AN exciting new exhibition at Scarborough Art Gallery looks at the work of artist, painter, watercolourist, engraver, illustrator and progressive designer Sir Frank Brangwyn from a new perspective.

Co-curated with Scarborough Museums Trust by Dr Elizabeth Horner, the leading authority on his work, it will focus on Brangwyn’s interest in the lives of, and empathy for, ordinary people. How he managed to capture people’s daily lives and provide beautiful works for all will be demonstrated through public and private loans together with works from Scarborough’s art collection.

Dr Horner said: “Brangwyn produced more than 12,000 works during his lifetime in a variety of media ranging from huge murals to oils, watercolours, etchings, lithographs, wood engravings, architecture and decorative arts.

"This exhibition includes examples from all the disciplines and indicates Brangwyn's empathy with the working man in everyday life; his fascination with, and appreciation of, the skills involved in many trades; his sympathy for the poor and outcasts of society.

"He fervently believed that everyone should be able to share in and appreciate good art and design which is why his art is easily understood.”

Sir Frank Brangwyn (1867-1956) was largely self-taught. As a boy, he assisted his father, William, an ecclesiastical architect and textile designer in Bruges. When the family moved to England in 1875 Frank entered the South Kensington Art Schools and from 1882 to 1884 worked for William Morris.

Brangwyn's oil paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Royal Society of British Artists; he also produced etchings and lithographs. Industry, shipping and contemporary London and Venice were favourite themes, and he also designed war posters, scenery and architectural designs.

In 1924 Brangwyn began what he regarded as the culmination of his life's work, a series of panels for the Royal Gallery in the House of Lords. These were rejected by the Lords as being too flamboyant, and in 1933 were purchased for the Guildhall, Swansea, where they can still be seen.

After producing murals in the early 1930s for the Rockefeller Center, New York, he devoted himself in his later years to religious art.

The exhibition runs until Sunday, January 8. Scarborough Art Gallery is open from 10am to 5pm, Tuesday to Sundays. A £3 pass gains entry to both the gallery and the Rotunda Museum for a year.