Lot 184: Douglas Percy Bliss (1900-1984)

Gunhills, Windley
signed 'D.P.BLISS.' (lower left)
oil on canvas
20 1/8 x 30 1/8 in. (51.1 x 76.5 cm.)

Although undated, the present picture bears comparison to Gunhills, Windley (1946-52; Tate Britain), depicting the Derbyshire farmhouse which Bliss purchased following his retirement as Director of the Glasgow School of Art.

Bliss is a key figure in the history of 20^th century art and design. He trained at the Royal College, where he befriended Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden, who likewise pursued dual interests in fine art and graphic design. Bliss' editorship of the in-house magazine inspired the British Museum to purchase copies of this publication for their print room.

As a post-graduate Bliss initially studied wood engraving. He had an immediate affinity with the medium. Oxford University Press, under Gerald Manley Hopkins, published a book of his engravings entitled Border Ballads in 1925, and subsequently commissioned Bliss to write A History of Wood Engraving in 1928.

In that same year Bliss married painter Phyllis Dodd, and began to paint more himself. His pallette of sun-baked colours pay tribute to the graphic art of his time, evoking the golden age of the railway poster, and the celebration of the British countryside that evolved in the neo-romantic art of the post-war era. Bliss visited Ireland and the Hebrides, as well as Devon, for inspiration.

During the second world war the artist volunteered for the RAF and was stationed in the Glasgow region as Decoy officer. He was the natural candidate to take on the vacant directorship of the Glasgow School of Art in 1946. Under his auspices the School developed a very strong Design and Craft department, and pioneered industrial design. Bliss recognised that an urban space could be planned with aesthetic values in mind, whilst maintaining its modern functionality.

Bliss' other important legacy during his tenure was his successful campaign to preserve architectural features and furniture designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Mackintosh's old firm, who tended the School of Art building, wished to modernise the establishment - demolishing Mackintosh's work in the process.

Upon his retirement to Derby in the 1950s Bliss became governor of the Derby and District College of Art and Technology. Habitually active, he took up stone-carving in addition to producing landscapes such as the present work.

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