B. F. Gribble

Bernard Finegan Gribble
Gribble in 1921
Born
Bernard Emmanuel Finegan Gribble

(1872-05-10)10 May 1872
South Kensington, London
Died21 February 1962(1962-02-21) (aged 89)
Poole, Dorset
EducationCollege of St. Francis Xavier
South Kensington Art School
OccupationsArtist, painter, illustrator
SpouseEleanor Mabel ('Nellie') Clunn
Parent(s)Herbert Augustine Keate, Julia Mary (née Finagan)

Bernard Finegan Gribble (10 May 1872 – 21 February 1962) was a British artist and illustrator who specialised in marine subjects. Although he also painted portraits and landscapes, much of Gribble's artistic production was concerned with the drama and excitement of ships and sailors on the high seas or at port, whether as historical tableaux or representing contemporary events and subjects.

Biography

Early life

Bernard Finegan Gribble was born at South Kensington, London on 10 May 1872, the youngest of two children of Herbert Augustine Keate, an architect known for designing Brompton Oratory and Armada Memorial, Julia Mary (née Finagan).[1][2][3] Bernard was educated at the College of St. Francis Xavier in Bruges, Belgium. He briefly studied under his father and then studied drawing at the South Kensington Art School, where one of his tutors was Albert Toft.[1][4]

Career

In 1891, Gribble's painting The Burning of the 'Mentmore' was exhibited at the Royal Academy.[1] In 1898, Bernard was employed as an artist-correspondent to The Queen and Black and White, where he covered both the Spanish-American War and the Fashoda Incident.[1][5]

Gribble exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy from 1898 to 1904 and at the Paris Salon from 1905.[1][2][5] He also exhibited at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts.[4] In 1912, he was appointed as marine artist to the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights.[6]

Gribble was the first official artist appointed during World War I, during which, much of this work was with the Royal Navy.[7] Gribble was present at the scuttling of the German fleet at Scapa Flow, where he witnessed the events on board the trawler Sochisin and produced two large oil paintings from the experience. One of these, The Sinking of the German Fleet at Scapa Flow, depicts German sailors from the cruiser Frankfurt approaching Sochisin in a lifeboat, the Sochisin crew ordering them at gunpoint to return to their sinking ship.[8][9][10]

Personal life and death

In 1902, Bernard Gribble and Eleanor Mabel Clunn (known as 'Nellie') were married at Kensington. They had no children[1] and by the 1920s, they had left London to live at Poole in county Dorset.[2] The Poole and East Dorset Art Society was founded in 1924, with Gribble as its first chairman.[11]

Bernard Gribble died in Poole on 21 February 1962 at age 89,[1] and was buried in Parkstone cemetery. After his death, Nellie donated many of his works to Poole Museum.[12] Nellie died on 8 September 1963 and was buried with her husband.[1]

Works

Although Gribble's work included landscapes and portraits, he was best known for his historical and often romanticized maritime scenes. For these, he included highly technical analyses of sail construction and rigging, paid close attention to costume detail, and studied the movement of water. In his preparatory sketches, he made notes on the precise structure and names of sails, masts, and rigging.[6] One critic described him as a "specialist in burning ships", while others compared his paintings to the fine marine vistas of Henry Moore. Spanish galleons and treasure vessels are also well represented in his work[12][13][3]

Poole Museum owns the largest collection of Gribble's work: 250 paintings, drawings, prints, and photographs. Paintings in the collection include The Plague Ship, The Whelp of the Black Rover, The Return of the Argosy Galleons, a portrait of former Mayor of Poole Herbert Carter, and a portrait of a woman believed to be Gribble's wife Nellie. The collection also contains local topographical work, such as depictions of the Guildhall, Custom House, and views of the Quay and harbour.[12]

Other owners of Gribble paintings included President Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Lady Jackie Onassis, Queen Mary of Teck, and Kaiser Wilhelm II.[1][7] Roosevelt commissioned smaller versions of two of Gribble's paintings: Return of the Mayflower and Surrender of the German Fleet to the Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow, both of which hung in the Oval Office.[14] Kaiser Willhelm was so impressed by Gribble's work that King George V summoned him to his royal residence.

Gribble also worked as an illustrator. His work appeared in numerous magazines, including The Illustrated London News and The Graphic,[1] and he also provided illustrations for the last of Arthur Conan Doyle's pirate stories.[12][15] Gribble also illustrated several books and his work was published on royal postcards, menus, and chocolate boxes.[1][16]

Official purchases

Recognition

In December 1941, Newfoundland issued a stamp featuring Gribble's painting Grenfell on the Strathcona to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the founding of Wilfred Grenfell's medical mission to the colony.[17] The United States also considered Gribble's painting Surrender of the German Fleet to the Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow for a seventeen cent postage stamp in the 1930s US Army and Navy commemorative series.[18]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Gribble, Bernard, Suffolk Artists website; accessed 21 July 2024.
  2. ^ a b c Robert Wall (1998), Ocean Liner Postcards in Marine Art 1900-1945, Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collector's Club, page 146.
  3. ^ a b Bernard Finegan Gribble (1873-1962), Mark Mitchell: Paintings & Drawings website; accessed 21 July 2024.
  4. ^ a b David Buckman (1998), Dictionary of Artists in Britain Since 1945, Bristol: Art Dictionaries, page 512.
  5. ^ a b Notable Londoners, an Illustrated Who's Who of Professional and Business Men (1922), London: London Publishing Agency, page 15; accessed 20 July 2024.
  6. ^ a b Peter Davies (1987), page 60.
  7. ^ a b John Fairley (2018), The Armistice and the Aftermath, Pen & Sword Books.
  8. ^ David Meara (2019), The Great Scuttle: The End of the German High Seas Fleet, Amberley Publishing.
  9. ^ The Orcadian Book of the 20th Century: A Chronicle of Our Times (2000), Kirkwall: Orcadian Ltd., page 79.
  10. ^ 'The Scuttling at Scapa', The Times, 25 June 1919, page 13.
  11. ^ Peter Davies (1987), page 69.
  12. ^ a b c d Wessex in 100 Objects - Bernard Gribble, Art UK website; accessed 21 July 2024.
  13. ^ The Plague Ship by Bernard Gribble, Wessex Museums website; accessed 21 July 2024.
  14. ^ 'Paintings fit for a President', Dorset Echo (Weymouth), 20 January 2001.
  15. ^ 'The Blighting of Sharkey', Pearson's Magazine, April 1911, Vol. 31, pages 353-362.
  16. ^ Royal "Greetings" for Commoners, The Illustrated London News, 19 November 1910, page 796; The firm of Raphael Tuck..., The Illustrated London News, 3 December 1927, page 1038.
  17. ^ Steve Forgo (1979), Paintings and Graphic Arts on the Stamps of Great Britain and the Nations of the British Commonwealth, Montreal: Phil-Art Distribution Reg'd, page 221.
  18. ^ Johl, Max G. (1938). The United States Postage Stamps of the 20th Century (PDF). Vol. 4. H. L. Lindquist. p. 218.
Sources
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