Ellen M. Murray Thomson, Original 1910s Arts & Crafts Calligraphy Alphabets Pair

Ellen M. Murray Thomson Pair of Calligraphy Alphabets

Regulärer Preis: €195,95

Angebotspreis: €195,95
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View the full Collection: Thomson, Ellen M. Murray (1889–1984)

An original pair of 1910s Arts & Crafts Calligraphy Alphabets by Ellen M. Murray Thomson.

Two impressive large scale hand-written calligraphy alphabets, one in black and one in red, by Scottish artist Ellen May Murray Thomson (1889–1984). Ellen Murray Thomson produced paintings and commercial decorative designs in the Art Nouveau style in the 1910s. These examples of calligraphy show influence of the Arts and Crafts movement and its taste for pre-Industrial typography.

Both sheets are large scale (44 x 29cm each); the black lettering sheet is folded to comprise two leaves with calligraphy on all four sides. The red lettering sheet also has calligraphy on both sides.

Ellen M. Murray Thomson (1889–1984)

These calligraphy studies form part of a beautiful collection of works we have for sale by Scottish artist Ellen May Murray Thomson (1889–1984). Mostly executed under her maiden name Ellen May Frew, they predominantly date from before her marriage to artist John Murray Thomson RSA in 1917 (whose work we also have for sale). Whilst usually defined by her relationship to her better-known husband, Ellen Murray Thomson was in her own right an accomplished painter of animal subjects and floral Art Nouveau designs.

Ellen was daughter of John Rose Frew, a master watchmaker and Provost of Dingwall (1906–1911), and a portrait she did of her father is in the collection of Dingwall Museum. It appears that before Ellen married she was a commercial artist and illustrator, producing designs inspired by architectural ornament, and creating decorative works in the Art Nouveau style—including commissions for ceramics. Thomson lived in Edinburgh (John teaching at the Edinburgh College of Art) and her floral designs were produced in the decade just following that of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s influential work in Glasgow.