{"product_id":"st-bees-school-cumberland-england-ultra-atmospheric-and-evocatively-aged-1845-oil-on-wood-painting","title":"St. Bees School, Cumberland, England, Ultra Atmospheric and Evocatively Aged 1845 Oil on Wood Painting","description":"\u003cp\u003eI was really excited to find this one at the Madison Bouckville show--pretty much never do I find such an evocatively aged oil painting as this, oil on wood, of just my scale and dated on the back with subject identified to boot: Archbishop Grindall's School, St. Bees, Cumberland, 1845. If there were ever an architectural subject to loom large in the psyche, I'd say a castle-like British grammar school might be it, such that the losses to the surface of the painting feel exactly right--moody, aura-full, all about history and memory and mystery too..feels a bit ominous!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSt. Bees was founded by Edmund Grindal, Archbishop of Canterbury, in \u003cspan\u003e1583 as a free grammar school for boys. It remained small, fewer than 40 pupils until expansions in the Victorian era, around when this was painted--I believe this painting probably marked the completion of construction on the school's open quadrangle, which included the original schoolhouse, in the early 1840s. (In 1978 the school became co-education, then finally closed in 2015.)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e11 3\/8 x 8 1\/2. Oil on wood panel. Paint loss as evident, all the good in my opinion, and all the better in hand, with a sort of inner glow to it. Sound and stable now, no flaking, etc. A couple of small holes to the wood along top edge for old hanging hooks. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"critical EYE Finds","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48728179376382,"sku":null,"price":250.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0015\/5022\/1382\/files\/IMG_3165_fa42a011-08ab-438d-bf3e-3204ea054b88.png?v=1786817785","url":"https:\/\/www.criticaleyefinds.com\/products\/st-bees-school-cumberland-england-ultra-atmospheric-and-evocatively-aged-1845-oil-on-wood-painting","provider":"critical EYE Finds","version":"1.0","type":"link"}