ART & ARTISTS: Feliks Topolski

Wednesday, 8 September 2021

Feliks Topolski - part 2

1973 Feliks Topolski in his studio at Waterloo, London
photograph by Allan Warren

Feliks Topolski was a Polish-born British artist known for his expressionistic prints and paintings depicting important figures and occasions. Over the course of his career, he produced portraits of Winston Churchill and George Bernard Shaw, as well as events such as Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation. “I feel I must make it clear that my work is neither ‘academic’ nor caricaturing on the basis of photographs—it is done from life,” he once explained of his work. Born on August 14, 1907 in Warsaw, Poland, he went on to study at the Warsaw Academy of Art before moving to England in 1935. During World War II, Topolski became an official war artist for his adopted country and produced studies of battlefields throughout Europe during the conflict. He gained his British citizenship in 1947 and began work on his pictorial record of political and social events known as the Chronicles. Topolski died on August 24, 1989 in London, United Kingdom. Today, his works are held in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Brooklyn Museum, among others.

This is part 2 of a 4 - part series on the works of Felix Topolski.

For full biography notes, and for earlier works, see part 1 also.

All images © The estate of Feliks Topolski

1938 St Moritz
ink and wash on paper 13.4 x 17.7 cm

1939 George Bernard Shaw
oil on paper laid down on hardboard 81.3 x 61 cm
Glasgow Museums Resource Centre, UK

1939 Goodwood, 25-28 July 1939
ink, watercolour and pastel on paper 41.9 x 53.3 cm
Tate, London

1939 The Lord Mayor's Banquet at the Mansion House
pen and black ink and watercolour 40.7 x 52.1 cm

The Royal Academy: Varnishing Day

The scene is one of the Varnishing Days reserved for artists which precede the Private View of the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition. The figure standing on the right of the picture is the distinguished journalist Hannen Swaffer (1879–1962):

1939 The Royal Academy: Varnishing Day
pen and wash on pale green paper 38 x 39 cm
Tate, London

1939 The Sailor's Return
pen, brush and ink 27.9 x 20.9 cm

1940 Sir Winston Churchill
graphite, pen and brown ink, heightened with white 24.2 x 16.8 cm

1940 The Beaver Club
pen and ink 23 x 28 cm

1940-45 Air Raid Warden at Park Crescent in September
black ink 51.5 x 40.6 cm

1940-45 The Beaver Club, Various Services
pen and ink and grey wash 12.5 x 16.5 cm

c1940-45 Guardroom at Night – Polish Service Women
charcoal on paper 20 x 25 cm
The Ingram Collection of Modern British and Contemporary Art, London

c1940-45 RAF Station – British and Polish Flags
ink and wash on paper 25 x 38 cm
The Ingram Collection of Modern British and Contemporary Art, London

c1940-45 Raid in London
oil on canvas 176.8 x 28.8 cm
Bournemouth & Poole College, UK

c1940-45 The Beaver Club – At the Bar
ink & wash on paper 13 x 18 cm
The Ingram Collection of Modern British and Contemporary Art, London

c1940-45cUnloading Quartermaster's Stores
ink and wash on paper 38 x 28 cm
The Ingram Collection of Modern British and Contemporary Art, London

c1940-45 Wartime Bar
ink and wash 13.3 x 17.7 cm

c1940 Rosalie Glynn Grylls (1905–1988), Lady Mander
oil on canvas 90 x 70 cm
National Trust, Wightwick Manor, Wolverhampton, UK

1940s "Adolf Hitlergif a party..."
pen and ink and watercolour 39.4 x 26.7 cm

1940s Winston Churchill "We shall fight them on the seas and oceans..."
lithograph 38.1 x 26.2 cm

1941 Park of Culture, Moscow – War Trophies
pen and ink and watercolour 32.4 x 40 cm

1941 War damage outside the Bank of England, January 1941
Bank of England Museum

1943 George Bernard Shaw
oil on canvas 213.4 x 104.1 cm
Harry Ransom Centre, Austin, Texas

1943 George Bernard Shaw
pencil, pen and ink and wash
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

1943 George Bernard Shaw
pencil, pen and ink Victoria & Albert Museum, London

1943 George Bernard Shaw
sepia ink and wash on paper 24.8 x 18.4 cm

1943 Herbert George Wells
oil on canvas 76.5 x 63.8 cm
National Portrait Gallery, London

1944 Chiang Kai-shek's China, 1944 – Withdrawal
ink and wash on paper 28 x 36 cm
The Ingram Collection of Modern British and Contemporary Art, London

1944 Eighth Army's Front, Italy 1944
ink and wash on paper 23 x 33 cm
The Ingram Collection of Modern British and Contemporary Art, London

1944 From Naples to Rome – Rome liberated
oil on canvas 68.6 x 96.5 cm

1944 Printed Scarf
crimson wool 94.4 x 83.8

1945 Germany Defeated
oil on canvas 102.3 x 153.8 cm
Tate, London

1945 Road of War
oil on canvas 63.5 x 76.2 cm

1945 The Rake's Progress. Drawn for the title sequence of Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder's film:

1945 The Rake's Progress Passport Control
pencil, pen and ink and crayon 32.4 x 40 cm

1946 Dress Fabric
screen printed spun rayon
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

1946 The City (Married Life)
oil on canvas 82.5 x 101.5 cm
Tameside Museums and Galleries Service: The Astley Cheetham Art Collection, UK

1947 Fantasy Falls in Merioneth, Wales
watercolour and bodycolour 55.9 x 43.9 cm

1946 School Prints

Printed in England at the Baynard Press for School Prints Ltd. London.

Towards the end of the Second World War Brenda Rawnsley and her husband Derek had the idea of bringing contemporary art to young children who would otherwise not have had the opportunity to see ‘good’ work. Within a few years Brenda had set up School Prints Ltd to sell original lithographs to schools and had commissioned several of the most important living artists for her scheme.

Brenda Rawnsley sought the advice and assistance of the art historian Herbert Read and between them they chose the artists. The printing was undertaken by the Baynard Press from stones or zinc plates drawn by the artists, who were asked to use no more than six colours. The prints, being original lithographs, were often the first real art seen by young people of that period and are typical of their time.