Sir Francis Job "Frank" Short PPRE (19 June 1857 – 22 April 1945) was a British printmaker and teacher of

printmaking Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed techniq ...

. He revived the practices of

mezzotint Mezzotint is a monochrome printmaking process of the '' intaglio'' family. It was the first printing process that yielded half-tones without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple. Mezzotint achieves tonali ...

and pure

aquatint Aquatint is an intaglio printmaking technique, a variant of etching that produces areas of tone rather than lines. For this reason it has mostly been used in conjunction with etching, to give both lines and shaded tone. It has also been used h ...

, while expanding the expressive power of line in

drypoint Drypoint is a printmaking technique of the intaglio (printmaking), intaglio family, in which an image is incised into a plate (or "matrix") with a hard-pointed "needle" of sharp metal or diamond point. In principle, the method is practically ident ...

etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...

and

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ...

. Short also wrote about printmaking to educate a wider public and was President of the Royal Society of Painter Etcher & Engavers (now styled the

Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers The Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers (RE), known until 1991 as the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers, is a leading art institution based in London, England. The Royal Society of Painter-Etchers, as it was originally styled, was ...

) from 1910 to 1938. He was a member of the

Art Workers' Guild The Art Workers' Guild is an organisation established in 1884 by a group of British painters, sculptors, architects, and designers associated with the ideas of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. The guild promoted the 'unity of a ...

and was elected Master in 1901.

Biography

Francis (Frank) Job Short was born on 19 June 1857, in Wollaston, a suburb of

Stourbridge Stourbridge is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands, England, situated on the River Stour. Historically in Worcestershire, it was the centre of British glass making during the Industrial Revolution. The 20 ...

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

. He was first educated to be a

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

. Short was engaged on various works in the Midlands until 1881, when he came to London as assistant to Baldwin Latham in connection with the Parliamentary Inquiry into the pollution of the

river Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

. In 1883 he was elected an associate member of the

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, whi ...

. Having studied at the Stourbridge School of Art in his early years he joined the

South Kensington School of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...

(the first name of the current Royal College of Art) in 1883. Short also studied at the life class under Professor Fred Brown at the

Westminster School of Art The Westminster School of Art was an art school in Westminster, London. History The Westminster School of Art was located at 18 Tufton Street, Deans Yard, Westminster, and was part of the old Royal Architectural Museum. H. M. Bateman described ...

, and for a short time at the Schools of the

Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours The Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (RI), initially called the New Society of Painters in Water Colours, is one of the societies in the Federation of British Artists, based in the Mall Galleries in London. History In 1831 the so ...

His real life-work now became that of an original and translator engraver. He was a keen student of the works of

J. M. W. Turner Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbulen ...

; and his etchings and mezzotints from Turner's ''

Liber Studiorum ''Liber Studiorum'' () is a collection of prints by J. M. W. Turner. The collected works included seventy-one prints that he worked on and printed from 1807 to 1819. For the production of the prints, Turner created the etchings for the prints, ...

'' (1885 seq.), examples of painstaking devotion and skill, were among his earliest successes, combining sympathetic study of the originals with a full knowledge of the resources of engraving and unwearied patience. Short received praise, constant advice and encouragement from

John Ruskin 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 ...

, and the co-operation of students of Turner such as

William George Rawlinson William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Eng ...

and the Revd.

Stopford Augustus Brooke Stopford Augustus Brooke (14 November 1832 – 18 March 1916) was an Irish churchman, royal chaplain and writer. He was born in the rectory of Glendoen, near Letterkenny, Donegal, Ireland, of which parish his maternal grandfather, Joseph Stopfo ...

. After completing the series from the existing plates of Turner's "Liber" Short turned to the subjects which Turner and his assistants had left incomplete. Several remarkable plates resulted from this study, bearing the simple lettering "F. Short, Sculp., after J. M. W. Turner, R.A.," which told little of the work expended on their production even before the copper was touched. He was consulted by Whistler for his expertise in printmaking and became friends. Short also reproduced in fine mezzotints several pictures of

George Frederick Watts George Frederic Watts (23 February 1817, in London – 1 July 1904) was a British painter and sculptor associated with the Symbolist movement. He said "I paint ideas, not things." Watts became famous in his lifetime for his allegorical wor ...

, "Orpheus and Eurydice," "Diana and Endymion," "Love and Death," "Hope," and the portrait of

Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Go ...

, all remarkable as faithful and imaginative renderings. His own fine quality as a watercolour painter made him also a sympathetic engraver of the landscapes of David Cox and

Peter de Wint Peter De Wint (21 January 1784 – 30 January 1849) was an English landscape painter. A number of his pictures are in the National Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum and The Collection, Lincoln. He died in London. Biography De Wint was ...

. A blue plaque marks Short's former home from 1898 to 1927 at

56 Brook Green 56 Brook Green is a Grade II listed building at 56 Brook Green, Hammersmith, London, W6 7BJ. The house dates from the mid-19th century. It was lived in by the printmaker and artist Frank Short Sir Francis Job "Frank" Short PPRE (19 June ...

Brook Green Brook Green is an affluent London neighbourhood in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It is located approximately west of Charing Cross. It is bordered by Kensington, Holland Park, Shepherd's Bush, Hammersmith and Brackenbury V ...

, Hammersmith, London.

Works

Coastal landscapes, river estuaries, meadows and foreshores in Devon, Norfolk, Sussex, Cornwall and the north of England captivated him for his entire working life. Short's subtle and reticent drawing of the receding lines of the low banks and shallows of river estuaries and flat shores can be seen in many of his original etchings, mezzotints, and aquatints, notably "Low Tide and the Evening Star" and "The Solway at Mid-day." Other notable plates are: *"Gathering the Flock on Maxwell Bank," a

soft-ground etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...

*"New moon over the Bure", aquatint *"The Ferry over the Blyth," "Walberswick Pier," soft-ground *"Dutch Greengrocery," "Noon on the Zuider Zee," "De-venter," "Strolling Players at Lydd," "The clay pit", and "Staithes," all etchings *"A Wintry Blast on the Stourbridge Canal," "Peveril's Castle," and "Niagara Falls," dry points *"The Curfew," "A Span of old Battersea Bridge," and "Sunrise on Whitby Scaur," aquatints *"Moonrise, Ramsgate", "Orion over the Thames", "The Night Picket Boat at Hammersmith", "The Shadowed Valley", "Headlights over the Hill, Seaford", "The Angry Cloud, Seaford", "Exceat Farm and Hindover Hill, Alfriston near Seaford, Sussex", "Ebbtide, Putney Bridge," "The Weary Moon was in the Wane," "Solway Fishers," "The Lifting Cloud," and "A Slant of Light in Polperro Harbour," mezzotints. As head of the Engraving School at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...

, South Kensington from 1892 to 1920 and the inaugural Professor of Engraving from 1920 to 1924, Short had enormous influence on younger painter-etchers and engravers, including Myra Kathleen Hughes RE, Percival Gaskell RE, Margaret Kemp-Welch RE, Martin Hardin RE, Job Nixon RE, Robert Austin RA, PPRE, Mary Annie Sloane, ARE, Malcolm Osborne RA, PPRE, Henry Rushbury RA, RE, Dorothy Woollard RE, Frederick Griggs RA, RE, Stanley Anderson RA, RE,

Constance Mary Pott Constance Mary Pott (22 January 1862 – 18 January 1957National Probate Calendar, 1957.), Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, RE, was an English Printmaking, printmaker and teacher active during the late nineteenth century and the twentieth ce ...

, and Eli Marsden Wilson ARE amongst many others. It is well recorded that Short was an outstanding and inspirational teacher. 56 Brook Green, Hammersmith, London 03

Short was elected a member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers in 1885, and took a prominent part in conducting its affairs, becoming assessor (vice-president) in 1902. In 1910 he succeeded Sir

Francis Seymour Haden Sir Francis Seymour Haden PPRE (16 September 1818 – 1 June 1910), was an English surgeon, better known as an original etcher who championed original printmaking. He was at the heart of the Etching Revival in Britain, and one of the founder ...

as its second president for 28 years, steering the society through the First World War and the end of the

etching revival The etching revival was the re-emergence and invigoration of etching as an original form of printmaking during the period approximately from 1850 to 1930. The main centres were France, Britain and the United States, but other countries, such as t ...

of the 1920s and its crash from 1929. Short received, amongst other distinctions, the gold medal for engraving at the Paris International Exhibition, 1889, and another gold medal for mezzotint (Rappel) 1900. In 1906 Short was elected an

Associate of the Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...

, when membership as Associate Engraver was revived; and in 1911 he was elected a full

Royal Academician The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

, and also received a knighthood. His work as a watercolourist was recognised in 1917 when he was elected a member of the

. Short was Treasurer of the Royal Academy from 1919 to 1932. Short wrote several influential books on original printmaking: "On the Making of Etchings" was first published in 1888 and republished in 1911, 1912, 1951 and is still in print today. "British Mezzotints" from 1924 is a standard reference on original mezzotints. ''The Etched and Engraved Work of Frank Short'', a catalogue raisonne by Martin Hardie, in three volumes : Liber Studiorum; II: Mezzotints and Aquatints; III: Etchings and Lithographs(Print Collector's Club, London, 1938–40) catalogues and describes 399 prints (many illustrated). Previously, a work with the same title by Edward F Strange (1908), describes 285 plates by the artist. In October 2018 a new book about Short was published. ''Short's Sussex'' explores the works he did in Sussex in his later life, and includes 40 images. Amongst many galleries and museums that hold examples of Frank Short's prints include: *

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, New York City *

Victoria & Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

Rye Art Gallery is a small town and civil parish in the Rother district of East Sussex, England, two miles from the sea at the confluence of three rivers: the Rother, the Tillingham and the Brede. An important member of the mediaeval Cinque Ports confederat ...

, Sussex *

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and most visited art museum. The NGV houses an encyclopedic art collection across two ...

, Melbourne, Australia

References

*
''The etched and engraved work of Frank Short, A.R.A., R.E.'', Edward F. Strange, 1908, (George Allen & Sons, London)

External links

*

* ttp://ericslater.co.uk/short.html ''Short's Sussex'', a 2018 book on his work in the county {{DEFAULTSORT:Short, Frank 1857 births 1945 deaths 19th-century engravers 20th-century engravers English engravers English printmakers English watercolourists People from Stourbridge 19th-century English painters English male painters 20th-century English painters 20th-century British printmakers Royal Academicians Masters of the Art Worker's Guild 20th-century English male artists 19th-century English male artists

Biography

Works

References

Further reading

External links