Etching on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/barry-flanagan-1100" aria-label="More by Barry Flanagan" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Barry Flanagan</a>
Rembrandt
Presented by Sue Flanagan, the artist's former wife 1985
actions: postures and motions
Adam
adults
bed
Bible: Old Testament
body
Eve
female
fine art and design, named works
furnishings
head / face
individuals: male
male
man
named individuals
nudes
objects
people
portraits
religion and belief
Rembrandt van Rijn
Rembrandt, etching, ‘Adam and Eve’
Rembrandt, etching, ‘Self Portrait’
standing
tree
woman
paper print etching
Rembrandt Study
image: 249 × 202 mm
Presented by Sue Flanagan, the artist's former wife 1985
<p><i>This catalogue entry discusses a group of works; details of the individual work are given at the end of the introductory text.</i><span>
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<p><b>Barry Flanagan</b><span>
born 1941 </span>
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<p><span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/flanagan-colours-up-induction-p02723" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P02723</span></a> - <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/flanagan-yacht-ii-p02834" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P02834</span></a> Group of 112 etchings and linocuts, various sizes. Presented by the artist’s former wife Sue Flanagan 1985 </span>
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<p><span>This group of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>prints</span></a> represents nearly the entire printed output of the artist up to 1983 and is one of the largest public collections of his prints. The titles were all given by the artist. Those prints bearing the stamped monogram ‘f’ were stamped by the Tate Gallery at the artist’s request. </span>
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<p><span>The artist has said that print-making represents for him a ‘traditional pursuit’. Flanagan began to make prints in 1970. His prints (and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a>) often have a very personal content and can be seen as akin to private memoranda. Sometimes used as gifts for friends, they record aspects of the artist’s personal life. He first published prints with the Rowan Gallery in 1972, a year in which his print-making was prolific. Thereafter he published series of prints with Bernard Jacobson Gallery in 1976 and Waddington Graphics in 1983. </span>
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<p><span>In 1981 Flanagan exhibited a comprehensive range of his prints and drawings at the Mostyn Art Gallery, Llandudno. The exhibition travelled to Mold, Cardiff, Swansea, Southampton and London and then, in 1983, toured in Italy, France and Holland. In the early 1980s Colin Dyer, working with the artist in his studio, completed archival sets of prints using cream Vélin d’Arches <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a>. Those <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/etching" title="Glossary definition for 'Etching'"><span>etchings</span></a> in the Sue Flanagan donation printed on white paper are generally those which the artist printed at Petersburg Press, at Burleighfield Press (with David Harding) or in his own studio in the early and mid 1970s. </span>
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<p><span>Many of the prints have a small dark rectangle at one of their edges which results from the etching process. David Brown explains: </span>
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<blockquote><span>In the preparation of etching plates, they are ‘smoked’ in a flame to produce a fine, even covering of wax, the plate being held by a pair of tongs and therefore unaffected by the ‘smoking’ process would be waxed later, but with these prints, Flanagan chose to eliminate this final stage leaving a small area etched by acid and absorbing the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/ink" title="Glossary definition for 'Ink'"><span>ink</span></a> (</span><i>Barry Flanagan: Etchings and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/linocut" title="Glossary definition for 'Linocut'"><span>Linocuts</span></a></i><span>, exh. cat., Waddington Graphics 1984, [p.3]). </span>
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<br/><span>So characteristic of Flanagan’s etchings is this black mark, it can almost be seen as a second ‘signature’. </span>
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<p><span>These entries are based on conversations with Sue Flanagan and Colin Dyer and have been approved by the artist. </span>
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<p><span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/flanagan-rembrandt-study-p02815" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P02815</span></a> </span><b>Rembrandt Study</b><span>
1977, reprinted </span><i>c</i><span>.1983 </span>
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<p><span>Etching 249 x 202 (9 3/4 x 7 7/8) on cream Vélin d'Arches paper 334 x 382 (13 1/8 x 15); plate-mark 249 x 202 (9 3/4 x 7 7/8); printed by Colin Dyer </span><i>c</i><span>.1983; not editioned</span>
<br/><span>Printed inscription ‘O'Rembrandt 1638' in reverse b.r. of image; stamped with the artist's monogram ‘f' below image b.r. </span>
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<p><span>At the lower right of <span>P02815</span> is a roughly sketched copy of ‘Adam and Eve', the Rembrandt etching that inspired </span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/P02727" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'P02727');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>P02727</span></a><span>
and </span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/P02812" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'P02812');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>P02812</span></a><span>. Here, however, Flanagan has reversed the position of the two figures and has Adam flanked by Eve and the tree. At the top centre is a copy of a small Rembrandt self-<a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portrait</span></a>, ‘Rembrandt in a Cap, Open-Mouthed and Staring' which is reproduced in K.G. Boon's </span><i>Rembrandt: The Complete Etchings</i><span>, 1963 (no.47). The framing rectangle around the head records the clearly defined edges of the original print. On the same page in the same book is a slightly larger self-portrait, ‘Rembrandt Angry', (repr. </span><i>ibid</i><span>., no.48) which may be the source for the head in the upper left of the Flanagan print. The artist recalls that the bedpost at upper left featured in a Rembrandt etching which depicts ‘a woman being ravaged'. </span>
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<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><i>The Tate Gallery 1984-86: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions Including Supplement to Catalogue of Acquisitions 1982-84</i><span>, Tate Gallery, London 1988, pp.333 and 353</span>
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Catalogue entry
2004-09-17T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions Adam adults bed Bible: Old Testament body Eve female fine art and design, named works furnishings head / face individuals: male male man named individuals nudes objects people portraits religion and belief Rembrandt, etching, ‘Adam and Eve’ Rembrandt, etching, ‘Self Portrait’ Rembrandt van Rijn standing tree woman