Muirhead Bone was born in Partick, a suburb of Glasgow in 1876. As a young man he was apprenticed to a firm of architects and in the evenings attended classes at the Glasgow School of Art. Aware his vocation was art, and not architecture, he devoted his time almost exclusively to drawing. He continually sketched the streets, buildings, and slums of Glasgow imbuing the urban decay with dignity and sentiment he so admired in the work of the Dutch artists whose townscapes he had studied in the Glasgow Corporation Art Galleries. Bone moved to London in 1901, holding his first exhibition at the Carfax Gallery in 1902. His success both critically and financially was rapid. His status as an etcher in the early years of the last century placed him among the world's most celebrated artists. It is not an exaggeration to say that his international reputation among collectors and the curators of the 'Great Print Rooms' of Europe and America was without parallel. He was appointed the first Official War Artist in World War I and was the doyen of War Artists in the Second World War. He was instrumental in the foundation of The Imperial War Museum, and became a Trustee of The Tate and The National Gallery. He was knighted for his services to art in 1937
The first decades of the 20th century were a period of artistic upheaval, with modern art movements including Cubism, Surrealism, Futurism and Dadaism questioning centuries of traditional views of what art should be. Using abstraction, experimental forms and interdisciplinary techniques, painters, sculptors, photographers, printmakers and performance artists all pushed the boundaries of creative expression.
Major exhibitions, like the 1913 Armory Show in New York City — also known as the “International Exhibition of Modern Art,” in which works like the radically angular Nude Descending a Staircase by Marcel Duchamp caused a sensation — challenged the perspective of viewers and critics and heralded the arrival of modern art in the United States. But the movement’s revolutionary spirit took shape in the 19th century.
The Industrial Revolution, which ushered in new technology and cultural conditions across the world, transformed art from something mostly commissioned by the wealthy or the church to work that responded to personal experiences. The Impressionist style emerged in 1860s France with artists like Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne and Edgar Degas quickly painting works that captured moments of light and urban life. Around the same time in England, the Pre-Raphaelites, like Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, borrowed from late medieval and early Renaissance art to imbue their art with symbolism and modern ideas of beauty.
Emerging from this disruption of the artistic status quo, modern art went further in rejecting conventions and embracing innovation. The bold legacy of leading modern artists Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dalí, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, Piet Mondrian and many others continues to inform visual culture today.
Find a collection of modern paintings, sculptures, prints and other fine art on 1stDibs.
![Charles Levier [Les Voiles au Repos] c. 1970 Hand Signed Watercolor Harbor Scene](https://a.1stdibscdn.com/a_28432/a_167726921771305319769/Levier_Charles_Untitled_Lesvoilesaurepos_Circa1970_101277_FT_1_Hero_Ratio_0_742_SM_Complete_HR_master.jpg?width=240)
![Charles Levier [Les Voiles au Repos] c. 1970 Hand Signed Watercolor Harbor Scene](https://a.1stdibscdn.com/a_28432/a_167726921756533707806/Levier_Charles_Untitled_Lesvoilesaurepos_Circa1970_101277_FT_1_Main_Ratio_0_742_SM_Complete_master.jpg?width=240)
