Roger Fry

River with Poplars, circa 1912, Tate Gallery.

Roger Eliot Fry (14 December 1866 – 9 September 1934) was an English artist and critic, and an influential member of the Bloomsbury group. Despite establishing his reputation as a scholar of the Old Masters, as he matured as a critic, he became an advocate of more recent developments in French painting, to which he gave the name Post-Impressionism. His art became influential in England, as it was some of the initial modern art to appear and gain popularity at this time. Roger Fry died on September 9, 1934, following a fall at his London home. His ashes were placed in the vault of Kings College Chapel, Cambridge, in a casket decorated by his long-time love and fellow Bloomsbury group member, Vanessa Bell.

Life

Early Life

Roger Fry was born in London, UK, the son of a judge, Edward Fry. His mother was a homemaker. His parents belonged to a wealthy Quaker family, and sent him to study at King's College, Cambridge. During his time at Cambridge, Fry became a member of the Cambridge Apostles, and initially took an interest in the Natural Science 'tripos'. After becoming bored with this subject after he graduated from university, he decided to pursue an artistic career rather than continue his scientific studies, much to his family's chagrin.

In 1891, Fry traveled immensely, including trips to Italy and then Paris, to study art, and eventually he specialized in landscape painting. He began to lecture on art, and also became a critic and author. He made his debut in art criticism in 1893, with a review of George Moore's book Modern Art for the Cambridge Review. He continued to lecture on art, and in 1894, he began lecturing on Italian art for the Cambridge Extension Movement.

In 1896, he married the artist Helen Coombe, which began a troubled beginning to his personal life. During their marriage, Helen and Roger subsequently had two children, Pamela and Julian Fry. Although Helen suffered from mental illness throughout her life, she was committed to a mental institution in 1910, as her condition was worsening. Helen remained in this institution until her death in 1937, leaving Roger Fry alone to tend to the children, Julian and Pamela.

Love Interests

He first met the artists Clive Bell and Vanessa Bell in 1910, when they invited him to lecture at Vanessa's Friday Club, which was the artistic equivalent of her brother, Thoby Stephen's literary soirees held on Thursday evenings. After this meeting, he became fast friends with the couple, particularly Vanessa, and was very involved in the founding and support of the Bloomsbury Group, which Vanessa and her sister, Virginia Woolf later started. This group focused on the importance of love, truth, and trust between friends, and infamously developed fluidity of romantic relationships within the group.

During a holiday to Turkey with the Bells in 1911, Fry began his love affair with Vanessa Bell. Vanessa was thought to be emotionally unstable and extremely vulnerable due to her experiencing a difficult recovery after the birth of her son, Quentin. Fry offered her the tenderness and care she felt was lacking from her husband, Clive Bell, who was rumored to have numerous lovers himself. They remained life-long close friends, even living together in one of the Bloomsbury group main facilities. However, Roger's heart was broken in 1913, when Vanessa fell in love with Duncan Grant and decided to live permanently with him.

After short affairs with various artists, such as the Omega artist, Nina Hammett and Josette Coatmellec, which ended in suicide tragically. Finally, Roger found happiness with Helen Maitland Anrep. Due to her first marriage ending in ruins as well, Roger and her had a special bond. She became his emotional anchor for the rest of his life, and completely supported his work and career. Although they never married, Roger and Helen lived together until he died.

Roger Fry died on September 9, 1934, following a fall at his London home very unexpectedly. His death caused great sorrow among the members of the Bloomsbury Group, who loved him for his generosity and warmth. His love, Vanessa Bell decorated his casket before he was buried at Kings College Chapel in Cambridge. Virginia Woolf, Vanessa's sister, novelist and a close friend of Roger as well, was entrusted with writing his biography, that was published in 1940.

Works

Early Works

Roger Fry's first book on Giovanni Bellini, was published in 1899. He regularly contributed articles and criticism to the magazines Monthly Review and The Athenaeum, and in 1903, he was involved in the founding of Burlington Magazine, acting as a joint editor between 1909-18, and making it into one of the most important art magazines in Britain.

In 1906, Fry was appointed Curator of Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. This was also the year in which he "discovered" the art of Paul Cézanne, beginning the shift in his scholarly interests away from the Italian Old Masters and towards modern French art. In 1910, Fry organized the exhibition Manet and the Post-Impressionists at the Grafton Galleries, London. Despite the debate surrounding the exhibition, Fry followed it up with the Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition in 1912. This exhibition was patronized by Lady Ottoline Morrell, with whom Fry had a fleeting romantic attachment. In 1913, he founded the Omega Workshops, a design workshop whose members included his friends, Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant.

Later Works

Fry re-edited and updated a collection of his best articles and writings to produce his best known book, Vision and Design, which was published in 1920. As well as Western art, the book examined the use of form and aesthetics in ethnic art from Africa, America and Asia. It was a great success, reinforcing his position as England's leading art critic and it is still recognized as an extremely influential work in the development of modernist theory.

In his ideas, Fry emphasized the importance of 'form' over 'content', that is, how a work looks, rather than what it is about. He thought that artists should use color and arrangement of forms rather than the subject to express their ideas and feelings, and was a firm believer that works of art should not be judged by how accurately they represent reality.

Legacy

Roger Fry is best known for introducing the term and meaning of Post-impressionism to the art world. Beyond his own art, he also was an influential critic and lecturer in the arts field, especially when considering painting. Virginia Woolf, his friend, fellow member of the Bloomsbury group, and literary revolutionist in her own right, was selected to write his biography about the personal Roger that the group knew and loved. Here is some of what she wrote about how she thought of Roger:

"[H]e was not one of those characters who have, as we are told by their biographers, an instinctive love of their kind. His kind often amazed him and shocked him. His eyes, shining beneath the bushy black eyebrows, would fix themselves suddenly, and, looking as formidable as his father the Judge, he would pronounce judgment. 'You are bolstering people up in their natural beastliness', his words to Sir Charles Holmes who had given him, innocently, a book on fishing recall some awkward moments in his company. But if not gregarious he was sociable – 'incurably sociable' he called himself. His friends meant so much to him that he would give up the delights of wandering from village to village, from gallery to gallery, in order to be with them. Spring after spring he would exclaim, 'I feel very much inclined never to come back to England, just to wander on into Spain and Morocco...', but the sentence would end, 'if you wretches will live in London, then to London I must be dragged back'."

Roger Fry was not only influential within his group of friends, but also throughout the world as well. He is considered the first figure to raise public awareness of modern art in Britain, and is often described as a great influence on art itself by critics and admirers alike.

Bibliography

• Vision and Design (1920)
• Transformations (1926)
• Cézanne. A Study of His Development (1927)
• Henri Matisse (1930)
• French Art (1932)
• Reflections on British Painting (1934)

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Woolf, Virginia: Roger Fry. London, UK: Vintage (RAND), April 3, 2003. ISBN 0099442523

• Roger Fry (Author), Christopher Reed (Editor): A Roger Fry Reader. Chicago, IL: University Of Chicago Press, July 15, 1996. ISBN 0226266427

• Frances Spalding: Roger Fry, Art and Life: New York, New York: Black Dog Books, September 1999. ISBN 0520041267

External links

• Roger Fry Art Encyclopedia Article Roger Fry Retrieved August 27, 2007.

• Biographical Information Retrieved August 27, 2007.

• Roger Fry Biography Retrieved August 27, 2007.

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