Harrington Mann (7 October 1864 – 28 February 1937) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

portrait artist and decorative painter. He was a member of the Glasgow Boys movement in the 1880s.

Art career

Mann was born in Glasgow and began his studies at the Glasgow School of Art. He then studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London under professor

Alphonse Legros Alphonse Legros (8 May 1837 – 8 December 1911) was a French, later British, painter, etcher, sculptor, and medallist. He moved to London in 1863 and later took British citizenship. He was important as a teacher in the British etching rev ...

. He then studied in Paris under the guidance of the figure painters Gustave Boulanger and

Jules-Joseph Lefebvre Jules Joseph Lefebvre (; 14 March 183624 February 1911) was a French figure painter, educator and theorist. Early life Lefebvre was born in Tournan-en-Brie, Seine-et-Marne, on 14 March 1836. He entered the École nationale supérieure des Bea ...

at the

Academie Julian An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, f ...

for a short time. Mann's early paintings from the 1880s are mainly of fishing communities in Yorkshire. He began to develop a name for himself in portrait painting in the 1890s. He had a strong sense of colour and design for decorating interior walls and for stained glass. In the 1890s he designed for the Scottish firm of J. and W. Guthrie (which became Guthrie and Wells). In 1893 he designed the stained glass for the west window of St Bartholomew's Church, Barbon, in what is now Cumbria. In 1900, he moved south to London, also opening a studio in New York, where his paintings became popular. In London, he found success in society portraits, especially of children and including members of the British royal family. Harrington Mann - Lesson Time 1908

Mann's use of colour was influenced by

James McNeill Whistler James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral allusion in painting and was a leading pr ...

. His bold brushwork shows the influence of

John Singer Sargent John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil paintings and more ...

. Mann was one of the founder members of the National Portrait Society in 1911.

Family

He was the second son of John Mann (1827–1910), a chartered accountant, and Mary Newton Harrington (1834–1917), a novelist. John's father was also a painter, John Mann (1797-1827). Mann married the interior decorator Florence Sabine-Pasley (known as Dolly Mann). Mann had three daughters, who appeared in several of his paintings, including Cathleen Sabine, an artist, who married Francis Douglas, 11th Marquess of Queensberry and then J.R. Follett.

Works

Harrington Mann - Alice Marjorie Cunningham and daughters 1902

Mann painted a large number of society portraits, including the following. ; Portraits * ''The Fairy Tale'', 1902 * ''Miss Tibbie Nairn'', 1900 * ''The Red Hat'', 1920 ; Decorative paintings * ''The Study for Mardi Gras'', 1910 ; Landscapes * ''Boy and Black Pigs'', 1886 * ''Tangiers'', 1889 *''Café en Provence,'' 1930 ; Interiors In 1888, Mann painted the interior of the hall of the Ewing Gilmour Institute for Girls, Smollet Street (and Gilmour Street), Alexandria, near Glasgow, designed by John Archibald Campbell. (The building has been known as a Masonic Hall since 1915.)

Exhibitions

Mann's works are today exhibited in the Tate Gallery and in the Glasgow Museums. *

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 pur ...

from 1885 onwards * International Society from 1898 onwards * Leicester Galleries, 1908 (solo)

Reception

'' The Century Magazine'' of 1908 praised Mann and his painting ''A Fairy-Tale''. Mann, the magazine reported, had "always showed singular versatility, having devoted himself by turns to decorative cartoons for stained glass, to mural painting, landscape, genre, and portraiture." The magazine went on "While his likenesses usually maintain a high level of attainment, it is in certain less formal portrait groups that Mr. Mann reveals perhaps the most sympathetic and attractive phase of his talent." Of ''A Fairy-Tale'', the magazine opined that he displayed "refreshing charm and touch of juvenile romance".

Death

Mann died in New York City on 28 February 1937.

References

Bibliography

* Chamot, Mary; Farr, Dennis; Butlin, Martin. ''The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture'', London 1964, II. * Wood, Christopher, ''The Dictionary of Victorian Artists'' 2nd edition, Woodbridge, 1978.

External links

*
Art Renewal Center Museum: Harrington Mann
(paintings by Mann, and 2 photographs of the artist)
Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries: Catalogue of New Portraits by Harrington Mann
1912 (lists 10 portraits inc. Lady Diana Manners)
Duchess of Rutland and Harrington Mann
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mann, Harrington Artists from Glasgow Scottish landscape painters Scottish portrait painters Glasgow School Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Alumni of the Glasgow School of Art Académie Julian alumni 1864 births 1937 deaths 19th-century Scottish painters Scottish male painters 20th-century Scottish painters Scottish people of German descent 19th-century Scottish male artists 20th-century Scottish male artists Society of Eight