Leonard Griffith Brammer was born in Burslem, Staffordshire in 1906. His father designed and built the pottery kilns that made up the Burslem landscape, while his grandfather was a potter. Therefore from his early life he was exposed to the distinctive atmosphere of the Potteries and grew up amongst its landscapes, which would later inform his style of work.
He studied at the Burslem School of Art under Gordon M. Forsyth, where he was awarded a major Stoke-on-Trent scholarship to the Royal College of Art. By his mid-twenties Leonard Brammer was exhibiting etchings at the Royal Academy and the Twenty-One Gallery in London.
Success in the capital afforded him further opportunities to study and travel across Europe, but it was the industrial British landscape that would inspire his finest work. To be elected an Associate of the Royal School of Etchers and Engravers Leonard Brammer submitted a plate depicting his birthplace Burslem, seeking to immortalise one of Arnold Bennett’s “Five Towns” of Staffordshire. Between 1946 and 1948 he was commissioned to make a series of prints depicting the Wedgwood Etruria pottery works at Hanley, near Stoke-on-Trent. In this work he captured the oppressive atmosphere of British industry, amongst all its smoke and stark beauty.
From 1951 Leonard Brammer was the Supervisor of Art and Crafts for the Stoke-on-Trent Education Authority. Teaching many young artists and students, he regularly lectured at the Worker’s Educational Association until his retirement in 1969. He moved to North Wales with his wife Florence and continued to engrave, although experimenting with other mediums such as watercolour. He died in 1994, survived by his wife and daughter. His work is represented in the collections of the Tate, Ashmolean and British Museum.
