Framing a Benjamin Williams Leader Landscape

Just finished framing this spectacular 1875 Alpine landscape oil painting by British artist Benjamin Williams Leader (1831 - 1923), titled "The Wetterhorn from Rosenlaui." At 72" x 60" it has a powerful presence (see last photo for scale). Commissioned by a Member of Parliament, John Derby Allcroft, the year it was painted it was displayed at the Royal Academy, where Leader's work was shown in every summer exhibition from 1854 through 1922.

We made a 6" wide stained quartersawn white oak compound frame with a chamfered mortise-and-tenon flat and gilt oak liner. The chamfer has carved points that articulate the corners with a detail that also picks up a form pervasive in the painting.

Corner detail

Below is the painting in its old Victorian makeshift frame—a conventional 19th century exhibition frame heavy on compo (molded plaster-like material meant to pass itself off as carving).

Clearly influenced by John Ruskin's pleas to painters to go to nature, to see her both truly and reverently—and sharing with Ruskin a passion for the Swiss Alps—Leader contributed in his way to the great project of re-framing art, led by Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelites. I wonder if, while breaking with convention on the canvas itself, he followed the Pre-Raphaelites, Whistler and others to make his ideals real in the form of the picture frame itself. If so, I hope our efforts would have met with his approval.

This is the third Leader we've had the privilege of framing. Another is on my site, here.

The painting with Eric Johnson next to it to give a sense of scale (Eric's over 6' tall).

Framing Dwight Clay Holmes

We just framed this 20" x 16" canvas by Texan Dwight Clay Holmes (1900-1986) titled "Red Bud".

I was especially pleased with the form of the frame profile as an enhancement to both the graceful use of line in the painting (hence the reeding) and the loose brush work (hence the coarse, wild figured quartersawn white oak as well as the carved convex sight edge element). This frame is similar to one on the Charles Partridge Adams, below, which I wrote about here.

I realize these are pretty similar to the frame on the Louis Apol a couple of entries back. But it's useful to compare three ostensibly similar frames with nevertheless significant differences when considered with respect to the pictures they're on.

Framing Louis Apol

Here's a notable historical work for you. Just framed this beautiful European landscape by Louis Apol (Dutch, 1850-1936), "A Forest in Winter" (oil on canvas, 32 x 25). (Click image for a larger view.)

The stained quartersawn white oak frame is a 4-1/2" wide slope with a carved cushion sight edge. The double reeding outside the cushion, with carved stops near the corners are a nod to the delicate strokes that define the trees, and give the frame a degree of refinement in sympathy with the artist's well-honed touch. The 1/4" gilt slip catches the sunlight. We were aiming for a suitably rustic but sensitive feel, a quiet mood, simple. No "before" shot of this in a gold frame, but can you see how the dark wood suits the painting much better than a gold one would? How it's like the shadows in the painting, and how the shadowy feel of the frame leads your eye to the picture and acts as a foil to the picture, and in particular to the sunlight? And, of course, the rustic feel connects you to the rustic subject matter much more successfully than would a gold frame.

Below is a corner sample of the frame design (without the carved stops on the reeding).

Framing Grueby Tiles

We just finished framing a batch of Grueby tiles for a customer in Ohio. Something simple but alive to these very lovely and historic items. A pleasure! (Click images to view larger.)

Framing a Grueby Tile

We just shipped out this beautiful 6" Grueby tulip tile to a customer in Ohio. The soft and subtle form of the leaves suggested a very feminine frame and inspired this adaptation of our Holland profile.

For more on framing Arts and Crafts tiles, see this older entry.

Framing a small Edward Curtis—Another Carved Corner Design

Recently framed this small original Edward Curtis photogravure of Apache Indians for a couple in Texas. The print had wide margins, but we wanted the effect of framing it close so used a lap-joined flat — kind of a wooden mat, although on top of the glass. We've taken this approach a number of times before.

 Also wanted to show the carved corner design. Both the corner design and the chamfer on the flat, which has 45 degree angled stops, echo the headdresses in the photo.

Framing Charles Partridge Adams—Simple Corner Carving

We recently got to frame this early twentieth century landscape by Charles Partridge Adams (1858-1942). At just 10" x 14", it's humble in size as well as subject matter, and loosely painted—all aspects suggesting a fairly simple frame with a bit of carving.

The tree trunks brought to mind the profile we'd come up with a few months ago for Paul Kratter's view of Lake Tahoe, "Twisted Pine Above Emerald Bay," below—a flat with a double reed near the sight edge and a carved flattened ovolo (convex form) at the sight edge—but I thought I'd refine it a little, adapting it to Adams's more "dapple-y" style.  

So I decided to enhance the lines formed by the double reeds. So added a simple pattern of carved stops to the reeds near the corners. I'm pleased with the effect. I'd like to do more with simple corner carving this year.

Framing Contemporary Paintings—Andrij Korchynsky

This recent job offers a simple lesson in two key elements in frame design: line and form.

We just framed this contemporary painting by Ukrainian-American artist Andrij Korchynsky. Despite the loose style, the sweeping lines and angularity of the roofs suggested the form of the profile—a broad flat sweeping up to a scoop and then beveling back. With respect to line, a narrow raised panel at the sight edge, at the same width as the lines defining the structures, adopts the painter's standard. A 1/4" liner oil-gilded with 23 kt gold leaf gives it just the right highlight in keeping with the painting's palette.

The wood is quartersawn white oak with Saturated Medieval Oak stain.

Framing Kevin Courter in Compound Polyptych

A customer recently commissioned Kevin Courter to paint three cottages on his rural northern California property, then had us frame the three 8 x 10's. Here it is:

The idea was to create a frame alive to the soft edges as well as architectural subject matter.

Re-framing Thaddeus Welch

Thaddeus Welch (1844-1919) was one of the great historic California landscape painters. This classic bucolic hillside scene by Welch came in recently, the customer looking to free it from a typical period compo frame which he rightly judged to be pretentious and unsuitable to the rustic spirit of the painting.

Before

Here it is in its new quartersawn white oak frame in a dark stain matching the shadows and sympathetic with the forms of the hills, with simple fine beading to pick up the delicate line work in the painting (especially the trees)—and much more suitable to the spirit of nature that so moved Welch.

After

Sharon Calahan Medals in OPA Western Regional!

Sharon Calahan came home from the Oil Painters of America Western Regional Exhibition this weekend with a Bronze Medal! Her painting is "June Pasture," 20" x 40". We had framed it in a quartersawn white oak compound flat with carved sight edge.

Congratulations, Sharon!

A Chamfered Mirror

John Ruskin wrote, "to those who love Architecture, the life and accent of the hand are everything."

One age-old kind of handwork is chamfering, and its application to frames is one of the greatest joys in my work.

This is a quartersawn white oak mirror I just made for a customer to give as a wedding gift. It measures 34" x 22", and features a carved initial "S" at the top and the year at the bottom.

Here's the story, with pictures, of its making.

Re-framing Hanson Puthuff

The landscape paintings of Hanson Puthoff (1875-1972) made a major contribution to California's rich heritage of landscape painting. Unfortunately, his pieces did not always find their way into frames that do them justice. Here's one example we had the honor of re-framing this week, taking it out of a machine-made, gold painted compo setting and putting it in a handcrafted, carved quartersawn oak frame. Here it is before and after:

 A well-made, simple home. A 3" bevel profile (canvas is 11-1/2" x 15") with a 45 degree carved chamfer sight edge. Close-ups:

Here's a profile view of the frame:

"Als Ik Kan": Hephaestus's Imperfect Frame

A new entry for the quotes on the page, "Re-framing Art":

"Als Ik Kan"

   

William Morris "Si Je Puis" tile from Red House

If the Arts and Crafts Movement can be said to have a motto, it is surely "Als Ik Kan." First assumed by William Morris—more famously in its French form, "Si Je Puis"—it was further popularized by Gustav Stickley through the marks on his furniture and in his magazine The Craftsman. What does the motto mean, where did it originate, and why did these re-framers of art find it so significant?

"Kevin Courter: From Dusk to Dawn" is posted

The last of Kevin Courter's paintings for his upcoming show, "From Dusk to Dawn," is in, and it's a great example of a theme he's been having a lot of fun with for the last few months. This is called "Evening's Solitude," and it's 8 x 16. The frame, No. 1.4 CV, is one we use often, as it's so versatile, simple and effective.

Hope you'll put the show on your calendar. It opens Saturday, February 26, with a reception for the artist from 4 to 6 in the evening.

Framing J Bond Francisco

Recently framed this John Bond Francisco , designing the setting to echo playfully with the massive green frame at the center of the painting. This little oil, 12" x 8", depicts the artist's San Francisco studio around the turn of the century. The frame profile's a No. 16—a plain flat mitered frame with a chamfered (45 degree bevel) sight edge. Chose a flat profile to go with the relatively shallow depth of field and flat object—the painting—that's the focus of the piece. But the angles and design of the stove suggested the chamfer. A bit wider than I normally would've used on a piece this size, but in keeping with the proportions of the depicted frame on its painting. Going as green as the frame in the painting would have sacrificed the harmony of painting and frame, but rubbed green paint in to the grain of the oak to resonate with the frame in the picture.The liner is oak with gold leaf. All is simple as the room depicted—simple, but fun!

Framing Ludmilla Welch

 

We've had the privilege of framing more and more historical work, and this past month got to re-frame this sweet oil painting, "Foggy Morning," (10" x 17") by Ludmilla Welch, who with her husband Thaddeus Welch, worked in San Francisco at the turn of the century. It's in a very low slope Century Series 3" wide profile in stained quartersawn white oak.

True Grit: See us on the big screen!

Early last year I got to brag here that we'd gotten a call from the set designers for the Coen Brothers remake of the classic western, True Grit. Well, as you're probably aware, the film is out and doing gangbusters at the box office. If you look closely, you'll see our frames (the oak ones—NOT the gold ones, of course) in the courthouse scenes near the beginning, in which Rooster Cogburn and Mattie Ross first meet up. 

From Gold to Oak—I: Re-Framing Rosa Bonheur Stags

Have you ever looked at a painting and realized that you were fighting to see past the frame, that the frame was actually inhibiting you from seeing the painting? Maybe you've held your hands up to one eye and used them to block out the frame. That was very much my reaction—and I suspect the reaction of the customer who brought it to me—when I first laid eyes on this sweet little oil by the great French painter Rosa Bonheur. The elaborate, swirly gold frame was so imperious, showy and unsympathetic to everything about the picture—the subject, palette, line work, forms and, above all, the rustic spirit—that it actually felt laborious to really study and appreciate the painting itself. (The owner was also seeking a frame that would be more suitable to the painting's destination in a log home.) At just a little over 8" x 6", it was being eaten alive by some past owner's or dealer's insecurities (it didn't help that a makeshift gold colored liner had been used to make the painting fit a 10" x 8" frame). The poor creature appears inexplicably displaced to some Parisian bank manager's parlor, and seems to stare at us as if to say, "What the heck am I doing here?"

Relief finally came when I removed the work from its setting and could enjoy this stately fellow that Mademoiselle Bonheur had distinguished so skillfully. Seeing past the significance of the painting and refusing to be awed by the signature in order to appreciate the work itself, I could craft no better solution than this plain and simple 2-5/8" wide flattened scoop with a single bead at the sight edge. At last, we can see the painting without effort, and the stag is in his natural habitat, warily watching us as intruders of his home.

A larger Bonheur of similar subject matter came in about a year later, with a similarly overbearing frame. Damaged in transit, the composition—or "compo"—breaking off demonstrates the dubious

 service of frames like this as protectors of paintings, not to mention the debased character of compo as fake carving. At 22" x 18", this canvas called for a larger and stronger frame, although with the same approach to line and form which we'd taken with framing the earlier painting.

The suitably rustic spirit of the quartersawn white oak frame molded to harmonize in line and form with this quiet but accomplished work, a dark stain to lead the eye to the lighter painting (the eye goes to light; frames are generally more successful when they're darker than the picture), and a touch of pale gold leaf on oak at the sight edge to echo the painting's contrasts and lend a note of honor to this noble beast all contribute to a setting that sustains and expands the spirit of this fine work and allows us at last to see and admire the painting.

Framing Arts and Crafts Tiles

Suitable frames for tiles are hard to come by—especially as the old tiles in particular become more highly treasured: folks want to do them proud, but production frames on small works of real handcraft only accentuate their makeshift nature. Yes, tile frames are easy to overdo, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with a totally plain frame. But tiles are highly architectural, which makes them similar to paintings in being able to hold up to substantial frames. Having relief helps them in this respect as well. I want to show a few examples of what can be done with an exceptional tile that you might want to feature in your home with a frame that both protects and suitably honors it. It's also an opportunity to demonstrate what a single key design element can do for any piece of art.

This first piece, above, is a Grueby tile—a great and iconic Arts and Crafts piece familiar to many. At just 6" x 6" it wanted a restrained treatment. The fine line work suggested the two fine beads for the sight edge of the frame, while the cove (between the beads) provided a gentle means of focusing the eye on and taking the viewer in to the quiet mood of the piece.

The second example is another Grueby piece—an insignia tile in a diagonal format which offered an enjoyable challenge. We focused on the format of the of the piece to suggest an interesting design. This is two mitered frames with floating panels in the triangular spaces. I had fun using the ray flake to create kind of a sunburst effect.

The third example is a round trivet tile with a scene rendered in carved lines. Trevor expertly carved a line of the same size and shape (a small flute) just outside the circular window.

The series above is contemporary, made by Carreux de Nord out of Wisconsin. The wonderful line work in these needed only a complementary rectilinear treatment of the frame. A mortise-and-tenon flat was used for its architectural character and and to enhance the horizontal format of the tiles. This frame in particular could be hung to achieve great mural feeling. A mitered cap molding was chosen to contain and delineate the whole composition. What beautiful work these tile makers do!

Finally, another mortise-and-tenon frame we made years ago for a Rookwood Thistle tile. Again, the frame couldn't be simpler, except for the chamfer that amplifies the lines of the tile.

Of course, in all these examples, beautifully flaked quartersawn oak provides a great deal of interest as well as suitable material for Arts and Crafts items as well as the homes they're likely to reside in.

All these frames are flat, in keeping with the decorative flat treatment of the tiles, relying on just one element in the frame to echo a key element in the tile. But that's enough to achieve the frame's goal of sustaining and expanding the spirit of an artwork into the architectural realm and the life of the setting in which it will take its place.

View Tiles and Reliefs section of the Portfolio...