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William Strang

2 of 11 portraits of William Strang

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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William Strang

by James Craig Annan
photogravure, published 1907
6 in. x 7 3/4 in. (152 mm x 197 mm)
Purchased, 1988
Primary Collection
NPG P357

Sitterback to top

  • William Strang (1859-1921), Painter and etcher. Sitter in 11 portraits, Artist or producer associated with 67 portraits.

Artistback to top

  • James Craig Annan (1864-1946), Photographer. Artist or producer associated with 23 portraits, Sitter in 1 portrait.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Rogers, Malcolm, Camera Portraits, 1989 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 20 October 1989 - 21 January 1990), p. 157 Read entry

    Born in Dumbarton, William Strang came to London to study at the Slade School under Alphonse Legros, and remained there for the rest of his life. A prolific painter of portraits, biblical and subject paintings, he is best known for his portrait drawings in a style based on Holbein, and for his 747 etchings, remarkable for their unity of vision and superb draughtsmanship.

    The son of the leading Scottish photographer Thomas Annan, James Craig Annan learned in Vienna the techniques of photogravure printing, and reproduced many of his own photographs in this medium, which allows for exquisite tonal effects. This print was published in America in Alfred Stieglitz's Camera Work (July 1907), under the title The Etching Printer— William Strang, Esq., A.R.A. It shows Strang minutely examining an etcher's plate, with a printing press in the background, and is a fine example of Annan's ability to unite in his compositions a certain informality with a refined sense of atmosphere and design.

  • Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 594

Events of 1907back to top

Current affairs

Robert Baden Powell, a former lieutenant-general in the British Army, forms the Boy Scout Movement after holding a camp on Brownsea Island for a group of twenty-two boys of mixed social background. Baden Powell was inspired after finding that his 1903 military training manual Aids to Scouting had become a bestseller, and was being used by teachers and youth workers. The Scout movement has become a Worldwide phenomenon, with over 38 million members in 216 countries.

Art and science

The poet, author and critic Edmund Gosse publishes his autobiography Father and Son, an account of his relationship with his devout Christian father, the zoologist Phillip Gosse. Edmund's detailing of his loss of faith is a reflection on the Victorian age itself.
Anna Pavlova first dances The Dying Swan, choreographed by Michel Fokine to music by Camille Saint-Saens, at a charity performance.

International

America is gripped by a financial crisis as a collapse of trust companies causes panic amongst shareholders.
Aged twenty, the Swiss architect Le Corbusier, one of the most influential figures in twentieth-century architecture, designs his first house at La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland.

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