landscape in vertical format with green and grey mountains in distance; green field in middle ground; arcing tan bridge at bottom center; man wearing a hat and a woman with long red hair in LLC, seen from back

Brotherswater, c.1900

Frank Morley Fletcherexpand_more

Color woodcutexpand_more

Gift of Marla J. Kinneyexpand_more  2017.70

Not on Viewexpand_more

These two intrepid hikers are catching their breath in England’s Lake District, which today encompasses 885 square miles. Frank Morley Fletcher grew up just south of this area, in Lancashire, and may have ambled in this very spot. The water below is part of Brotherswater, a small lake originally called Broad Water but renamed in the 1800s after two brothers died there.

Fletcher made use of the vertical “pillar” format found in Japanese prints, a sign of his affinity for Japanese color woodblock printmaking techniques, which he practiced and championed throughout his career. The swaths of flat color are hallmarks of such prints, as are the diagonal lines and our high vantage point. Fletcher painstakingly carved one of the blocks—he liked using cherry—to add detail to Brotherswater but decided to skip the black outlines in the sky, instead letting the shapes speak for themselves. This was a daring departure from Japanese practice and an example of the experimentation Fletcher and his followers went on to do.

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Details
Title
Brotherswater
Artist Life
1866–1949
Role
Artist
Accession Number
2017.70
Provenance
(Annex Galleries, Santa Rosa, Calif., until 1990s, sold to private collector); private collector, Santa Barbara, Calif., 1990s–2016, sold to Main; (James Main Fine Art, Santa Barbara, sold to Kinney); Marla J. Kinney, Minneapolis; given to MIA, 2017.
Curator Approved

This record has been reviewed by our curatorial staff but may be incomplete. These records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about this object, please email collectionsdata@artsmia.org.

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landscape in vertical format with green and grey mountains in distance; green field in middle ground; arcing tan bridge at bottom center; man wearing a hat and a woman with long red hair in LLC, seen from back

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