Bramley married fellow artist Katherine Graham, daughter of John Graham from Huntingstile, Grasmere, Westmoreland, in 1891.[1][nb 2] The couple lived at Orchard Cottage, which at the time was called Belle Vue Cottage, from 1893 to 1897.[5] In 1895 they moved to Droitwich in the West Midlands.[6] They lived at Bellue Vue House in 1889[5] and by 1900 had settled at Grasmere in the Lake District.[2][6]
Having returned to England from Venice in or after 1884, Bramley established himself in the Newlyn School artist colony on Rue des Beaux Arts in Newlyn.[2][5] Along with Walter Langley and Stanhope Forbes, he was considered to be one of the "leading figures" of the Newlyn School.[5]
In contrast to other members of the Newlyn school, Bramley specialised in interiors[2] and worked on combining natural and artificial light in his paintings, such as A Hopeless Dawn.[7][8]
During his time in Newlyn, Bramley was a particular exponent of the ‘square brush technique’, using the flat of a square brush to lay the paint on the canvas in a jigsaw pattern of brush strokes, giving a particular vibrancy to the paint surface. In the early 1890s, his palette became brighter and his handling of the paint looser and more impastoed, while his subject matter narrowed to portraits and rural genre paintings.[2]
An example of Bramley's use of the square brush technique is his painting Domino![5]
His A Hopeless Dawn (1888) is held by the Tate Gallery, London after having been purchased for the nation by the Chantrey Bequest and is one of Bramley's most favored works. Praised by the Royal Academy, Penlee House also appreciate this Bramley work: "The painting’s strong emotional and narrative content, together with its aesthetic appeal and tonal harmony, make this one of the most admired Newlyn School works to this day." The young grieving woman in the painting, artist model Effy Reynolds James. The painting was referenced in an April 2010 General Conference address by President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Thomas S. Monson.
Bramley was one of the founders of the New English Art Club, but left the organization after having received condemning comments from Walter Sickert.[5]
Sir Frederick Augustus Abel, 1st Baronet, National Portrait Gallery, London
Everyone Has His Own Tale, 1885, oil on canvas
Domino!, 1886, oil on canvas
Eyes and No Eyes, 1887, etching
Delicious Solitude, 1909, oil on canvas
Borgerhout Anvers, oil on canvas
Flower Study, oil on canvas
Friends - The Artist's Wife Katherine And Her Dog, oil on canvas
Helen Chalmers, 1908
Notes
^Encyclopædia Britannica and Penlee House give the date of death as 10 August 1915.
^Catherine St. Clair Graham was born in 1868 in Dursley in Gloucestershire. In 1908 she exhibited 'Launching the Lifeboat' at the Royal Academy. Catherine also exhibited at the 1913 London Salon. She died on 20 January 1954 in Bournemouth.[4]
^ abc One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922). "Bramley, Frank". Encyclopædia Britannica (12th ed.). London & New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company.
