Cyril A Farey (1888-1954)

Perspective of Durham School, Memorial Chapel, 1924

Built to the design of architects W H Brierley (1862-1926) & J H Rutherford (1874-1946)
 

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Pencil, pen and ink,with watercolours and white highlights
Signed, inscribed and dated:  Cyril Farey / 1924
35.5 x 56 cms (14 x 22 inches)
With insert ground plan

Price: please apply to jbl@gallerylingard.com

Walter Henry Brierley (1862-1926) had a very extensive architectural practice in Yorkshire and elsewhere.   His practice is listed at 13 Lendal, York from before 1906 until after 1926 and his reputation was such that he earned himself the nickname of 'The Lutyens of the North'.

James Hervey Rutherford (1874-1946) was born in Glasgow and educated in Edinburgh.  He moved to London in 1899 where he worked for John Belcher and attended the RA Schools.  He won a number of prizes including the Pugin Studentship in 1899 and the Owen Jones award in 1901 which enabled him to travel to Spain, Sicily and Italy during 1902.  Rutherford moved to York to work as Chief Assistant for Brierley in 1901, becoming a partner there in 1918.  After the death of Brierley in 1926, Rutherford continued in practice with John Stuart Syme until his retirement in 1939 when the partnership was dissolved.

Cyril Arthur Farey (1888-1954) was one of the most renowned architectural perspectivists of the 20th century.  The style of Farey's draughtsmanship was meticulous; his technique relied upon layers of thin, clear and flat washes applied to an under-drawing and his work is typified by 'wet roads' that reflect the building portrayed above.  During his career Farey was immensely popular with architects and their clients.  Indeed, in one year he had 28 drawings in the Royal Academy (under the names of other architects because he was permitted only 3 in his own name) and so great was his contribution to the architecture rooms in the Academy that they were described as 'Fareyland'. 

Raymond Myerscough-Walker paid tribute to the particular genius of Farey in his book The Perspectivist (1958) when he wrote, "The success of Farey lay in his ability to work on very detailed and large-scale drawings and yet retain (or regain) the original freshness of the white whatman paper upon which he worked ... No-one could compete with him in his ability to handle this very difficult medium ... in Farey's work you have the epitome of the school of drawing which stems from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris ... Farey inherited this tradition and he was unique in England in spite of his imitators.  No architect could draw as well as this perspectivist and I doubt whether his equal will be seen again in this country".