Picture of the Week - Thomas Gainsborough

Thomas Gainsborough RA (1727-88) study for Diana and Actaeon, 1784-5, black chalk and wash, heightened with white on paper

The study from the Cecil Higgins Collection is the final study of three for an oil painting, now in the Royal Collection (you can see the work here). The story of Diana and Acteon is told in the Third Book of Metamorphoses, a long narrative poem by the Roman poet Ovid. The myths told in Ovid's poem are written elsewhere and in earlier texts with many variations to the stories, as well using the differing Roman and Greek names for the gods, but for artists depicting myths in paintings in the 16th to 18th centuries it was the key work. In this story Diana (or Artemis to the Greeks) is bathing with her nymphs after a hunt in

...a spacious grotto, all around o'er-grown
With hoary moss, and arch'd with pumice-stone.

Acteon, who has also just finished hunting, comes to the clearing and disturbs the bathing party, frightening the nymphs and angering Diana. A virgin goddess, Diana furiously protects her modesty and in anger throws water at Acteon which transforms him into a stag:

...the man begun to disappear
By slow degrees, and ended in a deer.
A rising horn on either brow he wears...

Actaeon then flees from the scene but only lands in more trouble as he encounters his hounds who do not recognise him and pounce on him, tearing him to pieces. As he lies dying on the ground his hunting party call for their lord Actaeon to celebrate the caught stag, and he can only wish he wasn't so near to the gory scene as to be a part of it.

Gainsborough's depiction takes a more remote viewpoint from the famous painting by Titian, where Diana's side glance at Actaeon delivers all her fury and vengeance. The scene is more tranquil and the figures looser; Actaeons antlers have started to appear but the group of goddess and nymphs seem calm. In both painting and the Cecil Higgins study Acteon is rendered in the same way as the trees and rocks, with loose handling of black chalk and wash, where the bathers shine out with the lightest areas of the paper and dazzling white chalk. Diana is the standing figure in the centre; her arms reach out to fling the magical water at the intruder. Gainsborough is clearly as interested in the woodland scene as much as the myth taking place within it, and makes if almost feel the most natural thing to find chance upon a goddess bathing in the English countryside.

Gainsborough had not turned to mythological subjects before and never exhibited the picture but he was in the last years of his life with a swollen neck from cancer and was perhaps reflecting on his life in a different way, on his passion for the suffolk landscape and his own love of beauty. (Andrew Graham Dixon has written more on his website about the relationship of this picture with Gainsborough's terminal illness and his impending death.)

Kristian Purcell

Picture of the Week No.35 - Cotman & Holland

Over the weekend I caught a fascinating programme on the BBC iPlayer called  'Churches: How to Read Them'. As someone whose university days featured several illuminating and entertaining architecture walks where we were prompted to name various features of buildings, or to try and work out the various ages of different parts of churches, this took me back and gave me a big of hit of those Gothic and Early English styles, which I have come to admire. They remind me also of William Burges, who was such a imaginative yet scholarly applier of 11th and 12th century Gothic details in his Revivalist designs, and who our own VP has been studying for future displays here at the Cecil Higgins.

For Picture of the Week this week I've selected two detailed views of eclesiastical architecture that show different periods of church design. The first, by John Sell Cotman depicts a Romanesque archway in Norwich Cathedral, which was built between 1096-c.1140, when Bishop Herbertwanted to move the centre of religious power in East Anglia from Thetford to Norwich. The subject of James Holland's study is the Edward the Confessor Chapel at Westminster Abbey. The Abbey has been substantially altered since Edward the Confessor started the current building (although not the first abbey on the site) in 1065, with Henry III rebuilding much including the Chapel to the Confessor in the "French Style" - later named Gothic in the Reanissance. The iconic Great West Towers we built betwee1722 and 1745 by Nicholas Hawksmoor in an early example of a Gothic Revival design. KP

JOHN SELL COTMAN (1782-1842)

The Interior of the Nave, Norwich Cathedral, c.1807

watercolour and black lead on paper, 33.1 x 22.1 cm
Acession No. P.695


This is one of a series of about ten drawings Cotman made of the interior of Norwich Cathedral.


Painted c.1807, this shows the pillars on the northern side immediately west of the organ screen, seen from the centre of the nave. The tomb is that of Sir James Hobart, now almost hidden by pews.


The 1982-3 catalogue (see below) comments: ‘Nothing shows more clearly Cotman’s artistic power at this time than the way this rather ungainly corner of the Cathedral became the vehicle for one of the most poetic interior pieces he ever did’.EJ


PROVENANCE: Acquired from the artist by Rev. James Bulwer, then by descent; Walker’s Galleries Ltd.; 1926 bought by Sydney Kitson; Elisabeth and Alice Barbara Kitson, given to Gallery, May 1973.


EXHIBITIONS: John Sell Cotman (The Bulwer Collection), London, Walker’s Galleries Ltd., 1926, no.8; Oxford, Oxford Art Club, 1928, catalogue not traced; Twee Eeuwem Engelse Kunst, Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, 1936, no.181; Watercolour Drawings by J.R.Cozens and J.S.Cotman, Manchester, Whitworth Art Gallery, 1937, no.32; The English Tradition: an exhibition of watercolours from two private collections, Bedford, Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, 1972, no.18; John Sell Cotman, London, V&A, Manchester, Whitworth Art Gallery and Bristol, Bristol City Art Gallery, 1982-3, no.62


REFERENCES: S. Kitson, The Life of John Sell Cotman, 1937, p.107, pl.43; M. Pidgley, John Sell Cotman’s Patrons and The Romantic Subject Pictures in the 1820s and 1830s, 1975, p.79, no.252; L. Herrmann, Nineteenth Century British Painting, 2000, p.51. fig.36.

JAMES HOLLAND (1799-1870)

Edward the Confessor’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey, 1834

pencil and watercolour on paper, 26.3 x 17.5 cm, inscribed: J.Holland 1834
Accession No.P.349
 This drawing was formerly thought to depict Canterbury Cathedral.


This is a watercolour sketch for either the oil painting Part of St.Edward’s Chapel with the tombs of Edward III and his Queen Phillippa, exhibited at the Society of British Artists in 1835, or for another version, also an oil, exhibited at the British Institution in 1835 entitled St.Edward’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey.

Rebuilt by Edward the Confessor c.1050-65, Westminster Abbey is the earliest example of the Norman Style in England. The Confessor’s shrine was commissioned by Henry III before he began the new abbey in 1241.EJ/CB



PROVENANCE: W.G. Walford; P&D Colnaghi Ltd, from whom purchased by Gallery, July 1960.


EXHIBITIONS: James Holland Bi-Centennial Exhibition, Stoke-on-Trent, The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, 1999, no cat.

Picture of the Week No.34 & New Acquisition

Williangton Stable, S. R. Badmin

I am cheating a bit this week and combining picture of the week with a blog about a new acquisition, but in my defence it’s been a busy airship filled week. This morning I have had a bit of a break from the dirigibles and have accessioned our newest acquisition, a watercolour by Stanley Roy Badmin (1906-1989). Its subject is the Willington Stable built in the 1530’s by Sir John Gostwick, which along with its companion dovecote, is the only building owned by the National Trust in Bedfordshire.

Badmin’s career was similar to Edward Bawden’s, both blurred the lines of fine and commercial art, by exhibiting watercolours as well as illustrating books and producing posters and adverts for companies such as London Transport and Shell. ‘The Old Stable’ is a lovely example of the kind of topographically precise work Badmin produced as part of the ‘Recording Britain Scheme’. Intended to boost national morale, the scheme was set up by Sir Kenneth Clark as an extension of the Official War Artist Scheme, to celebrate the home front’s natural beauty and architectural heritage.

You can find out more about the Recording Britain Scheme and see more of Badmin’s work on the VandA Website.

If you would like to visit the Willington Stable and Dovecote be quick as it looks like this Sunday is the last opening of the year.

VP

Picture of the Week No.33 - Edward Bawden

We have been so busy putting up the ‘R100 & R101 Airships at Cardington exhibition’ and admiring our new Paul Catherall prints that we have completely neglected our picture of the week duties! As an apology I offer up Edward Bawden’s ‘The Pagoda, Kew Gardens’ for your viewing pleasure. Bawden was fascinated with Kew Gardens, and like Brighton, he returned to it as a subject throughout his career. What you won’t be able to see from this image is the scale of the picture, it’s over a meter tall which caused Bawden’s assistant to be print it in a unique way…. by stomping on it with his feet. This however wasn’t the strangest way to produce linocuts, some of the sample wallpapers Bawden produced with John Aldrich in the 1930’s were printed by driving a Rolls Royce over the blocks. VP

EDWARD BAWDEN, C.B.E., R.A.

(1903-1989)
The Pagoda, Kew Gardens
1963

12 colour linocut, 115 x 66.7 cm
inscribed: The Pagoda, Kew 4/50 Edward Bawden
P.757
From his student days at the R.C.A., the landscaping, flora and architecture at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew had fascinated Bawden. He would spend many warm weekends at Kew making numerous sketches. Various aspects of the Gardens were to feature throughout is work from the 1920s, through the advertising material of the 1930s to the large linocuts of the 1960s.
CB
PROVENANCE: Bequeathed by the artist to the Gallery, given via The Fine Art Society, August 1990

Picture of the Week No. 32 - Edward Wadsworth

We're all very excited about the imminent launch of our commissioned Paul Catherall artwork which we should be able to show you here next week. Designed for R100 and R101: Airships in Cardington, 2nd October-19th December, the finished work will be on the poster and available to buy as a very limited edition linocut and as an exhibiton poster, as well as on a range of merchandise. One of Paul Catherall's artistic heroes is Edward Wadsworth, who is perhaps most famous for his paintings the First World War dazzle ships. Dazzle camouflage was intended not to hide the ship but confuse the outline of the ship un order to disguise its direction and distance in the eyes of a submarine periscope operator. The modern appearance of the ships evoked cubism and it is of little surprise that a Modernist artist such as Wadsworth supervised the camouflaging of many of the ships painted at Liverpool. This week, as I've been away for a few weeks, I'll show you two of the Wadsworths in the collection, and they arequite different pieces. The first is a pencil study of a Marseilles street in a stylised but realist manner. The second, a bold and cubist composition using repeated forms and motifs and a limited pallete of red, pink, black, white, and maroon. KP

EDWARD WADSWORTH, A.R.A. (1889-1949)
Street in Marseilles (also known as Hospice de la Charité, Marseilles), 1924

pencil on paper, 47.9 ´ 22.8 cm
inscribed: Edward Wadsworth 1924
Acession No. P.329

Marseilles and the nearby naval base at Toulon enjoyed a reputation in the early 1920s as a bohemian centre for artists and writers. Wadsworth was amongst the first English artists to go there, with others such as Edward BURRA, and Paul NASH following soon after.

It was during this period that he fell out with Wyndham LEWIS whose novel, The Apes of God, railed against 'champagne bohemia' and criticized many from Wadsworth’s circle of friends.
JM

PROVENANCE: The artist’s widow; Mayor Gallery, from whom purchased by Gallery, January 1960.
EXHIBITIONS: Edward Wadsworth Memorial Exhibition, London, Tate Gallery, 1951 as no. 75,76, or 77 (all three have the same date and virtually identical measurements); Edward Wadsworth, 1889-1949, Bradford, Cartwright Hall, 1989-1990, no.86 as Hospice de la Charité.
REFERENCES: J. Lewison (ed.), A Genius of Industrial England. Edward Wadsworth 1889-1949, 1990, p.47, no.86, repr. as Hospice de la Charité, Marseille.

'Composition, 1930', 1930

pencil and bodycolour on paper, 35.3 ´ 50.9 cm
inscribed: E WADSWORTH 1930
Acession No. P.327

Wadsworth was born at Cleckheaton in 1889, the son of Fred Wadsworth, a well known name in the worsted spinning industry of Yorkshire. He studied at the Knirr Art School, Munich, the Bradford School of Art and the Slade 1910-12. He befriended Wyndham LEWIS and exhibited in London with the Vorticists and various other independent groups.

His war service was as an intelligence officer in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve based at Mudros, on the Aegean isle of Lemnos. He was invalided home in 1917 and later engaged with dazzle camouflage at various English ports.

In the 1930s Wadsworth was a member with Ben NICHOLSON, Paul NASH and others of Unit 1 and was also commissioned to make two paintings for the liner Queen Mary.
EJ

PROVENANCE: Mrs Wadsworth the artist’s widow, from whom purchased by Gallery, January 1960.

Picture of the Week No.31 - Jankel Adler

KP is off on holiday for a couple of weeks so GH and I are going to take it in turns to choose a picture of the week. This week it’s my pick and as I don’t regularly do it I am having trouble choosing. I try not to play favourites with the collection but if you pushed me I would have to say Edward Bawden, Dora Carrington, John Piper or Paul Nash, hence there is usually a work by one of them in our exhibitions. However I am very fickle so in my ten years here I have changed my mind regularly. Last week I was waxing lyrical over a Samuel Palmer, and this week I have been looking at our Augustus’s Johns with renewed interest.

I tend to like a picture because it’s beautiful or how it makes me feel, but some of my favourites are my favourites because I am so familiar with them. Such as Dora Carrington’s ‘Lytton Stratchey’, which a copy of hung on my bedroom wall for about ten years and which is the first picture I visit when ever I go to the National Portrait Gallery, or Howard Hodgkin’s ‘After Degas’ because it reminds me of the Hayward exhibition my mum took me to in the nineties which made me think working in an art gallery would be great.

So my choice this week is Portrait of Mr Murray by Jankel Adler, for two reasons firstly it is a beautiful study, the lines on his eyes draw me in but secondly it reminds me of Kirkcudbright where I spent all my childhood holidays. Adler spent about six months in Kirkcudbright after he was invalided out of the army in 1941, like St Ives, Kirkcudbright was a popular place amongst artists including Jessie M King and E A Hornel who on being asked why Kirkcudbright attracted such talent said "Well, it's a fine old town and not too big, but big enough to keep you from vegetating." Kirkcudbright was certainly more than that, with unspoilt views, the sea only a moment away and the beautiful architecture, the small town was the perfect place for Adler to recuperate.
VP

JANKEL ADLER
(1895-1949)
Portrait of Mr. Murray
1942

ink on paper, 51 ´ 43.8 cm
inscribed: Adler
Portrait drawing of Mr.Murray of Kirkudbright by Jankel Adler 1942
P.374

Adler was born in Poland and studied art in Düsseldorf before being conscripted into the Russian army in the 1914-18 war. He went to Germany after the war where he lectured at the Akademie der Kunst, Düsseldorf, until his work was declared ‘degenerate’ by the Nazis. He moved to France where he worked with S. W. Hayter (1901-1988) at the Atelier 17. When he enlisted in the Polish Free Army during the Second World War, he was sent to Scotland (where he drew this portrait) before settling in London. His images have been described as being ‘expressive of a melancholy acceptance of fate’, of which the sitter here is a striking example.

Kircudbright is in Dumfriesshire but the local library has no trace of Mr Murray.
EJ/CB

Picture of the Week No.30 J.M.W. Turner

All of us here at the Art Gallery and Museum have been enjoying the BBC's Sherlock and are very pleased to hear there'll be more episodes. The first series ended on a ciff hanger ending, but one of the most dramatic moments in the original books was Sherlock falling, apparently to his death from the Reichenbach Falls in the Swiss Alps. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wasn't the only person to be so creatively inspired; 90 years earlier JMW Turner had travelled there and produced one of his finest watercolours. In 1954 that epic painting was bought for the Cecil Higgins Collection. It remains one of the stand-out works in the collection and was recently in the Turner exhibiton that toured the US, finishing in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Sherlock Holmes, was brought back to life by Coyle Doyle in The Adventure of the Empty House after his dealy encounter with Moriaty by the great waterfall. How will the 21st version survive his similar situation? KP

JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER, R.A. (1775-1851)
The Great Falls of the Reichenbach, 1804

Entry from the Watercolour Catalogue:

Accesion No.: P.98
watercolour on paper, 102.2 ´ 68.9 cm
inscribed: J M W Turner R A 1804


Turner was born on 23 April 1775, the son of William Turner, a barber in Covent Garden. After the death of his sister, and 'in consequence of illness', he was moved to Brentford, living with his uncle, where he attended Brentford Free School as a day boy. His earliest known work is a copy of an engraving of Friar Bacon’s Study and Folly Bridge, Oxford (Oxford Almanack, 1780), made when he was twelve; it was at this time that he produced many sketches of churches, abbeys and city streets. A friend remembered Turner declaring that 'if he could begin life again, he would rather be an architect than a painter'.

Entering the R.A. Schools in 1789, his training is remembered by Edward Dayes who said 'The way he acquired his professional powers was by borrowing, where he could, a drawing or picture to copy from; or by making a sketch of any one in the Exhibition early in the morning, and finishing it at home. By such practices... the fine taste and colour his drawings possess are scarcely to be found in any other'.

The Great Falls of the Reichenbach was first shown at Turner’s own gallery held on the first floor of what was 64 Harley Street. Turner had conceived the idea of his own gallery due to uncertainty over the future of the Royal Academy in late 1803, with rumours abounding that Turner would not be showing at the the R.A. in 1804. Sir George Beaumont (who saw the Turner exhibition) complained of 'the strong skies and parts not corresponding with them'.

The Great Falls is a superb watercolour, made soon after Turner’s first visit to Switzerland in 1802, and is based on a sketch (Wilton no.361) now in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin. The view is taken from the valley of Hasli above Meiringen with Great Scheidegg beyond and shows Turner tackling a 'Sublime' subject with enormous confidence. Turner’s pride in the work is shown by the fact that it was again exhibited at the R.A. in 1815.
EJ/JM


PROVENANCE Bought from Turner by Walter Fawkes of Farnley Hall; Fawkes sale Christie’s 2 July 1937, no.37, bought in; Mrs F.M.C. Raymond; sale at Christie’s 13 October 1954 no.29; bought by Thos. Agnew & Sons Ltd, from whom purchased by Gallery, December 1954.
EXHIBITIONS: Turner’s Gallery, 1804; London, Royal Academy, 1815, no.292; London, Grosvenor Place (Fawkes’ London House), 1819, no.2; Watercolours from Farnley Hall, Leeds, Music Hall, 1839, no.23; Old Masters of the British School, London, Royal Academy, 1886, no.34; Old Masters of the British School, London, Royal Academy, 1906, no.205; Exhibition of British Art, London, Royal Academy, 1934, no.708; 68th Annual Exhibition of Watercolours, London, Thos. Agnew & Sons Ltd, 1941, no.36; L’Aquarelle Anglaise, Geneva, Zurich, 1955-56, no.117; The Romantic Movement, London, Tate Gallery, 1959, no.440; Primitives to Picasso, London, Royal Academy, 1962, no.380; Watercolours and Drawings from the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford, London, Thos. Agnew & Sons Ltd, 1962, no. 61; Royal Academy Bi-centenary Exhibition, London, 1968 –9, no.203; La Peinture Romantique Anglaise et les Préraphaélites, Paris, Petit Palais, 1972, no.284; Turner, Paris, Le Grand Palais, 1984, no.100, William Wordsworth and the Age of Romanticism, Chicago, The Chicago Historical Society, 1988, no.292; The Great Age of British Watercolours 1750-1880, London, Royal Academy of Art and Washington, National Gallery of Art, 1993, no.284; Le Cattredali della Terra, Milan, Museo della Permanente, 2000, no.3; Turner The Great Watercolours, London, Royal Academy, 2000-1, no.18.
REFERENCES: Farnley Hall catalogue, 1850; F. Wedmore, Turner and Ruskin, 1900, vol.I, repr. facing p.100; C.F. Bell, The Exhibited Works of J.M.W. Turner, R.A., 1901, pp.51,170; Sir W. Armstrong, Turner, 1902, pp.130 & 272; A.J. Finberg, Turner’s Sketches and Drawings, 1910, p.39; ibid. Turner’s Watercolours at Farnley Hall, 1912, pp.1-2,21-2 pl.IX; A.J. Finberg, The Life of J.M.W. Turner R.A., 1939, pp.107, 219, 258, 466,477,479,503; A.P. Oppé, The Burlington Magazine, vol.78, April 1941, p.131; I. Williams, Early English Watercolours, 1952, pp.111,114; J. Gage, Turner: A Wonderful Range of Mind, 1987, p.42, fig.63; B. Dawson, Turner in the National Gallery of Ireland, 1988, pp.64-66; E. Shanes, Turner: The Masterworks, 1990, p.56, pl.57; D. Hill, Turner in the Alps, 1992, pp.119-125, repr. p.120. E. Shanes et al, Turner The Great Watercolours, 2000, p.86.

Picture of the week No.29 - John Singer Sargent

John Singer Sargent is famed for his glamourous society portraits, such as Madame 'X' at the Metroploitan Museum of Art, New York. The Royal Academy is currently showing another side to the artist withthe Sargent and the Sea exhibition and it is Sargent's later interest away from the figure that we look at for this week's Picture of the Week. 'A Venetian Canal' is a close up and more intimate scene than the 'vedutas' he claimed not be able to paint, a squoted in the catalogue entry below. Veduta is the Italian word for view and refers here to highly detailed landscape paintings or 'vedutas' that became popular in the 17th and 18th centuries. KP

JOHN SINGER SARGENT (1856-1925)A Venetian Canal (date unknown)

Watercolour Catalogue Entry:
Accession number: P.412
watercolour and pencil on paper, 24.3 ´ 34.5 cm
It is not easy to date Sargent’s Venetian watercolours which, as here, are very freely painted with a loaded brush. It seems that he began painting them on his second visit to the city in 1880 and on many subsequent visits, which became part of his annual break from portrait painting from the late 1890s onwards. He described his choice of subjects there as 'I can paint objects, I can’t paint vedutas'.

Sargent was born in Florence of American parents; studying in Paris under Carolus-Duran (1837-1917), he remained in France until 1884 before coming to England where he became the most fashionable portrait painter since Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830).

Superficiality was always his enemy but occurred less in his landscapes to which he turned almost exclusively after 1910. Pissarro summed him up as 'an adroit performer'.
EJ

PROVENANCE: Mrs F. Ormond; by descent to her daughter Mrs Hugo Pitman (the artist’s niece); Thos. Agnew & Sons Ltd, from whom purchased by Gallery, January 1962.
EXHIBITIONS: Watercolours and Drawings from The Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford, London, Thos. Agnew & Sons Ltd, 1962, no.82.

Picture of the Week No.28 - Henri Gaudier-Brzeska

Henri Gaudier-Brzeska was one of the most talented artist's working in London before the first world war and was part of the Vorticist circle that included Jacob Epstein, Percy Wyndham Lewis and Ezra Pound an was a founding member of the London Group of artists. Born in France, he eventually left for England in 1911 to with Sophie Brzeska, a Polish woman twenty years his senior whom he had met in a library and whose name he adopted, in order to become an artist. He never took any formal training but his work was of the highest quality.

Gaudier-Brzeska's sculpture was rough-hewn and distinct, originally taking inspiration from Rodin then from African carvings and other ethnic sculpture. His draughtsmanship was marked by his exquisite use of line and was informed by Chinese calligraphy that he had been exposed to by Ezra Pound. This week's picture is a good example of how much control over line he had, with a fine portrait of Mrs. Alfred Womack.

He joined the French Army and was killed in the trenches in June 1915. His achievement has been overshadowed by his colourful life, as featured in Ken Russell’s film Savage Messiah. KP

HENRI GAUDIER-BRZESKA (1891-1915)
Mrs. Alfred Wolmark, 1912

Entry from the Watercolour Catalogue:pencil on paper, 34.5 ´ 24.4 cm
inscribed: Mrs Wolmark, Brzeska drawing 1912

Accession Number: P.178

The sitter was the wife of Alfred Wolmark (1877-1961), a painter, designer of pottery and stained glass who was a friend of the artist. He encouraged the young artist and often sat for him. Gaudier-Brzeska returned the complement.

This simplified, linear drawing is typical of Gaudier-Brzeska’s style. It dates from the same year as a painting of Mrs Wolmark exhibited at the Leicester Galleries in 1958.
EJ/CB

PROVENANCE: Wolmark Collection; Lord’s Art Gallery, from whom purchased by Gallery, December 1957.
EXHIBITIONS: Portrait Paintings and Drawings, Rye, Rye Art Gallery, 1967; The English Tradition: an exhibition of watercolours from two private collections, Bedford, Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, 1972, no.39.
REFERENCES: R. Cole, Gaudier-Brzeska: Artist and Myth, 1995, p.65.

Picture of the Week No.27 - Sickert

Picture of the week has had a few weeks off recently while several of the small team here at the Art Gallery and Museum have a well deserved week or two off, but now it's back and we're looking this week at an artist represented in the collection by 3 prints, a watercolour and 4 drawings: Walter Richard Sickert. Sickert is a big favourite of mine since I was first introduced to his work by my late art history lecturer John Rimmer, who sadly passed away a couple weeks ago.

The picture that first really grabbed me was the Tate's Minnie Cunningham at the Old Bedford with its glowing red and scumbled browns, and the music hall was a prominent theme for Sickert during the late 19th century. This week's picture is set in the same venue in Camden Town but features a diffenent act. Little Dot Hetherington at the Bedford Music Hall, c.1894 is a lithograph after a painting of the same name. The performer in her white dress, illuminated by the stage lights. points up to the gallery in reference to the title of the song she is singing -‘The Boy I Love Is Up In The Gallery, later made famous by another music hall artiste, Marie Lloyd.The seats at the bottom of the compostion and the heads of the audience place the viewer very much within the audience and makes the subject not just the performer on stage but also the whole event and experience of seeing these performances and of course the setting itself. There is also a version painted on a fan in the Fan Museum that can be viewed here. KP

Walter Richard SICKERT (1860-1942)Little Dot Hetherington at the Bedford Music Hall, c.1894

Entry from the Print Catalogue:Accession Number: P.559
lithograph, 28 × 26.2 cm (image)
inscribed: Sickert inv et lith in plate
To Max WS in ink
PROVENANCE: Max Beerbohm – see inscription; Christopher Mendez & Co, from whom purchased by Gallery, May 1967.
REFERENCES: R. Bromberg, Walter Sickert Prints, 2000, no.118, pp.100-1.
NOTES: Not editioned and few impressions printed.

The work shows Dot Hetherington singing ‘The Boy I Love Is Up In The Gallery at the Bedford Palace of Varieties, High Street, Camden Town, named after the Duke of Bedford, on whose estate the hall was built. The Bedford Music Hall was first opened in 1861 and re-built in 1899 following a fire. It was closed in 1959 and demolished in 1969. The lithograph was based on the oil painting of this subject in the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven (B.179.12.819). Sickert drew the design onto the lithographic stone and scratched out the highlights using a needle. This can be seen to best effect on the lower horizontal bar.

The artist gave this work to Sir Max Beerbohm (1872-1956), writer and caricaturist.
CB

Picture of the Week No.26 - Richard Westall

This week I have selected a work by Richard Westall, the artist and illustrator best known for his portraits of the poet Byron. The picture shows three figures against a dramatic and foreboding sky, and though exact subject of this work has been questioned, the piece is the epitome of the late 18th century eclectic taste known as the Picturesque, of which the fanciful style Gothick is a part. Gothick, as opposed to the the more historically accurate Gothic or Gothic Revival, described a style that playfully took inspiration from medieval art and design and in architecture is most clearly defined in Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill, which used papier maché to create artificial fan vaulting. It was part of a mood that saw a great revival in interest in Shakespeare and Milton's works and many artists created pictures based on their writings.

RICHARD WESTALL, R.A. (1765-1836)Macbeth and the Witches c.1797

pen and ink, with washes of grey and yellow, over black lead on paper, 21.6 ´ 15.6 cm
inscribed: Collector's mark of the Second Earl of Warwick (1746-1816)

P.236

The subject was a popular one with 18th-century artists, most notably Henri FUSELI. Westall was a prolific illustrator of Milton, Gray, Crabbe and Shakespeare. He also wrote some poems and instructed the future Queen Victoria in drawing.

Iolo Williams observes that much of Westall's work contains an element of the ludicrous, citing 'a rather over‑dramatised’ sleep-walking scene from Macbeth in the V&A (Dyce 912), of similar size to this drawing. His most successful watercolours are those which include a landscape element.
EJ/JM

PROVENANCE: The Second Earl of Warwick; Roland, Browse and Delbanco, from whom purchased by Gallery, 1958.

Picture of the Week No.25 - Eric Ravilious

Now the Stanley Lewis exhibition is all up and running I'm starting to think about my free lunchtime lecture at Bedford Gallery on July 7th. 'An Extraordinary Outbreak of Talent - The Royal College of Art in the 1920s' will look at the talented individuals at the college alongside Lewis and the atmosphere in the English art scene that the RCA was part of, including, of course the dominance of the 'Slade ethos' and emphasis on drawing skills. The title of the lecture comes from Paul Nash's description of Edward Bawden and Eric Ravillious who, like Lewis, came to the RCA on provincial scholarships in the 1920s. Which gives me the perfect excuse to bring out Observers Post for this weeks picture of the week. The thing that really marks out Rav's beautiful watercolours is his effortless build up of colour and tone with thinly applied dryish brush strokes. The marks are clear and visible, objects and scenes are rendered in a crispness that fills the scene with light and air and well observed details.

For more details on the programme of free lectures which start on 23rd June with Head of Collections, Tom Perret's introduction to the exhibiton click here. KP

ERIC RAVILIOUS (1903-1942)

Observer’s Post c.1939-40

Accession number: P.223

watercolour and graphite on paper, 43.4 ´ 58.4 cm
inscribed: Eric Ravilious

Ravilious studied at the Design School of the R.C.A 1922-5, meeting Edward

BAWDEN; whilst there he came under the influence of Paul NASH. He was a watercolourist
mainly of topographical subjects, many of which lack figures, giving them a
haunted look. He also worked as an engraver and designer, from 1937 designing china for Wedgwood.
He and Bawden painted murals for the Refreshment Room, Morley College, London,
1928 (destroyed in an air-raid, 1940). Bawden credited Ravilious for his 'skill
in organising space and in creating in it figures to be sent dancing and
swinging in ballet movement across the walls'.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, he joined the Royal Observer Corps, but in February 1940 he became an Official War Artist attached to the Royal Marines.

Ravillious died on active service in September 1942 when he tragically disappeared on a mission over Iceland. EJ

PROVENANCE: Leicester Galleries; Miss Raymond; Redfern Gallery, from whom purchaed by Gallery, April 1958.

EXHIBITIONS: Contemporary British Artists, London, Leicester Galleries, 1941, no.3; Eric Ravilious, Sheffield, Graves Art Gallery, 1958, no.79.

Picture of the Week No.24 - Walter Crane

Regular followeres of Picture of the week may have noticed a penchant for black and white in my selections, and with so many elegant wood cuts and atmospheric lithographs in the collection its easy to see why my eye is often led in this direction. The crisp pen lines of Walter Crane (1845-1915) have caught me this time in an intricate illustration for Edmund Spenser's (1552-99) Faerie Queen. The catalogue entry from our publication of Watercolours & Drawings follows below. I promise I'll let you have a bit of colour next week! KP

WALTER CRANE, R.W.S. (1845-1915)

Illustration to Spenser’s Faerie Queene c.1897

Pen and ink on paper, 24.3 ´ 19.5 cm
inscribed: with monogram

At last when they were passed out of sight
Yet she did not her spightfull speach for
beare
But after them did barke, & still backbite,
Though there were none her hateful words
iv.viii.xxxvj. to heare
P.165

Published in 1897, by George Allen, Walter Crane produced a series of black and white drawings to accompany the six volumes.

Edmund Spenser (?1552-1599) began his masterpiece, The Faerie Queene, in 1579; the first three books were published in 1590 and Books IV-VI in 1596. This drawing illustrates the lines from Book IV given above. Prince Arthur, the hero of the poem, is seeking the Faerie Queene with whom he has fallen in love in a vision. He comes upon Aemilia (lover of the Squire of Low Degree) and Amoret (loved by Scudamour); they are in a wretched state so he puts them up on his horse and takes them to a cottage nearby. This is owned by an old hag, Slander, who insults them and when they depart in the morning, pursues them with vile words - as she is seen doing here.

Crane was an engraver, designer, painter and, above all, an illustrator. His pre-eminence in this field, together with Randolph CALDECOTT and Kate Greenaway (1846-1901), owed much to the enterprise and artistic skill of Edmund Evans, who published much of their best work.

Many of Crane’s watercolour designs for book illustrations and several of his landscape studies are now in the V&A. EJ

PROVENANCE: Elkin Matthews Ltd; P&D Colnaghi, from whom purchased by Gallery, January 1958.
EXHIBITIONS: Knights, Chivalry, Romance, Legend, Newcastle upon Tyne, Laing Art Gallery 1995, no cat.
REFERENCES: E. Spenser with illustrations by W. Crane, The Faerie Queene, 1897, volume IV.

Picture of the week No.23 - William Rothenstein

We are now in the middle of installing the new exhibition The Unknown Artist - Stanley Lewis & his Contemporaries. You'll be able to see the finished results on Saturday 12th June and as well as all the previously unseen works by Lewis, it contains a selection of works from our own collection of his tutors and contemporaries such as Augustus John, Stanley Spencer and the head of the Royal College of Art when Lewis studied there, and the subject for this week's picture - William Rothenstein. As a young man Rothenstein trained at the Slade School of Art and then under Alphonse Legros in Paris, where he associated with Toulouse-Lautrec and Camille Pissarro. His paintings are notable for their romanticism and dramatic tension, none more so than The Doll's House, which featured his wife Alice and Augustus John in an enigmatic composition that echoes the tension and stillness of Henrik Ibsen's play, after which the painting was named. Throughout Rothenstein's career he was known for his portraits and completed English Portraits, a book of drawings and biographical sketches in 1898. The crisp study below was executed towards the end of a life and career devoted to the highest principles of drawing and his teaching at the RCA epitomised those principles. KP

Sir WILLIAM ROTHENSTEIN (1872-1945)
The Right Rev. Dom. Wilfrid Upson, O.S.B., Abbott of Prinknash, Glos, 1940
red chalk on paper, 54.3 ´ 38.9 cm
on reverse: portrait sketch of a man’s head in red chalk.
Accession no.: P.187

Drawn in 1940; the sitter was Abbott of Prinknash (pronounced ‘Prinnish’) Abbey in Gloucestershire and head of the Benedictines of Great Britain.

Rothenstein studied at the Slade School and in Paris where he made friends with Whistler and Edgar Degas (1834-1917). Back in England he became known for his portrait drawings chiefly of the famous. Head of the R.C.A., 1920-35 and a trustee of the Tate Gallery 1927-33. He was knighted in 1931 and a memorial exhibition was held at the Tate in 1950.

His correspondence and memoirs are a rich source of information on his times.
EJ

PROVENANCE: Sir John Rothenstein, from whom purchased by Gallery, April 1958.
EXHIBITIONS: Watercolours and Drawings from The Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford, London, Thos. Agnew & Sons Ltd, 1962, no.81; Portrait Painting and Drawings, Rye, Rye Art Gallery, 1967, no cat.

Picture of the Week No. 22 - Franz Marc

The Munich born artist Franz Marc was a founder member of the important German Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter. His use of bold coloursand the way he intertwines futurist inspired motifs with a love for animals and the natural world mark out his unique vision. He was due to be recalled from his conscripted service in the First World War as part of a list of 'notable artists' in service, but was killed by shrapnel from a shell before he could recieve the order. This striking woodcut, a medium so typical of the German Expresionists, has all the key components of Marc's work with the intense contrast of the black ink on thin Japan paper displaying his strong sense of form without the distractions of his obvious abilities as a colourist. KP

Franz MARC (1880-1916)
Tierlegende (Animal Legend), 1912

woodcut on thin Japan paper with wirelines, 19.8 × 24.1cm
inscribed: F, Marc and 10
Accession No.: P.777

PROVENANCE: Originally from the Heinrich Neuerburg (1880-1956) Collection and later Dr Walter Neuerburg (1912-86). Heinrich started collecting prints after 1945 on the advice of Hermann Schnitzler of the Schnütgen Museum; acquired for the Gallery by Garton and Co. from Christie’s, Lot 420, 2 December 1992.
REFERENCES: K. Lankheit, Franz Marc, Katalog der Werke, cat.no 831 III, 1978.
NOTES: From the first small edition hand-printed by Marc himself. There are later, unsigned editions that were published in 1912 and 1919.

CATALOGUE ENTRY: This is a rare contemporary impression, signed by Marc himself; his wife usually signed them. Marc was killed in action at Verdun in 1916 at the age of thirty-six. His output was relatively small, producing only forty-six prints, but the most important were the twenty-two he produced in 1912-14. Marc described how the technique of the woodcut helped to clarify his style during this period. Tierlegende is the largest and finest of these and is typical of the type of subjects chosen by Marc. The print was published in Der Sturm in September 1912 and later, posthumously, in Genius in 1919.

Marc initially studied philosophy and theology at Munich University, but following a bout of depression in 1907 he went on to explore pantheism. This, coupled with daily visits to Berlin Zoo, confirmed his interest in both the anatomy and spirituality of animals. Prior to joining Kandinsky and the spiritually-inspired group, der Blaue Reiter in Munich in 1910, Marc had spent a period in Paris where he came into close contact with the Cubists. CB

Picture of the Week No.21 - Alfred Stevens

Preparational studies always have a particular appeal to me; they often show a greater freedom than the final works, and the overlaying of different ideas on a sheet as a design evolves creates echoes and motifs that create interest across the sheet. The work also stops when the essence has been found - or a new direction needed. I have selected two sheets of studies by Alfred Stevens for this weeks feature, and the red chalk drawing and pen studies complement each other well, showing different stages of the compositional process. KP

ALFRED STEVENS (1817-1875)Studies for the decoration of Dorchester House, London, c.1855-6 (red chalk, squared in pencil on paper) P.321; Compositional Studies, date unknown pen and ink on paper P.332

Born in Dorset, Stevens lived in Italy 1833-42, where he studied under Bertel Thorwaldsen (1770-1844) in Rome and made many red chalk drawings in the manner of Raphael, whose influence is clearly apparent in this study. His rare watercolours have an imaginative quality, which shows him to have much in common with the Pre-Raphaelite movement.

Chiefly known for his sculpture, his two greatest achievements were the Wellington monument in St Paul’s Cathedral and the decorative ensemble (P.321), c.1856, for the dining room at Dorchester House, London, the fireplace of which is now in the V&A.

It is not known whether these (P.332) vigorous sketches were ever developed by Stevens – or indeed precisely what they represent. Perhaps the two figures in the top study were the first idea for a sculpture or picture of Tarquin and Lucretia. If so, the right-hand lower figure is probably related and a study for Lucretia about to stab herself.
EJ

Picture of the Week No. 20 - Roderic O'Conor

Before I start on this week's picture, I've updated the exhibitions page with all the latest on shows in the new Bedford Gallery exhibition space and community gallery in the Museum, where there's a brand new display this week on the Star Rowing Club and work produced by young people and family groups who have been inspired by our collections and projects. All the details can be found if you follow the link above.

All bank holiday weekend I had the sensation that I should be walking along a craggy and windswept beach, instead I had to make do with the very landlocked but still lovely walks of central Bedfordshire. What I really had in mind was the sort of coastline depicted in Roderic O'Conor's 'Brittanny Coast' c.1893, a wonderfully evocative drawing in ink and wash, with a touch of chalk. Its spontaneity and cragginess fills the nostrils with cold and salty sea air. As usual, I have included the entry from the published catalogue of Watercolours & Drawings in the collection. Further information on all the published catalogues can be found here. KP

RODERIC O’CONOR(1860-1940)
Brittany Coast, c.1893

ink and wash and some chalk on paper, 30.8 × 47.5 cm
stamped: atelier O’CONOR
Accession No.: P.218

O’Conor was born at Milton in County Roscommon, Ireland, the second eldest in a family of six. The O’Conor family was of some note in this area of Ireland with a lineage that could be traced back several hundred years.

After initial study at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin, he transferred to the Hibernian Academy of Art in 1881-82 (collecting four prizes for his work). Owing to the success of his studies his tutors recommended that he go to Europe to further his studies, initially at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts d'Anvers in Antwerp and then in Paris, under the portrait painter Carolus-Duran, (1837-1917).

O’Conor was certainly in Pont-Aven from 1892, although he was probably there earlier as his paintings exhibited at the Salon des Indépendents of that year had Breton titles. Initially painting elderly Breton peasants, O'Conor had by 1893 developed an interest in the Breton landscape as a subject, painting in a style noticeably influenced by Van Gogh. The end of 1893 was significant for O’Conor as, with the death of his father he inherited the family estate and achieved financial security through ground rents from his tenant farmers.

Returning to Paris, O’Conor lived in Montparnasse. The young Clive Bell described him and his circle as having 'played as influential a part in my life as any of my Cambridge contemporaries'. The meeting place for artists was the Chat Blanc restaurant, amongst whose occasional visitors were Aleister Crowley and Somerset Maugham, whom Crowley described as having 'suffered terribly under the lash of universal contempt…The man he most hated was Roderic O’Conor'. JM

PROVENANCE: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Sale O’Conor, 7 February 1956; Roland, Browse and Delbanco, from whom purchased by Gallery, April 1958.
EXHIBITIONS: Roderic O’Conor, Pont-Aven, Musée de Pont-Aven, 1984, no.66; Roderic O’Connor, Belfast, Ulster Museum, Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, Manchester, Whitworth Art Gallery, 1985-86, no.125.
REFERENCES: J. Benington, Roderic O’Conor: A Biography with a catalogue of his work, 1992, p.229, illus. no.337; A. Crookshank & the Knight of Glin, The Watercolours of Ireland, 1994, p.263, illus. no.371 as Côtes Bretagne.

Picture of the Week No.19 - Juan Gris

For this week's picture I have turned to one of the key exponents of cubism - after the big two of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque: the artist known as Juan Gris, José Victoriano González-Pérez (23 March 1887–11 May 1927). He was born in Spain but moved to Paris in 1906 at a crucial moment in the development of Modern art. He became friends with Picasso and painted him in 1912, Fernand Léger, Amedeo Modigliani (who painted Gris in 1915) and Henri Matisse. His cubist works were individual and significant, and with a palette that owed more to Matisse than the monochrome of Braque and Picasso's analytical cubist works. Such was the respect given to him by his fellow Spaniard, teacher and rival, as Gertrude Stein noted, he was "the one person that Picasso would have willingly wiped off the map". Tragically, he didn't match Picasso for longevity and died at 40, and the work from the Cecil Higgins Collection comes from a period of convalescence from illness a few years earlier in 1921. The clarity of line in this more naturalistic lithograph shows the skill that Gris possessed - a real genius with line which underpinned his cubist compositions. When seen on its own, as in this study, Gris' elegant hand really shines through. KP

Juan GRIS (1887 - 1927)
Portrait of a boy, 1921

lithograph, 39.2 x 31cm (plate) 40.3 x 32.2cm (sheet)
inscribed: in plate Juan Gris 3.21/ in pencil Juan Gris 24/50

Accession No.: P.539
PROVENANCE: Grosvenor Gallery, from whom purchased by Gallery, October 1966.

During the period 1920-21 Gris made a number of 'naturalistic' drawings intermixed with his more widely known Cubist oeuvre. In 1920 he was thought to have contracted pneumonia, an ailment that forced him to convalesce, initially in Les Fourneaux and then by 1921 at Bandol-sur-mer on the Cote d'Azur.

In 1921 he made a number of portraits in pencil including the art dealer Daniel-Henri Kahnweiler and a self-portrait, and also some lithographic portraits including Marcelle the brunette, and Jean the Musician. The young boy was the eleven-year-old son of his butcher, who assisted Gris with his sketching and painting during the first quarter of 1921. The artist was described as being 'somewhat impatient' with the child. However, he was recorded as being upset when the boy's family moved away to the Cannes region in March. JMcG

Picture of the week No.18 - J.M. Whistler

This week's selected picture is an intimate portrait by James McNeill Whistler, one of 5 small works by the artist in the gallery's collection. The drawing captures the sitter at rest in just a few quick lines and Whistler's subtle use of tonal shading renders the likeness with characteristic un-fussiness.

JAMES MCNEILL WHISTLER(1834-1903)
Head and Shoulders of Ronald Philip, c.1900‑1901

pencil on paper, 15.2 x 10 cm
inscribed: Butterfly monogram
inscribed on reverse in the hand of Harold Wright (Colnaghi's Print Director): Ronald Philip (Mrs Whistler's / brother) / by / Whistler / ex Collection of Miss R. Birnie Philip) / the artist's sister‑in‑law and executrix.
Accession no.: P.153

Ronald Murray Philip (1871-1940) was the son of the sculptor John Birnie Philip and Frances Black. He was the same age as Whistler’s son Charles Hanson and was treated by Whistler like a favourite nephew, being portrayed by him on a number of occasions.
JM


PROVENANCE: In Whistler's studio at his death in 1903 and bequeathed to his sister‑in‑law, Miss R. Birnie Philip; P&D Colnaghi Ltd, from whom purchased by Gallery, January 1958.
REFERENCES: M.F. Macdonald, James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, 1995, p.588-9, repr. p.589, no.1637.

Picture of the Week No.17 - Thomas Girtin

It's time for the first Picture of the Week for April, but first apologies for leaving you stranded last week without your regular fix from the the Cecil Higgins Collection while I was off holidaying in Paris. Keeping Paris in mind, I thought this wonderful work by Thomas Girtin would be an appropriate choice, and more than makes up for that week off. Girtin was highly rated by his friend and contemporary J.M.W. Turner, who, when reflecting on Girtin's premature death at 27, said, 'If poor Tom Girtin had lived, I should have starved'. KP

THOMAS GIRTIN (1775-1802)The Palace of the Louvre, 1801-2

watercolour on paper, 37.4 ´ 31 cm
Accession no.: P.273

Also known in the past as The Pavilion de Maison at the Tuilleries and as View of the Tuileries with workman by a ruined house in the foreground.

This drawing seems to have been unknown before its appearance at Sotheby’s, which was after Girtin’s and Loshak’s catalogue of Girtin’s work was published in 1954. An almost identical watercolour was sold at Spink’s in 1982, dated 1801. On the reverse of Spink’s picture is the inscription, in Girtin’s hand: Part of the Tuilleries the Palace where Buonaparte resides the house of Lucien Buonaparte and the ruins of the house blown up by the infernal machine.

Girtin visited Paris in 1801, following the armistice with France, leaving his eight months’ pregnant wife in Islington (though he was spotted in London two days after his supposed departure, saying his farewells to his mistress). While there he produced his Twenty Views of the city and its environs, soft-ground etchings which rank amongst his finest works. These were published posthumously in 1803. Girtin was forced to sketch from a hackney carriage, in case of arrest as an English spy. The playwright Thomas Holcroft (1745-1809) met him in Paris and remarked: ‘His facility was great, and I was surprised at the dispatch with which he made his drawings’.
EJ/CB

PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 12 December 1958, lot 43b, purchased by Gallery, December 1958.
EXHIBITIONS: Primitives to Picasso, London, R.A., 1962, no.376; Watercolours and Drawings from The Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford, London, Thos. Agnew & Sons Ltd, 1962, no.18; English Watercolours from The Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford, Reading, Reading Museum and Art Gallery, 1965, no.20; Watercolours from Bedford, Norwich, Castle Museum, no.16, as The Palace of Louvre with workmen by a ruined house in the foreground.