A Spanish Good Friday, Ronda.

Sir Muirhead Bone (1876-1953) was a Scottish artist known for his piquant drypoint etchings, draughtsmanship and watercolours. Bone originally trained as an architect at the Glasgow School of Art. After initially taking night classes, he turned to printmaking in 1898. Self-taught, his early works likely took the style of those he studied, chiefly Charles Meryon and James Whistler. In 1901 Bone moved to London, quickly gaining a reputation, moving in the same circles as art collector Campbell Dodgson and D.Y. Cameron, a contemporary of Bone in etching and a fellow Scotsman. In 1916, Bone successfully campaigned for the role of the first official British War Artist, filling the position in both World War One and World War Two. Between the World Wars, Bone continued to build up a considerable reputation, exhibiting frequently in both London and New York. A mentor of many young artists, he served as a trustee of the Tate Gallery, the National Gallery and Imperial War Museum. He was knighted in 1937.

Bone's watercolours and lustrous drawings are evidence of his incredible skill in depicting often grim wartime landscapes and human activity. However, it is in his drypoints that we can see his true mastery over architectural detail. His strengths are in rendering line and balance to create dynamic cityscapes, concerned primarily with the existence of buildings in all their states, including the comings and goings of their construction. Bone's architectural training is a fetchingly persistent ‘backbone’ in these works.

A Spanish Good Friday, Ronda depicts a crowd as they celebrate the culmination of Holy Week through an elaborate, traditional mourning procession. The bulk of the procession is seen at the far end of the street, our vision guided by the woman looking down at it from her window perch on the right. The crowd carry a large crucifix with Christ and a statue of the Virgin Mary beneath a canopy. In front of them walk the penitentes, their pointed hats that distinguishing them from others in the procession. There is an eerie atmosphere, heightened by the shadows of the crowd which are elongated in the stark electric light of the procession. Bone captures the spectral mood of the night through the depth and ink retention of the burr, as it creates the vivid chiaroscuro scene. The print is a late state, reflected in its predominant dark tones.

This drypoint is part of the collection that Sir John Ilott gifted to the National Art Gallery (the forerunner to Te Papa). Of Bone, Ilott often cited etcher and critic Ernest Lumsden:

This is supreme handling of the burr is particularly evident in A Spanish Good Friday, Ronda, the burr creating a rich and velvety impression on the plate; indeed, Ilott referring to this print as one of the ‘really great etchings of modern times.’

Sources:

British Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/term_details.aspx?bioId=131762

David Cohen, ‘Bone, Muirhead’, Grove Art Online, Oxford Art Online, Oxford University Press, accessed: 6 December 2017

Julianne Malpas, 'An Incurable Collector: Sir John Ilott (1884-1973) and his Passion for Prints’, MA thesis, Victoria University of Wellington, 2005, p. 26

National Galleries Scotland, https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/artists/sir-muirhead-bone

Wikipedia, 'Muirhead Bone', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muirhead_Bone

Dr Mark Stocker  Curator, Historical International Art   December 2017