 Catalogue no. 107 |
These ' Thumbnote' sketches have always had a tremendous artistic appeal for many collectors of drawings as small masterpieces in their own right as well as holding interest as architectural studies. As his career progressed, Farey found that this appeal multiplied to the extent that the building press reproduced his sketches in special display pages within their periodicals; The Architect & Building News reproduced four 'thumbnotes' in this way on 30 July, 1926 and two of them are included in this exhibition at cat.no: 64. Thirteen years Catalogue no. 109 later the editorial comment printed in Building for January 1939 reaffirmed the taste for such sketches by Farey yet again saying, "Farey has done any number of drawings for his own amusement, which I would be glad to hang on my walls". The intimate nature of these 'thumbnote' sketches continues to bring much pleasure to many today and when they are set alongside the other formal work prepared by Farey during his career, a clear picture of his remarkable achievement is seen. In January 1939 the editor of Building summarised his qualities admirably. "In the strictly architectural drawing of sunlit brick and stone, nobody can beat him. A first-class Farey drawing, given the right subject has that quality of being perfectly "consistent with itself"; one feels that he set out to depict the subject in a certain way, and carried the job through without having to fight with his medium, having it "taped" from the start". |