Michael Finn Antique Old English Modern Folk Art Girl Oil Painting Vintage Child

WONDERFUL AND CHARMING OLD ENGLISH MODERN FOLK ART IMPRESSIONIST OIL PAINTING ON CANVAS BY ESTEEMED BRITISH ART PRINCIPAL, SCULPTOR AND PAINTER MICHAEL FINN. THIS WORK DEPICTS A YOUNG ADORABLE ENGLISH GIRL OUTFITTED IN AN ELEGANT OVERCOAT. METICULOUSLY RENDERED WITH SPOT-ON DETAIL THROUGHOUT EVERY PAINSTAKING BRUSHSTROKE. THIS PORTRAIT IS MOST LIKELY OF A YOUNG HEIRESS TO A PRIVILEGED ARISTOCRATIC FAMILY.

SIGNED BY M FINN IN THE LOWER RIGHTHAND CORNER. IT DATES AROUND THE 1950s AROUND THE TIME MICHAEL FINN WAS APPOINTED PRINCIPAL OF FALMOUTH COLLEGE OF ART IN CORNWALL. DIMENSIONS: 25" H x 20" W. PROVENANCE: PRIVATE COLLECTION, PASADENA, CALIFORNIA. Michael Finn (1921 - 2002) was active/lived in United Kingdom.

Michael Finn is known for Painting. Painter, sculptor, administrator and teacher, who grew up near Brooklands, Surrey. Michael Finn, who has died aged 80, was head of two art colleges before devoting the last 20 years of his life to his own painting.

In 1958, he was appointed principal of Falmouth College of Art in Cornwall, where he stayed until taking over as principal of Bath Academy of Art at Corsham in 1972. Under his leadership, both were among the most highly regarded art colleges in the country.

As John Halkes, a former director of Newlyn Art Gallery, wrote: Finn's talent at Falmouth had been as visionary and persuader. At Corsham he showed his other side: the conviction, determination and patience which made him a steely defender of the visual arts and a sharp adversary in bureaucratic wrangles. His gentle and supportive style was combined with high standards, while his infectious enthusiasm for the language of visual art was underpinned by a strict sense of design and form. Earthy, luminous colours were a characteristic of his work, which was shown in Artists from Cornwall, RWA, 1992. He also took part in mixed shows at Newlyn Orion Gallery, Penzance, at the Wolf at the Door gallery there and at Penwith Society of Arts. Solo shows were held at Festival Gallery, Bath, 1978; Newlyn Orion, 1989; and Newlyn and Falmouth Art Galleries, both 2001. Lived in St Just, Cornwall.

Michael Finn was born in Chertsey, Surrey. His father was an architect, and he went to Westminster school, before going to Kingston-upon-Thames School of Art in 1938. His student life was interrupted by wartime service in the RAF from 1942 to 1946, but resumed at the Royal College of Art, until 1949. He took a teaching job at Somerset College of Art at Taunton, where he stayed until his move to Falmouth. On his retirement, in 1982, he moved with his family to Tregeseal, near St Just in the far west of Cornwall, and began his long-postponed career as a full-time artist.

At the same time, he began using scraps of timber to make simple altar crosses and crucifixes. His work was rooted in the principles of constructivism, including the use of collage. In developing the ultra-simple configurations of bands and lines with which he articulated his colour fields, Finn drew directly upon doorways or window shutters, the lines most often framing sides of a broad expanse of colour, or dividing a tall canvas into horizontal bars. His touch upon the canvas was extremely light, and his paintings combine a balanced insubstantiality with formal gravitas.

His profound Christian faith and Catholic observance formed the foundation of his life and the direction of his art. He sought, modestly and graciously, to deal with the ineffable through art. He would mention an "up there" with a smile, glancing briefly upward, that the language of painting might possibly help one sense. His deep reds, earthy browns and stained, murky, real-life whites elicited elegiac moods.

When he used grey and black, he always set against their sombreness a touch of hope, a sense of potential peace. Some of his wooden crosses, often with washes of white or bleached colour, were cast for him by Michael Werbicki of Bristol, who thus helped him to realise his sculpture in its most powerful form.

In his crucifixes, the central image is often expressed as a simple disc, imbued with all the iconic power of Christ's head and shoulders, and the emanation of his halo. Finn had two fine one-person exhibitions at Newlyn Art Gallery, in 1989 and 2001, the latter in conjunction with a show of his sculpture at Falmouth Art Gallery. He showed frequently at leading public and private galleries in west Cornwall and elsewhere in Britain, including London, where David Messum showed his work in 1993 and 1996. Sister Wendy Beckett used his work to illustrate three of her books. Michael Finn will be remembered with affection for his gentle nature, for the example of his faith and for the tenacity that led him to pursue his uncompromising and beautiful art under increasingly difficult circumstances to the very end of his life.

Michael Finn passed away in 2002 leaving behind a true art legacy. This item is in the category "Art\Paintings". The seller is "vintagerotty" and is located in this country: US. This item can be shipped to United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, South Africa, Hong Kong, Bahamas, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, Norway, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Malaysia, Chile, Colombia, Panama, Jamaica, Barbados, Bangladesh, Bermuda, Brunei Darussalam, Bolivia, Egypt, French Guiana, Guernsey, Gibraltar, Guadeloupe, Iceland, Jersey, Jordan, Cambodia, Cayman Islands, Liechtenstein, Sri Lanka, Monaco, Macau, Martinique, Maldives, Nicaragua, Oman, Pakistan, Paraguay, Reunion.

Artist: Michael Finn
Unit of Sale: Single Piece
Signed By: M Finn
Size: Large
Signed: Yes
Material: Canvas
Item Length: 20 in
Region of Origin: United Kingdom
Framing: Framed
Subject: Portrait
Type: Painting
Year of Production: 1950s
Original/Licensed Reproduction: Original
Item Height: 25 in
Style: Modernism, Impressionism, Folk Art
Features: One of a Kind (OOAK)
Production Technique: Oil Painting
Country/Region of Manufacture: United Kingdom
Culture: European Impressionism
Item Width: 20 in
Handmade: Yes
Time Period Produced: 1950-1959