‘The Reaper’ is an etching made by William Strang in the late 19th Century. It is one of some 25 etchings by Strang in the collection of Tony Sargeant. Most are in a portfolio and unframed although there is a famous portrait etching of Laurence Binyon which is framed and hangs in the stairwell of his Shropshire home.
Sir Frank William Brangwyn RA RWS RBA (12 May 1867 – 11 June 1956) was an Anglo-Welsh artist, painter, water colourist, engraver, illustrator and progressive designer. This etching sates from 1907. It was bought framed in a collection of other works including one by William Strang RA, and another Fine Art Society print, ‘Ivy’, a ‘Herkomergravure’ by Sir Hubert von Herkomer, CVO, RA, by Tony Sargeant at auction.
JB Clark shown above in a detail from a portrait etching was a collaborator of the Scottish artist and etcher William Strang RA. The powerful portrait etching in in the collection of Anthony J Sargeant.
Born in 1859 Strang became a Royal Academician in 1921 the year he died.
He enrolled at the Slade School of Art in London in 1876, aged seventeen, and studied under the school’s newly-appointed professor, the French Realist Alphonse Legros (1837–1911). Legros had introduced a continental style of teaching which focused on the importance of fine draughtsmanship and drawing from life. Having been a leading member of the etching revival in France, Legros also introduced an etching class. Strang clearly excelled here, and served as Assistant Master in the etching class for two years after graduating. Legros’s teaching, and his ideas, had a profound and lasting influence on the young artist, who described his old master as ‘the greatest teacher that ever lived, because he was the greatest artist who ever taught’.
During his lifetime, Dumbarton-born William Strang (1859 – 1921) built up an international reputation as a highly skilled and imaginative printmaker, portraitist and painter. His diverse subjects ranged from the fantastic to the very real, including uncompromising depictions of contemporary life and the effects of poverty and social injustice, landscapes, subjects from the bible, bewildering allegories, and narrative illustrations. He was also a prolific and highly successful portraitist.
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