Christopher Bramham (born 1952) is a painter from Britain.

Biography

Bramham was born in

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

. He studied at Bradford School of Art from 1970 to 1971, followed by Kingston upon Thames Art School from 1971 to 1973. From 1975 to 1986 he worked as a part-time teacher in various art colleges in London before holding his first solo exhibition, at the

Fine Art Society The Fine Art Society is a gallery based in both London and in Edinburgh's New Town (originally Bourne Fine Art, established 1978). The New Bond Street, London gallery closed its doors in August 2018 after being occupied by The Fine Art Society si ...

in London in 1988. Bramham was a close friend of the artist

Lucian Freud Lucian Michael Freud (; 8 December 1922 – 20 July 2011) was a British painter and draughtsman, specialising in figurative art, and is known as one of the foremost 20th-century English portraitists. He was born in Berlin, the son of Jewis ...

, whom he first met in 1982. Freud painted Bramham alone in 1989, and again with Bramham's children, Polly and Barney, in 1990. They also exhibited together at the Browse and Darby Gallery in London in 2007, in a three-person show along with the painter Duncan Wood. Prior to this Bramham exhibited at Marlborough Fine Art in London in the 1990s, and again in 2002. Bramham has work in the collection of the British Council, and the Elaine and Melvin Merians Collection, and he was included in the exhibition of this latter collection at the

Yale Center for British Art Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the worl ...

in New Haven, in 2000. Bramham lives and works in

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

and is represented by Marlborough Fine Art in London.

Style and influences

Bramham is predominantly a landscape painter, although he has also painted interiors and still lives, and his landscape views are frequently of objects in the natural landscape seen close to rather than traditional landscape vistas. In this he has been described as

Ruskinian John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and politi ...

for the way he probes "into nooks and crannies of the natural world". As this reviewer also notes, however, more contemporary comparisons can be made, and Bramham has been associated with the School of London artists, particularly Lucian Freud, and artists such as

Peter Doig Peter Doig ( ; born 17 April 1959) is a Scottish painter. One of the most renowned living figurative painters, he has settled in Trinidad since 2002. In 2007, his painting ''White Canoe'' sold at Sotheby's for $11.3 million, then an auction rec ...

and

Tony Bevan Tony Bevan (born 1951) is a British painter, known for his psychologically charged images of people at the edge of respectable society. Biography Bevan was born in Bradford, Yorkshire. He studied at Bradford School of Art from 1968 to 1971, fo ...

. His images are built up slowly, with layers of paint applied, according to the art critic Andrew Lambirth, almost in emulation of the speed at which a plant being depicted might grow. Yet, according to Jonathan Clark, this is not a result of the romanticisation of nature, rather it is that Bramham paints the things that are near by as subject matter is incidental to him. In this it is possible to see some connection with other painters associated with the School of London, as there is a comparison to be made between the coupling of the formalist interest in painting as a medium alongside a direct engagement with aspects of the real world in Bramham and artists such as

and

Frank Auerbach Frank Helmut Auerbach (born 29 April 1931) is a German-British painter. Born in Germany, he has been a naturalised British subject since 1947. He is considered one of the leading names in the School of London, with fellow artists Francis Bacon ...

. In this respect Bramham is essentially a realist painter. Bramham is also well regarded for his drawing skills, and exhibited alongside Paula Rego, Auerbach,

Dennis Creffield Dennis Creffield (29 January 1931 – 26 June 2018) was a British artist with work owned by major British and worldwide art collections, including the Tate Gallery, The British Museum, Arts Council of England, the Government Art Collection, The L ...

and sixty other artists in the exhibition ''Drawing Inspiration: Contemporary British Drawing,'' held at the Abbot Hall Art Gallery,

Kendal Kendal, once Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England, south-east of Windermere and north of Lancaster. Historically in Westmorland, it lies within the dale of th ...

, in 2006.

Deanna Petherbridge Deanna Petherbridge (born 1939) is an artist, writer and curator. Petherbridge's practice is drawing-based (predominantly pen and ink drawings on paper), although she has also produced large-scale murals and designed for the theatre. Her publicati ...

''Drawing Inspiration: Contemporary British Drawing,'' exh. cat. (Kendal: Abbot Hall Art Gallery, 2006)

References

External links

Brian Sewell on Christopher Bramham
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bramham, Christopher 1952 births Living people 20th-century British painters British male painters 21st-century British painters Modern painters Artists from Bradford Alumni of Kingston University 20th-century British male artists 21st-century British male artists

Biography

Style and influences

References

Further reading

External links