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Overview
A virtuoso of portraits and scenes of the working class with a sharp eye for depicting the truth of his subjects, William Strang (1859-1921) was a revered draughtsman and painter; however his most lucrative and productive mode of creation was printmaking, an integral part of his career throughout his lifetime. Critics such as Maurice Harold Grant noted Strang as a printmaker who was ‘keenly observant’ in all stages required of printmaking, particularly in his ability to transfer his immaculately drawn line into an equally impressive bitten plate.
Born in Dumbarton, Scotland in 1859 to working-class parents, Strang moved to London in 1875 at the age of 16. The following year he enrolled at the Slade School of Art, where he studied under the French Realist, Alphonse Legros. Strang excelled particularly in Legros’ recently introduced etching class, serving as Assistant Master in the class for two years after graduating. Strang’s style was heavily influenced by Legros; both artists having working-class backgrounds, leading to a strong undercurrent of social justice in many of Strang’s works. Early in his career Strang made many etchings of working class life in a realist manner, as well as works of allegory and delightfully macabre fantasy. An increase in requests for commissions after the mid-1890s meant that Strang focused more on portraiture and painting. However, he still continued to work as a printmaker throughout his career – becoming President of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers in 1918. A month before his death in 1921, Strang was elected an Engraver Member of the Royal Academy.
Strang is perhaps best known for his etchings of famous artistic and literary sitters such as the art historian and curator Campbell Dodgson (Te Papa 1968-0001-43) and author Rudyard Kipling (Te Papa 1956-0001-17). While many of his portraits were commissioned, Strang’s artistic preoccupations did not lie with capturing the ‘beauty’ of the sitter. Instead he picks out the most human traits of the individual, highlighting their idiosyncracies and favouring honesty and psychological intensity over glamour and handsomeness.
The great novelist and poet Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) was the subject of several drawings, etchings and oil portraits by Strang, and was probably the artist’s most famous sitter. It is likely that Strang first met Hardy in London in the early 1890s as they were both members of the Art Workers' Guild, a circle of artists and literary figures interested in the promotion of the applied arts in the community. The two shared similar concerns - Hardy’s writing, like Strang’s images, was both visionary and naturalistic, and his characters, like many of the figures in Strang’s compositions, were often the tragic victims of declining social circumstances.
While Strang wasn’t concerned with the vanity of his sitters, he was interested in capturing the essence of their presence. Hardy had received the Order of Merit in 1910, and was nominated repeatedly but unsuccessfully for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Reflecting these achievements in his account of Hardy, Strang appears to have tempered some of Hardy’s characteristics (he was sometimes described as a ‘bald eagle’ in later life due to his scraggy neck and tendency to glance sharply from side to side). This was likely not in order to flatter Hardy, but instead to keep his appearance suitably dignified and befitting the character of someone who has received many accolades.
Te Papa has two different portraits of Hardy by Strang in the Ilott collection: this 1920 engraving which dates from just before Strang's death, and a drypoint from 1910 (Te Papa 1961-0006-24).
Sources:
Laurence Binyon, William Strang; Catalogue of his Etched Work (Glasgow: James MacLehose and Sons, 1906), pp. vii–xvii.
Maurice Harold Grant, A Dictionary of British Etchers (London: Rockliff, 1953), pp. 196-197
National Galleries Scotland: https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/artists/william-strang
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Strang
Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art January 2018