Paintings and etchings by Edmund Blampied, R.E.
Leicester Galleries, London, March - April 1925
This page is a recreation using monochrome photographs of an exhibition of oil paintings held in 1925.
The photographs were taken for Blampied by the fine art photographers A.C. Cooper, who are still in business. The photos, even though they are in monochrome, give an idea of the sort of scenes that Blampied was painting in oils the early 1920s and the places he had visited and found inspiration: Paris, Annecy and the Basque country of France and Spain.
Many of the photographs are owned by the Blampied family, but Marianne Blampied gave some away to her friends or may have sold some. I bought some at auction. I'd like to thank the Blampied family for allowing me to reproduce the photographs. The catalogue was lent to me by the late Beatrice (Betty) Irvin, the daughter of Blampied's friend John Nicolson, who was sharing a house in Norwood with Edmund and Marianne when this exhibition was held.
I have listed the serial number of the photograph given by A.C. Cooper, recorded on the back or most prints, presumably so that more could be printed from the negatives. This number helps to date the paintings around major exhibitions. The Cooper numbers are given below, when known, with the initials ACC. Cooper's record books of these photographs were destroyed by water during the Second World War.
There were probably oil sketches of all these paintings as two are known, of cat 66 and 75, which are illustrated.
Cover of catalogue (click to enlarge)
List of paintings in catalogue (click to enlarge)
Catalogue number: 61
Title: A Basque Farm
ACC: 28566
Notes: This is one of several scenes of rural France shown in the exhibition. Note that item 87 in the catalogue is a drawing with the same title, perhaps a preparatory sketch.
(Click to enlarge)
Catalogue number: 62
Title: The green vraic cart
ACC: not known
Notes: This image was reproduced in The Bystander in a review of the exhibition.
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Catalogue number: 63
Title: Paris
ACC: 28568
Notes: This could be cat 84 'On the banks of the Seine'.
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Catalogue number: 64
Title: An Annecy Arch, Savoie
ACC: 28538
Notes: This is one of two scenes in Annecy. The arch is called the Porte de Sépulchre et faubourg Ste-Claire, now a pedestrian precinct.
The painting sold at auction in 2014 (Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
Catalogue number: 65
Title: Vraicking. A Spring morning
ACC: 28537
Notes: One of two vraicking scenes, which Blampied called his 'signature tune'.
Painting sold at auction (Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
Catalogue number: 66
Title: Building a Cathedral near Annecy
ACC: 28562
Notes: This is the Basilica of the Visitation, built between 1909 and 1930 on a hill overlooking the town of Annecy. The painting is in the collection of Leeds City Art Gallery.
Oil sketch, in a private collection (Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
Catalogue number: 67
Title: Harvesting in Savoie
ACC: 28534
Notes: A scene near Annecy in Savoie.
(Click to enlarge)
Catalogue number: 68
Title: The three horses
ACC: 28540
Notes: This is was sold at an auction in the USA in the late 1930s.
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Catalogue number: 69
Title: A Jersey Kitchen
ACC: 28557
Notes: This title is guessed from the catalogue. Blampied did other, similar, pictures of this domestic scene.
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Catalogue number: 70
Title: Fontarabia
ACC: 28542
Notes: This is the town of Hondarriba in the Basque country of Spain, just across the border from St Jean de Luz in France. The church is called Santa Maria de La Asuncion y del Manzano.
(Click to enlarge)
Catalogue number: 71
Title: Loading a barge on the Seine
ACC: 28539
Notes: Blampied also designed a drypoint of this scene, but in reverse, entitled 'Shooting rubbish' [CD: 87; AA: 100; AH: 24.3]. It was not published.
(Click to enlarge)
Catalogue number: 72
Title: The house with three trees (Basque)
ACC: 28558
Notes: A preliminary drawing in ink and wash for this painting is shown below. The differences are interesting. In the oil the haystack and haycart are removed and replaced with a wall; an extension has been added to the house; the hills in the background have gone; and the man on the stairs is now in the top window, talking to the figure standing by an ox-cart facing left.
(Click to enlarge)
Catalogue number: 73
Title: Sabre de Bois (Wooden sword)
ACC: 28541
Notes: This is a typical Blampied scene of people arguing, probably in a tavern.
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Catalogue number: 74
Title: Urrugne (Basque)
ACC: 28559
Notes: This is the Church of St Vincent in Urrugne, near St Jean de Luz in the Basque region of France.
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Catalogue number: 75
Title: Galloping home in the rain
ACC: 28564 (not shown)
Notes: This painting is based on an etching, 'Driving home in the rain' [CD: 32; AA:35; AH:E14.1], designed in 1914, published in 1919. The painting is now in a good home.
Oil sketch, in a private collection (Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
Catalogue number: 76
Title: In a stable
ACC: 28556
Notes:
(Click to enlarge)
Catalogue number: 77
Title: Tethering cows (Jersey)
ACC: not seen
Notes: No photograph of this painting has been seen. I suspect it shows a woman in a bonnet leading a cow across a meadow, with a spike and mallet to hand. Blampied did an oil painting of a similar subject for HMS Jersey in 1939.
Catalogue number: 78
Title: Haymaking, Jersey
ACC: 28561
Notes: The was reproduced in the magazine Woman in May 1925 along with 'Galloping home in the rain' (cat 75).
(Click to enlarge)
Catalogue number: 79
Title: A morning mist (Vraicing)
ACC: no number
Notes: This is similar to the lithograph, 'Vraic load' [AA:L17; AH:L24.2], published in 1924 except that the position of the white horse in the foreground is different. See the proof owned by the Boston Public Library here.
(Click to enlarge)
Catalogue number: 80
Title: The potato digger
ACC: 28567
Notes: There is a lithograph of a similar design called 'Potato digging' [AA:L9; AH:L23.2], published in 1923. Jersey Heritage Trust have a proof but I can't find it on their web site without trawling through all 900 items. The facility to search within results doesn't work.
(Click to enlarge)
Catalogue number: 81
Title: A harbour scene (Spain)
ACC: 28569
Notes: There is a drypoint of this scene called 'San Sebastian, Harbour' [CD:61; AA:98; AH:E24.1], published in an edition of 100 in 1924. There is a watercolour of the design for the print at the Cincinatti Museum of Art, which can be seen here. I have a drawing in pen and ink of the same design as the print, so probably done afterwards.
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Catalogue number: 82
Title: In St. Jean-de-Luz
ACC: 28555
Notes:
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Catalogue number: 83
Title: Haystacks and Horses
ACC: 28536
Notes:
(Click to enlarge)
Catalogue number: 84
Title: On the banks of the Seine
ACC: 28568
Notes: This could be cat 63 'Paris'.
(Click to enlarge)
Catalogue number: 85
Title: Under the Pont Marie
ACC: 28563
Notes: This painting is in a private collection in the USA. This scene was also transferred to a drypoint of the same title, so was printed in reverse [CD:90; AA:111; AH:E25.12]. There are reported to be six proofs, one of which is in the British Museum.
(Click to enlarge)