Lot 37: Edward Reginald Frampton, R.O.I., R.B.A. (1870-1923)

Edward Reginald Frampton, R.O.I., R.B.A. (1870-1923)
The Nativity
signed 'E Reginald Frampton' (lower right)
oil on canvas
42 1/8 x 28 in. (107 x 71.1 cm.)

London, Royal Academy, 1922, no. 737.

The Royal Academy Illustrated, London, 1922, illustrated, p. 115.

Frampton's very schematic style, while owing much to his deep involvement in mural painting and stained glass, was also the cumulative result of many influences. As a young man he was in thrall to the Italian 'primitives', Puvis de Chavannes and Burne-Jones, whose retrospective exhibition at the New Gallery in 1892 struck him, we are told, 'with the force of a revelation'. Later he was moved more by the early Flemish masters, while responding, like Gauguin and his followers a generation earlier, to the artistic traditions and deeply religious character of Brittany.

Frampton's work is replete with symbolism, and our picture is a variation on one of his favourite themes, that of the Virgin and Child with attendant angels. Two outstanding examples have appeared in these Rooms in recent years: The Gothic Tower of 1913 on 11 June 1993 (lot 97) and Our Lady of Promise of 1915 on 16 December 2009 (lot 28). In both pictures the Virgin and Child are seen seated in front of an ornate Gothic tower symbolising the triumph of Christianity while broken classical columns in the foreground represent 'the decay and ruin of the old paganism'. Choirs of angels or putti hover in the sky and the figures are seated on a carpet of crocusses and other spring flowers, no doubt a further image of spiritual re-birth.

The present picture, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1922, seven years later than Our Lady of Promise and one year before the artist's death, in some ways looks back to these earlier compositions but in others marks a significant development. The Madonna, Child and angels are still present, but the Virgin, instead of being seated beside the Child, kneels before Him in adoration. Meanwhile the tower has disappeared, to be replaced by a rudimentary stable. The broken columns are also dispensed with, being redundant now that the tower has gone, although the spring flowers, which were not so dependent on this image, are retained.