textural interest. SOLD View larger image Price: £3,950.00


A Breezy Day Oils on panel by Arthur Friedenson, 12½"x15½", signed. Huge cumulous clouds blow strongly across the painting from the left, heavily shadowing the foreground on that side. The receding landscape is depicted in a varied and harmonious tones and colours. View larger image Price: £3,950.00


	On Wareham Common Oils on panel, 13"x15½", signed and signed and inscribed verso. A silvery sky magically filters pale gold light onto the landscape. The moving clouds cast deep shadows in the foreground evoking memories of the Yorkshire coast that he had left many years previously. View larger image Price: £4,500.00


In the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset Oils on panel, 7½"x9½", signed and signed again verso, inscribed with title and dated 1927. Full of sunshine and shadow, this wind-blown picture is painted with streaks and curves of thick paint using a dry brush. Rather than keep repeating myself, try exploring the effect of sun, shadow and wind by clicking onto the larger view of this painting of the Isle of Purbeck. The pair to this picture is shown below and the price is for the pair. View larger image Price: £6,950.00


	A Silvery Morning near Arne, Dorset. Oils on panel, 7½"x9½", signed and signed again verso, inscribed with title and dated 1927. Friedenson has painted this picture ofd Arne in Dorset in the same manner as its pair. Deceptively simple at first sight, the harder you look the more you get back from this painting: silvery sky, gentle silvery lightpervading everything and a soft silver mist rising from the base of the hills. Look for small details by clicking on the larger image and see how they enhance the composition. The price is for the pair. View larger image Price: £6,950.00


Near Rodbourne, Gloucestershire Oils on panel, 12¼"x15½", signed. Inscribed verso with 'Near Rodburough, Gloucestershire' and signed again by Arthur Friedenson: bears exhibition label (No.1) with same information and price of £33; bears label of James Bourlet & Sons Ltd. A blue summer sky is partially obscured by swiftly-blown cumulous clouds illuminated from the left by the hidden sun. The strong wind bends the branches of the trees causing their thatch of leaves to wave wildly. The racing clouds cast moving shadows across the landscape. View larger image Price: £4,500.00


	Daffodils in a Dorset Landscape Oils on panel, 13"x16", this painting full of daffodils is from the Studio Collection of Arthur Friedenson. A lovely Spring day with diffused light filtering downwards to intensify the soft gold of the daffodils. View larger image Price: £3,250.00


Cattle Grazing, Thruxton, Hampshire April 1909, signed by Arthur Friedenson, inscribed on reverse, oil on board, 10½"x14". Ex Studio Collection. Another painting which glories in the juxtaposition of strong sunlight and shadow and which gives the sky and landscape equal importance. View larger image Price: £3,500.00


	Study of a Dartmoor Road Oils on board, 6½"x10", inscribed verso Study of a Dartmoor Road and signed Arthur Friedenson. Ex Studio Collection. This charming little picture presents another opportunity to buy a work by Friedenson at a very reasonable price. View larger image Price: £595.00


Arthur Friedenson Friedenson was, I believe from all available evidence I’ve yet found, born in Manchester to Russian - Polish parents but spent most of his youth in Leeds. (apart from what appears to be a two year return to Russia when he was very young). He began studying art seriously when he was apprenticed to a sign writer in the Leeds. He was precocious as an artist and had his first painting accepted for exhibition by the Royal Academy when he was only seventeen. He had, by the, changed his given name to Arthur. A year later, in 1890, he enrolled at the Acade´mie Julian and two years on from that, at the Academy in Antwerp, getting to know Henry Hopwood at both establishments. He spent time at the Acade´mie Julian again in 1896. The year that he began his studies in Paris, he spent the summer lodging with Mr. and Mrs George Porritt in Staithes together with Harold Knight and another Nottingham artist, A.P. Allsebrook. He used this base as his summer lodgings for some years, Allsebrook being replaced in the household by Fred Mayor. Like Mayor, Friedenson was a keen cricketer and used to play in local matches. He was a founder member of the Staithes Art Club in 1901. In time Friedenson deserted Staithes for Runswick where he stayed at the Runswick Bay Hotel. It was in that village that he met Lily Watson, the daughter of the Principal of the Harrogate School of Art. They married in 1906 and the couple moved South to Dorset in 1909. He painted many scenes around Wareham, Poole and Thruxton in Hampshire making spectacular use of everything he learned in Staithes about the interaction of sky and the landscape beneath. As he grew older, Friedenson suffered from depression and found it harder to paint. Sir Winston Churchill was a great admirer of his work and organised a Civil List pension for him when it became increasingly difficult for Friedenson and his wife to cope financially. Many of his later paintings mirror this depression, with dark and moody skies casting their shadow on the landscape below. Glimmers of sunshine often light up sections of the cloud and streak downwards to relieve the gloom of the countryside below, and I like to believe that this also reflects lighter moments in his life at the time. This type of painting by Friedenson is powerful and emotive and demonstrates a unique vision which elevates most examples far above the level of simple depictions of cloudy days. His earlier work is more concerned with sunlight than with cloud and often contains lively renditions of people, boats and the sea; wind and movement still stir the surface of his canvases and light filtering through mist imbues them with tranquillity. I challenge anyone to show me work by a painter who can depict sunlight, shadow and wind better than Friedenson. Friedenson exhibited at the Royal Society of Artists, Birmingham, the Fine Art Society, the Glasgow Institute of fine Arts, the Goupil Gallery, the International Society, the Walker Gallery, Liverpool, Manchester City Art Gallery, the New English Art Club, the New Gallery, the Royal Academy, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Royal Scottish Academy and the Yorkshire Union of Artists of which he was a Vice President. Runswick Bay, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1907, was bought for the Tate Gallery (now the Tate Britain) through the Chantrey bequest. His work is also hung in public galleries in Aberdeen, Birkenhead, Bradford, Bournemouth, Leeds, Liverpool and Whitby. Bibliography: Staithes Group Centenary Exhibition, Rosamund Jordan 2003 The Staithes Group, Peter Phillips, Phillips and Sons, Marlow1993 The Yorkshire Union of Artists 1888 - 1922, Dennis Child, Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society Ltd, Leeds 2001 The Dictionary of British Artists 1880 -1940, J. Johnson & A. Greutzner, Antique Collectors’ Club, Woodbridge 1976 © Rosamund Jordan 2006

Staithes Group Art :English Landscape Paintings of the 20th Century:Arthur A. Friedenson 1872 - 1955