Friday 10 September 2021

Feliks Topolski - part 3

c1986 Feliks Topolski
 photograph © by R.A. Redburn

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 3 of a 4 - part series on the works of Felix Topolski.

For full biography notes see part 1, and for earlier works, see parts 1 & 2 also.

All images © The estate of Feliks Topolski


1957 Bank of England

In 1941, a vivid image by London-based Polish artist Feliks Topolski of bomb damage outside the Bank of England in the City of London was deemed unsuitable for public consumption and was swiftly acquired by the Bank for out-of-sight safe keeping – Topolski’s expressionistic style had proved too candid for the Blitz-battered times. Sixteen years later, however, the Bank approached Topolski with a new commission – to celebrate its state-of-the-art banknote printing works at Debden in Essex, a major development for the Bank designed by architect Sir Howard Robertson and engineered by Ove Arup.


1957 Bank of England Printing Works 5.45pm

1957 Boiler House

1957 Canteen

1957 Cutting Area

1957 Cutting Area

1957 Final Examination Area

1957 Final Examination Area

1957 Final Examination Area

1957 Final Examination Area

1957 Final Examination Area

1957 Final Examination Area

1957 Litho (Lithography) Section

1957 Lunch break outside canteen

1957 Numbering Section

1957 Numbering Section

1957 Numbering Section

1957 Plate Printing Section

1957 Plate Printing Section

1957 Plate Printing Section

1957 Plate Printing Section

1957 Plate Printing Section

1957 Recreation Hall

1957 Untitled


1959-62 

20th Century Literary Figures:


1959 Edith Sitwell
oil on board 180.3 x 120 cm
Harry Ransom Centre, Austin, Texas

1960s Louis MacNeice
oil on canvas 100 x 74.3 cm
Harry Ransom Centre, Austin, Texas

1960s William Empson
oil on canvas 76.8 x 63.5 cm
Harry Ransom Centre, Austin, Texas

1961 Aldous Huxley
oil on canvas 110.5 x 140.3 cm
Harry Ransom Centre, Austin, Texas

1961 Bertrand Russell
oil on canvas 126.3 x 95.9 cm
Harry Ransom Centre, Austin, Texas

1961 E.M. Forster
oil on canvas 122.2 x 76.7 cm
Harry Ransom Centre, Austin, Texas

1961 Evelyn Waugh
oil on canvas 101.6 x 79.4 cm
Harry Ransom Centre, Austin, Texas

1961 Graham Greene
oil on board 122.2 x 76.7 cm
Harry Ransom Centre, Austin, Texas

1961 Herbert Read
oil on canvas 101.6 x 76.2 cm
Harry Ransom Centre, Austin, Texas

1961 John Betjeman
oil on canvas 90.5 x 70.2 cm
Harry Ransom Centre, Austin, Texas

1961 Rebecca West
oil on canvas 90.6 x 69.8 cm
Harry Ransom Centre, Austin, Texas

1961 Stephen Spender
oil on canvas 101.6 x 76.2 cm
Harry Ransom Centre, Austin, Texas

1961 T.S. Eliot
oil on canvas 96.5 x 64.8 cm
Harry Ransom Centre, Austin, Texas

1961 W.H. Auden
oil on canvas 101.6 x 76.2 cm
Harry Ransom Centre, Austin, Texas

1962 C.P. Snow
oil on canvas 127.3 x 96.5 cm
Harry Ransom Centre, Austin, Texas

1962 Cecil Day-Lewis
oil on canvas 76.2 x 101.6 cm
Harry Ransom Centre, Austin, Texas

1962 Cyril Connolly
oil on canvas 101.6 x 76.3
Harry Ransom Centre, Austin, Texas

1962 J. B. Priestley
oil on board 122.3 x 83.8 cm
Harry Ransom Centre, Austin, Texas

1962 John Osborne, John Whiting, Arnold Wesker
oil on canvas 96.9 x 127 cm
Harry Ransom Centre, Austin, Texas

*          *          *          *         *

1960 Evelyn Waugh
charcoal on paper 49 x 34.3 cm

1960 Gilbert Harding
pencil 35.6 x 25.1 cm
© National Portrait Gallery, London

1960 The Kitchen' by Sir Arnold Wesker, Royal Court Theatre
pencil and ink 25 x 34.5 cm

1960 Westminster Abbey, Re-Opening of Courts
lithograph

1960 Westminster Abbey, Re-Opening of Courts
lithograph (detail)

1960 Westminster Abbey, Re-Opening of Courts
lithograph (detail)

1960 William Empson
48.8 x 33.5 cm

c1960 E.M. Forster
pen and ink 17.8 x 12.7 cm
© National Portrait Gallery, London

c1960 Evelyn Waugh
pencil 50.5 x 35.5 cm
© National Portrait Gallery, London

c1960s Sir Compton Mackenzie
pencil on paper 34.5 x 25 cm
National Galleries Scotland