Auxerre, France (Gate of St Pierre)

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

James Alphege Brewer was born into an artistic family, the son of the artist Henry W. Brewer – a prominent convert to the Catholic Church; and the grandson of John Sherren Brewer, Jr., the editor of the Calendar of Letters of Henry VIII. He attended St. Charles Catholic College in Kensington before studying at the Westminster School of Art. Commercially-minded, Brewer’s production focused on cathedral exteriors and interiors including those of Milan, Rouen, Amiens, Toledo, Antwerp; as well as multiple views of various colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, and other scenes of interest to tourists and readers of literature. Brewer’s most prolific year was 1915, when Alfred Bell & Co. published 13 of his etchings, 11 of them scenes of places that had been destroyed or were in danger from the events of the war. These views could have been sketched or photographed before the war using guidance from newspaper articles speculating about the course of a German invasion of Belgium.

Places

France

Subjects

topography, townscape/cityscape, night, man, gate, street, tiled roof, window, chimney

Materials & Techniques

etching, colour etching

Artist

James Alphege Brewer (1891 - 1946)

Title

Auxerre, France (Gate of St Pierre)

Date

Medium

Colour etching

Acquisition

origin uncertain

Inscription

below image: Auxerre France (Gate of St Pierre) / J Alphege Brewer

GAC number

14647