Aquatint Entitled Mixed Styles Regency - John Piper

Aquatint entitled Mixed Styles Regency – Victorian – Modern from John Piper’s Brighton Aquatints This aquatint shows a view drawn looking westwards along the promenade to Brunswick Terrace, at the point where Bedford Square opens out on to the front. The corner house is one of the Regency series that surround the square in grey-painted stucco, with characteristic pilasters, verandahs and bows. Beyond it is an imposing Victorian building, and beyond that again the lock of flats known as Embassy Court, designed by Wells Coates. In the words of John Piper, ‘Each of these buildings, in design and materials, belongs very much to its own age, and each is excellence of its kind. The designs are, retrospectively, pseudo-classical, florid, and modern-severe. The materials are, respectively, stucco, brick and cast iron, steel and glass and concrete. This aquatint is from the edition of 195 uncoloured prints out of the total edition of 250. A copy of the front page of the publication signed by John Piper will be provided to the Purchaser. A must for aficionados of John Piper prints. Brighton Aquatints is John Piper’s only fully realized example of an ‘artist’s book’ and with its unique use of the aquatint medium throughout, it is pivotal work of its time. It was published in 1939 by Gerald Duckworth, and through its aquatints it celebrates some of Brighton’s most iconic architecture: its Regency squares with their stuccoed and balconied houses; the Royal Pavilion in all its extravagance, and the filigree beauty of the West Pier and Victorian churches. Out of the original edition of 250, 55 special copies were hand-coloured, mostly by Piper himself, but also with the help of his friend the poet John Betjeman, who first suggested the idea for the book. Running throughout John Piper’s extraordinarily productive artistic life,spanning six decades, was a creative tension between a positive commitment to the modern and a profound desire to resuscitate and reinterpret certain English artistic traditions of the past. During his unusually fecund artistic career, Piper was a prolific painter, innovative and skilled printmaker, creator of iconic stained glass images,designer of theatrical and opera costumes and sets, pottery designer,maker of fabrics, tapestries and pyrotechnics, book illustrator and photographer. Piper’s work was essentially a celebration of British landscapes and architecture. His favourite motif was decaying and devastated buildings. Piper’s handling of colour, texture and perspective heightened the visual appeal of his romantic topography. Piper was a visual historian with a mission, fired by boundless energy and enthusiasm, a journey he began with his first public offering in 1939, Brighton Aquatints. His artistic legacy to Britain and her people that ranged over a variety of subjects and themes depicted a unique blend of versatile artistic imagination, technical skills, innovative prowess and egregious craftsmanship. Piper will best be remembered for his paintings and etchings of our churches, castles and stately homes. As long as English cultural heritage survives as a distinct entity in our world that is getting increasingly globalised, I believe there will be a place in it for John Piper, this most English of artists.