The Birmingham Group, sometimes called the Birmingham School, was an informal collective of

painters Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

and

craftsmen Craftsman may refer to: A profession *Artisan, a skilled manual worker who makes items that may be functional or strictly decorative * Master craftsman, an artisan who has achieved such a standard that he may establish his own workshop and take ...

associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement, that worked in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. All of its members studied or taught at the Birmingham School of Art after the reorganisation of its teaching methods by

Edward R. Taylor __NOTOC__ Edward Richard Taylor RBSA (14 June 1838 – 11 January 1911) was an English artist and educator. He painted in both oils and watercolours. He became a member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists in 1879. Biography Taylor ta ...

in the 1880s, and it was the School that formed the group's primary focus. Members of the group also overlapped with other more formal organisations, including the

Birmingham Guild of Handicraft Birmingham Guild of Handicraft was an Arts and Crafts movement, Arts and Crafts organisation operating in Birmingham, England, established at the end of the 19th century. History The Guild began as a loose part of the Birmingham Kyrle Society, t ...

, the

Ruskin Pottery The Ruskin Pottery was an English art pottery studio founded in 1898 by Edward R. Taylor, the first principal of both the Lincoln School of Art and the Birmingham School of Art, to be run by his son, William Howson Taylor, formerly a student th ...

and the

Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts (1898–1966) was a company of modern artists and designers associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement, founded by Walter Gilbert. The guild worked in metal, wood, plaster, bronze, tapestry, glass and ...

. The Group formed one of the last outposts of late

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

in the visual arts, and an important link between the last of the Pre-Raphaelites and the new Slade Symbolism (arts), Symbolists.

History

They began to form in an informal manner in the 1890s. Many were later to become teachers in Birmingham (especially the great Birmingham Municipal School of Art under

), and this meant that the Edward Burne-Jones style influenced all those who studied at the Birmingham art schools. Many were also heavily influenced by the ideas and practices of John Ruskin and William Morris, and had indeed personally known those men. Several had undertaken work for the Kelmscott Press, with Charles March Gere producing the famous frontispiece to ''News from Nowhere''. Many, unable to support themselves only through their art, also became fine crafts makers as well as teachers. There was initially no formal membership, but during the 1930s they were known to have had a membership secretary. Some of their members later became part of the Birmingham Surrealists group of artists, thus carrying to English Surrealism the rich vein of Romantic concern with emotional states in pictures, with myth and fantasy, with visions, and with a "natural supernaturalist" experience conveyed through art. The Birmingham Surrealists had made contact with the London Surrealist Group around 1940 and ex Birmingham Group members such as Emmy Bridgwater exhibited at the International Surrealist show in Paris in 1947. (See: Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, ''Surrealism in Birmingham: 1935–1954'' (2001). The Fine Art Society held an extensive exhibition of Birmingham Group works in 1969. The galleries of the Birmingham Group's works formed a keystone of the major ''The Last Romantics'' exhibition at the Barbican in 1989.

Key works

File:Joseph Southall - Hortus Inclusus.jpg, ''Hortus Inclusus'' (1898) by Joseph Southall File:Kate Elizabeth Bunce - The Keepsake - Google Art Project.jpg, ''The Keepsake'' (1898) by Kate Bunce File:Culhwch (1900).jpg, ''Kilhwych, The King's Son'' (1901) by Arthur Gaskin File:Maxwell Armfield - Tempera - Self-Portrait.jpg, ''Self-Portrait'' (1901) by Maxwell Armfield File:Choosing the Red and White Roses.jpg, ''Choosing the Red and White Roses in the Temple Garden'' (1908) by Henry Payne (artist), Henry Payne

Members

* Maxwell Armfield (1881–1972)Oxford Dictionary of National Biography article by Peyton Skipwith, ‘Armfield, Maxwell Ashby (1881–1972)’, 200

accessed 9 June 2007 * Emmy Bridgwater (1906–1999) * Benjamin Creswick (1853–1946) * Arthur Gaskin (1862–1928) * Celia Levetus (1874-1936) * Conroy Maddox (1912–2005) * Charles March Gere (1869–1957) * John Melville (1902–1986) * Sidney Meteyard (1868–1947) * Edmund Hort New (1871-1931) * Mary J. Newill (1860-1947) * Henry Payne (artist), Henry Payne (1868–1940) * Frederick Cayley Robinson * Bernard Sleigh (1872–1954) * William Smedley-Aston (1868–1941) * Joseph Southall (1861–1944)

References

Bibliography

* {{Citation, last=Crawford, first=Alan, year=1984, contribution=The Birmingham Setting: A Curious Mixture of Bourgeoisie and Romance, editor-last=Crawford, editor-first=Alan, title=By Hammer and Hand: the Arts and Crafts Movement in Birmingham, publication-place=Birmingham, publisher=Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery, pages=27–40, isbn=0709301197 Culture in Birmingham, West Midlands Art movements

History

Key works

Members

See also

References

Bibliography