Chair by Edward Welby Pugin

Chair

Edward Welby Pugin

c. 1855

33 1/2 inches (85 cm)

Oak

Provenance: The Convent of Mercy, Handsworth, Birmingham; Lent from a Private Collection

The Fine Art Society, London, has most generously given its permission to use information, images, and text from its catalogues in the Victorian Web. This generosity has led to the creation of hundreds and hundreds of the site's most valuable documents on painting, drawing, sculpture, furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, metalwork, and the people who created them. The copyright on text and images from their catalogues remains, of course, with the Fine Art Society. [GPL]

Edward Welby Pugin, eldest son of A. W. N. Pugin, was trained by his father from an early age — he claimed he helped in the office at the age of seven (see Who Was the Art Architect of the Houses of Parliament?, 1867, p.32). At the age of eighteen he had to take over his father's large practice and had the task of completing all the unfinished work. He claimed that he applied at this time to join the offices of Sir Charles Barry, but was refused. The younger Pugin became an immensely successful architect, in receipt of a large income which he dissipated in a series of court cases, the result of his tempestuous and litigious temperament. His practice consisted chiefly of designing churches; Pevsner considers his greatest work to be the Catholic Church of the City of Mary Immaculate (known as All Saints) at Barton-upon-lrwell, Lancs. (see The Buildings of England; South Lancashire, 1969, pp.74-75). His secular work included additions and alterations to Scarisbrick Hall, for Lady Hunloke (later Lady Scarisbrick) the sister of his father's patron, Charles Scarisbrick. These designs, strongly influenced by flamboyant French Gothic, form a contrast to his father's more severe stnuctural manner. — Architect-Designers from Pugin to Mackintosh.

References

Architect-Designers from Pugin to Mackintosh. Exhibition catalogue. London: The Fine Art Society with Haslam & Whiteway Ltd., 1981. No. 5.

Last modified 28 May 2014