Meredith Frampton, Sculptural Borderline Modernist

George Vernon Meredith Frampton (1894-1984) eventually gave up painting due to failing eyesight. His peak years artistically were the 1920s and 1930s and his style was smoothly-painted, very slightly simplified subject matter -- mostly portraits. That simplification was a fashionable feature of Modernism as practiced during those decades. Some background on Frampton is here.

If forced to characterize his images, I might state that the subjects appear sculptural. But after all, his father was Sir George Frampton, a noted sculptor.

Gallery

Winifred Radford - 1921
She was a professional singer.

Winifred Radford photo
Compare this with the image above so as to see the amount of Frampton's simplification.

Marguerite Kelsey - 1928

King George VI as Duke of York - 1929
Note his rank is Captain in the Royal Navy. As King, he would have admiral's stripes on his sleeves.

Lord William Cecil, Bishop of Exeter - 1934

Portrait of a Young Woman - 1935
Perhaps Frampton's best-known painting.

A Game of Patience - 1937

Frederick Gowland Hopkins - 1938

Sir Ernest Gowers, KCB, KBE, Senior Regional Commissioner for London, Lt Col AJ Child, OBE, MC, Director of Operations and Intelligence, and KAL Parker Deputy Chief Administrative Officer in the London Regional Civil Defence Control Room - 1943
In the collection of the Imperial War Museum.