SUMMER 2020
CONTENTS LETTER FROM THE CHAIR 2 - 3 TRIBUTES TO DOUGLAS OGLE 4 - 6 EVENTS AND EXHIBITIONS 7 - 12 NEWS CHELTENHAM TRUST UPDATE 13 HIDDEN CHELTENHAM: PODCAST 14
WHERE TO VISIT RUSSELL-COTES ART GALLERY AND MUSEUM 15 - 16 REVIEWS CHELTENHAM COLLEGE 17 OMAR RAMSDEN 18 TIM PORTER ON MUSIC OF THE ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT 19 FESTIVE LUNCH & PERFORMANCE AT THE EVERYMAN THEATRE 20 THE BRITISH LANDSCAPE EXHIBITION 21 FAVOURITE WORKS OF ART VANESSA BELL 22 SUBSCRIPTIONS 23 DEADLINES 24 CONTACTS 25 - 26
Dear Friends It seems very strange at the moment not to be able to visit The Wilson, and to be living through a period when art galleries and museums around the world are more likely to be shut than open. But though the doors have been closed since the middle of March, there has been no lack of activity and a lot of forward planning (short and long-term) both by the staff of The Wilson and by the Friends. I’d like to highlight some of these activities and plans. I mentioned in my March email that conservation (funded by the Friends) has begun on an important album of paintings and drawings by Edward Wilson. Once this work is completed, and the Open Archive has reopened, the album will be one of the Museum’s star exhibits. By the time the doors are open again we hope the new Maker Space will have been installed, ready to welcome practising local artists and craftspeople, so that the living tradition of the arts and crafts movement will always be on show alongside The Wilson’s permanent Arts and Crafts exhibition. This is an important and dynamic innovation, both a first step in rearticulating the existing space within the Museum and a commitment to showing arts and crafts in action today. It is too early to know how far arrangements for the major summer exhibition celebrating the Cheltenham Group of Artists will be delayed, but the Friends are supporting this show which will tell the story of a remarkable group of professional artists, founded in 1920 and still going strong today. New works by current members of the group, alongside works from Cheltenham’s collections, will be brought together in this unique exhibition in the Friends’ Gallery to mark the group’s centenary. Alongside the main exhibition, a number of additional works, specially brought out of store will be placed in other collection galleries around the Museum. A specially commissioned booklet (also sponsored by the Friends) will guide visitors around all these works in their different locations. There are just a few examples of the ways in which the funds 2
raised by you, the Friends, are contributing to the life of The Wilson right now. Conservation is less newsworthy perhaps than acquisitions, but no museum or art gallery can survive if it does not take conservation seriously. Similarly, there are all sorts of costs - great and small - involved in putting up new exhibitions (and, indeed, in taking them down again after they have closed). Effective marketing, too, is essential but expensive. My colleagues as trustees know that, at a time when museums and galleries around the world are all in search of sponsorship to underpin such necessary work, sponsorship by the Friends is both valuable in itself and highly valued by all who work in and for The Wilson. In a year when the Edinburgh festivals and Glastonbury are cancelled (not to mention Cheltenham festivals large and small – Jazz and Poetry, for instance); when theatres are all dark, it is important to remember the impact on artists and writers, actors and musicians. How many small theatre companies, independent bookshops, museums and art galleries will have survived? But we must try to stay optimistic whatever our forebodings just now. With the shutting down of transport and travel, of shops, restaurants and cafes, we’ve had very rapidly to adopt a simpler life, thinking more about our neighbours and valuing the contributions of those whose work we have taken for granted in the past. As Friends, we have always cherished the Arts and Crafts heritage we enjoy here in Cheltenham and in the surrounding Cotswolds. Now we have been asked, for the time being, to make sacrifices to save lives and to protect the NHS. All this recalls William Morris’s vision of an ideal society as one ‘conscious of a wish to keep life simple … in order to be more human and less mechanical and willing to sacrifice something to this end’ (News from Nowhere). Once the galleries are open again, I hope it will be possible to arrange a ‘welcome back’ reception, similar to the very enjoyable event we held in February, celebrating the success of the Ernest Gimson exhibition. Our programme of talks, outings and events will also resume as soon as possible; but, until we can all meet again, I hope you and your families are keeping safe and cheerful and well.
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TRIBUTES TO DOUGLAS OGLE I George Breeze, Director, Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum (1981-2002)
When it became clear to me that the Gallery ought to have a Friends organisation and I called an inaugural meeting in May 1984 to set one up, Douglas and Jenny were at the forefront of helping. From the outset, Jenny had the official position on the Committee of organising outings and visits, but Douglas, never a member of the Committee itself, was always involved and came along on the trips to add comment. Jenny and Douglas were inseparable. Douglas was an architect with invaluable contacts. When the Gallery decided to build an extension in the late 1990s, it was Douglas who suggested the very distinguished architect Sir William Whitfield to chair the interview board for choosing an architect.
in blind voting, was to appoint Terry Pawson as the architect. For several years designing went ahead, including joint meetings with the County Council to involve the Library as well. When Terry came up with a design involving Corten steel, Douglas was at the forefront of promoting the idea. The planning decision on the extension in 2002 was lost, even though the Chairman had asked the committee to be bold and support the scheme with the chance for a new landmark building in the town. A lack of nerve, maybe? It was not something of which one could ever accuse Douglas in his promotion of serious contemporary design. Douglas’ contribution to life in Cheltenham will be greatly missed.
The board's unamimous decision, 4
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TRIBUTES TO DOUGLAS OGLE II One of the great joys of our retirement has been the opportunity to see more of the world. We have been on some fabulous trips, with various companies and organisations, but there’s no doubt that the trips which we will remember the most fondly are the Study Tours organised by Douglas and Jenny. We came late to the party and can only regret that we didn’t get the chance to go on more of them, but at least we have some great memories of those we did manage to join. For around 30 years Douglas and Jenny organised their trademark Study Tours, astonishing in their scope and sense of adventure, all over the world as well as in the UK. From Glasgow in 1985 to Lille in 2016, they guided the groups with enthusiasm and expertise. Even when local guides were employed, invariably Douglas could be relied upon to supplement their information with his own broad and expert knowledge. Organisation of the trips was always second-to-none, and the tours structured in such a way as to cover all the most important sites and venues. Douglas and Jenny always knew just what the group most wanted to see and experience and there were often added extras with visits off the usual tourist trail to include hidden gems.
Bilbao to Beijing, Brussels to Barcelona, Croatia to Copenhagen: there were so many wonderful destinations! And then, of course, there was the personal touch – a warm and inclusive welcome, a care and concern for each individual, a kindness and a genuine warmth, with pre-trip get-togethers at their house to meet the rest of the group and allay any lastminute worries or concerns. Mike and I went on various trips, and I went on a couple by myself before his retirement. My first one was Norway in 2010, and, although I knew no one else on the tour, I was immediately made to feel welcome and part of the family. Do we have a favourite tour? Hard to choose, but maybe Chicago and Milwaukee in 2014 – so much art and sculpture and architecture to learn about and enjoy, topped off by an exclusive visit to a downtown high-rise apartment to view a private art collection belonging to the Ogles’ acquaintances. Just the sort of added extra only Douglas and Jenny could arrange. We feel privileged to have been part of the Study Tour ‘family’ and privileged to have known Douglas and enjoyed his company over so many years. We will miss him greatly. Mandy Jenkinson
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EVENTS AND EXHIBITIONS Events in June and July: owing to uncertainty with COVID-19, please make a provisional booking online (without completing payment) or complete the booking form. We will contact you to confirm, re-schedule or cancel.
10 June Compton Verney & Kiftsgate Gardens
16 July Highnam Court and The Holy Innocents Church
You will see two sumptuous exhibitions at the classical manor house, now an accredited major national gallery, set in beautiful parkland designed by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown.
You have the opportunity of a talk on Highnam Court together with a tour of the Music, Dining and Gold Rooms on the ground floor. A sandwich lunch will be served in the Orangery, after which you will have at least an hour to explore. (Please note disabled access is limited.)
Cranach: Artist and Innovator: featuring some of the most beguiling paintings by the important Renaissance German artist, Lucas Cranach the Elder. Fabric: Touch and Identity: playful and provocative, this exhibition explores how clothes and textiles conceal, reveal and seduce through the lenses of art, design, fashion, film and dance.
COST PER PERSON: £46.00 for nonArt Fund members; £42.00 for Art Fund members (please bring your membership card). Price includes all entrances, & coffee/tea & biscuits on arrival.
Highnam Court was built in 1658 after the original house was seriously damaged in the Civil War. During the last 25 years, since Roger Head has been the owner, the gardens have been totally and lovingly restored to their former glory. The Holy Innocents Church, Highnam is a Grade I Listed Building; one of the most significant Victorian churches in the country. It was commissioned and decorated by Thomas Gambier Parry and consecrated in 1851.
Pick up points: Royal Well Coach Station 08:45, Six Ways (by St Edward’s School) 09:00. Our coach will return to Cheltenham at approximately 17:00.
COST PER PERSON: £30.00. Pick-up points: Sixways (outside Co-op) 11:00, Royal Well Bus Station 11:10, Westall Green 11:20.
In the early afternoon, we set off to nearby Kiftsgate Court Gardens - a garden for all seasons - created 100 years ago by Heather Muir, inspired by her friend Lawrence Johnston of Hidcote Manor.
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At 15:00 we will be driven to The Holy Innocents Church for a private 45-minute guided tour. The church features exceptional craftsmanship, including stunning windows and wall paintings. Our coach will then depart about 16:00.
22 September Bristol: City of Art and History An entertaining visit to Bristol starting with two vibrant exhibitions at the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery and culminating in a coach tour, showing us significant churches, buildings, structures, street art and the history and the stories behind them. Pre-Raphaelites: Dreaming of a medieval past: this exhibition (which includes a special Friends’ introductory talk by one of the curators) takes a fresh look at the Pre-Raphaelites and their obsession with medieval subject matter. Being Human: this exhibition focuses on themes of beauty, identity, sexuality and existential angst in the aftermath of war. On show are well-known sculptors of the last century. After free time for lunch we meet again at 13:30 for the coach tour. COST PER PERSON: £32.00. Price includes all entrances & coffee/ tea & biscuits on arrival, as well as the dedicated curatorguided tour at the Pre-Raphaelite Exhibition and blue badge-guided panoramic tour of Bristol by coach. Pick up points: Sixways 09:00, Evesham Road southbound (Bus stop by Pittville Pump Room) 09:15, Royal Well Bus Station 09:30, Westall Green 09:40. Our coach will return to Cheltenham at approximately 16:30.
28 September A talk: Arts and Crafts, Folk Song and Dance
The folk song and dance revival in England in the early years of the Twentieth Century involved many people, some better known than others. Emily Gimson, the wife of the Arts and Crafts designer and architect, Ernest, was a key figure in the folk revival in the Cotswolds and in England more widely. Martin Graebe talks about the Gimsons and others whose passion rekindled the tradition in the area. Martin Graebe is an independent researcher and writer about traditional song and song collectors. His book about the antiquarian and folk song collector Sabine Baring-Gould, published in 2017, won the Katharine Briggs Prize of the Folklore Society, and the W G Hoskins Prize of the Devon History Society. He has given talks on Baring-Gould, and on other aspects of folk song, to a wide range of audiences around the world. He and his wife, Shan, perform traditional songs together in harmony. Location: The Wilson Coffee from 10:30 Speaker: 11:00-12:00 COST PER PERSON: £10
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EVENTS AND EXHIBITIONS Please book online via our website or by using the form accompanying this newsletter.
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26 October A talk: The Architecture and Planning of Late-Georgian Spa Towns
16 November A talk: Arts and Crafts Movement First World War Memorials in Gloucestershire
Cheltenham was one of the most successful and fastest-growing leisure resorts of the late Georgian era. This talk will discuss its development, and that of other spa towns, as they responded to changing patterns of leisure and architectural fashion, drawing attention to their most important buildings and to their distinctive urban landscapes, still among the most attractive in Britain. Our speaker, Dr Geoffrey Tyack, FSA, FRHistS, is an emeritus Fellow of Kellogg College, and a member of the Faculty of History at Oxford University. He is the author of several books and articles on architectural history, among them Oxford: an Architectural Guide (1998), and is the editor of the Georgian Group Journal. He has just completed a book on the history of the urban landscape in Britain, to be published by the Oxford University Press in 2021.
Gloucestershire has an unusual concentration of war memorials by Arts and Crafts Movement designers, ranging from memorial crosses, stained glass windows and more practical memorials like water troughs. Discover the stories, the trials and the tribulations of commemorating the war dead with works by designers such as Ernest Gimson, Sidney Barnsley, F L Griggs and Alexander Fisher. Kirsty Hartsiotis is Producer of Decorative and Fine Art at The Wilson, where she has worked for the past twelve years, working mainly with the Designated Arts and Crafts Movement collection. She was the curator of the Ernest Gimson exhibition in late 2019. She became fascinated by the memorials of Gloucestershire when researching the 2018 Open Archive display and has been travelling the county recording the monuments and discovering their stories.
Location: The Wilson
Location: The Wilson
Coffee from 10:30 Speaker: 11:00-12:00 COST PER PERSON: £10
Coffee from 10:30. Speaker: 11:00-12:00 COST PER PERSON: £10
25 January A talk: The Bright Young Things in Fiction and Verse
22 February A talk: Arthur Cameron: a “reformed Cockney in Arcadia”?
Cecil Beaton’s Bright Young Things is a National Portrait Gallery touring exhibition that should be coming to The Wilson between November 2020 and February 2021. Currently at the NPG itself, it has been getting very enthusiastic reviews. The Evening Standard, for instance, describes it thus:
Arthur Cameron was one of the liveliest craftsmen working for CR Ashbee’s Guild of Handicraft in London’s East End and was briefly expelled for bad language by his fellow Guildsmen. Although he started with the Guild as an office boy, he became a talented craft metalworker – the museum has a fine charger designed and made by him – and thrived following the Guild’s move to Chipping Campden. His story however doesn’t end there. Disaster struck following the collapse of the Guild, providing a reality check for the ambitions of the Arts and Crafts Movement.
“It’s a portrait of a gilded, enchanted generation, or rather, a series of portraits of the generation which came to be known as the Bright Young Things. They were young in the Twenties and Thirties, too young to have been culled in the Great War, giddy and privileged, and their response to the catastrophe that had just been and the catastrophe that was to come was to go out and party.” This lecture, given by Adrian Barlow, will look at the way they were represented in novels and poetry of the period. It will ask whether, on balance, writers simply glamorised The Bright Young Things, the jeunesse dorée of the Between the Wars era, or whether they exposed their essential shallowness.
Mary Greensted is a trustee of the Guild of Handicraft Trust and has been working on the archives at Court Barn in Chipping Campden as part of the museum’s HLFfunded Refresh project taking place early in 2020. Location: The Wilson Coffee from 10:30 Speaker: 11:00-12:00 COST PER PERSON: £10
Location: The Wilson Coffee from 10:30. Speaker: 11:00-12:00 COST PER PERSON: £10 10
EVENTS AND EXHIBITIONS Events and exhibitions may be affected by COVID-19, please check websites. Exhibitions
Swindon Museum & Art Gallery
The Wilson Gallery
Until 3 June Time for Tea!
6 June - 20 September Cheltenham group of artists, 100 year celebration
Until 27 June Pop and Prosperity: 1960s British Art from the Swindon Collection
The Holbourne Museum Until 25 May Grayson Perry: The Pre-Therapy Years Victoria Art Gallery Until 26 May Toulouse - Lautrec and the Masters of Montmartre 6 June - 18 July Bath Society of Artists Open Exhibition 2020 25 July - 18 October Myths and Monsters Bristol Museum & Art Gallery
Until 25 July A Celebration of Colour: Modern and Contemporary Ceramics 19 May - 18 July Richard Maidment: Hometown Portraits 7 July - 31 October Seeing the Seasons: A Year in British Modern Art 28 July - 19 September TRACE: An Exhibition by Sarah Purvey and Anna Gillespie Until 31 December Art on Tour: Civic Offices Art on Tour: Steam
Until 4 October Being Human: An exhibition of modern sculpture 2 May - 2 August Reflections on the Bristol School 16 May - 27 September Pre-Raphaelites: Dreaming of a medieval past
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Top left clockwise: Compton Verney, Bright Young Things, Highnam Court, The Garden Court by Burne Jones, Martin Graebe, Memorial Cross by Alfred Powell at Duntisbourne Abbots Š Kirsty Hartsiotis, La Belle Dame Sans Merci by Frank Dicksee
NEWS Update from The Cheltenham Trust
launched a virtual fitness programme so people can share In response to guidance from the pictures and tips on what they government and to ensure the are doing to stay healthy during safety of all our customers, the crisis. Our teams are working visitors, staff and volunteers, as part of the Gloucestershire The Wilson Art Gallery and Museum Community Help Hub, which has is closed until further notice. been set up to support the This closure does not stop our elderly, self-isolating, key audiences and communities workers or those in need of help engaging with the museum. In to source ready-made meals or fact, we need your input, support food supplies. and connections more than ever. As a not-for-profit charity, Our #Humankind virtual which relies on income and exhibition, is now online and activity that cannot be capturing the kindness and maintained during these generosity of the businesses and exceptional times, we are asking communities in Cheltenham. We are for donations to help us overcome asking people to send in examples the financial burden of this of human kindness from within pandemic. As ever, we are families, homes and communities grateful for your support and with a photograph. To join in, look forward to welcoming you just email back to our venues as soon as we programme@cheltenhantrust.org.uk. can. Over the next few weeks, we will Riah Pryor, The Cheltenham Trust also be expanding our online programme of activities, including an audio exhibition from the recent Sisterhood show, a virtual tour of the forthcoming Colourways exhibition and Wilson Art Collective online meet-ups. Our Collections team are delving deep into the archives to get Holst Birthplace Museum more research online for us to pass the isolation time. Please note that Friends of The Wilson now qualify for a ÂŁ1 Plans are also underway for discount on visits to the Holst virtual volunteer meet-ups and Birthplace Museum when it reonline learning workshops. Keep opens. an eye on our website for details. You will need to show your FOTW card. Elsewhere at The Cheltenham Trust, Leisure at Cheltenham has 13
Hidden Cheltenham: Podcast We may not be able to visit The Wilson for a while but we can enjoy a new series of Hidden Cheltenham podcasts on its website (www.cheltenhammuseum.org.uk/ event/hidden-cheltenham/) from the safety of our own homes. Anthony Rowett has started a series of podcasts focusing on lesser known and quirky stories of Cheltenham’s past.
weighing machine and entering it in The Wilson Library weighing book. Looking further ahead, the website includes details of landmarks on the Hidden Cheltenham Trail; a collaboration between The Cheltenham Trust and Cheltenham Business Improvement District (BID). Martin Renshaw
Episode 1 features Churches and seeks to answer the question “Why (in an average-sized town) do we have these big church buildings and who was involved in creating them?”. Through interviews with local historian David Elder and our own Chair Adrian Barlow and by focusing on the Anglican St. Philip and St. James Church and the Catholic St. Gregory’s, Anthony shows the role that a struggle for predominance and even score-settling can play in the dimensions of religious buildings. There is also a fascinating tale of how a riot started from a small tailor’s shop. Episode 2 asks the question "Who Built Cheltenham?" and interviews local historians Dr. Steve Blake and Jill Waller. Again, the concentration is on the unusual as we hear about a builder who bucked the trend, being female, aristocratic and elderly, and another who recorded his changing weight using The Wilson Library
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WHERE TO VISIT
RUSSELL-COTES ART GALLERY AND MUSEUM If you find yourself in or near Bournemouth, as I do once a year through helping to organise a Bridge holiday, you should try and make time to visit the Russell-Cotes – an Aladdin’s Cave on the East Cliff overlooking the sea. Simon Jenkins, in England’s Thousand Best Houses, describes it as “Bournemouth’s Brighton Pavilion”. Merton Russell-Cotes (1835-1920) was born near Wolverhampton but moved with his family to Glasgow where he was befriended by John King Clark, a wealthy man with associations in the cotton industry, and who later introduced him to his only daughter, Annie, who became Merton’s wife. After 16 years in the damp climate of Ireland Merton’s doctor recommended a move to the south of England which culminated in the purchase of the Bath Hotel in Bournemouth in 1876. Merton became Mayor of Bournemouth from 1894 to 1895. The house, originally called East Cliff Hall, was commissioned by Merton as a birthday present for Annie. It was completed in its original form in 1901. The house was
designed by local architect John Fogerty, with an unusual exterior combining the style of the Italian Renaissance with the Scottish Baronial. The interiors were done mainly by John Thomas and his son, Oliver, in an even greater mixture of styles. In 1907 Annie donated East Cliff Hall and its contents as a museum to the town of Bournemouth and Merton donated his fine arts collection. The house and a new annexe display various items collected in the course of Sir Merton’s foreign travels, especially to Japan. Where others may bring back photographs, he brought back roomfuls of antiques and curios. The actor Sir Henry Irving was a friend of the Russell-Cotes and stayed with them in the house in a room that is now the Sir Henry Irving Museum, comprising his effects (including the skull he always used in Hamlet) and memorabilia associated with contemporaries, Ellen Terry and Sarah Bernhardt. Heterogeneity is the hallmark: the High Victorian works of Edwin Long, a Moorish alcove
inspired by the Alhambra, the Mikado room from Japan, and Chinese and Neoclassical art.
Left to right: Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Musum, Venus Verticordia by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and The Butterfly by Luis Ricardo Falero
Most of the paintings are from the Pre-Raphaelite and Scots Romantic period with titles such as Caledonia, Stern and Wild or Landseer’s Flood in the Highlands. Particularly notable is Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Venus Verticordia. According to Christopher Lloyd, in In Search of a Masterpiece, it also contains "the most delectable, but silliest, painting to be seen anywhere in the country, The Butterfly by the Spanish artist Luis Falero (1893)". The museum is Victorian in character (though far from gloomy) but, in contrast, there are regularly changing contemporary exhibitions. On a recent visit, the crime novelist Francis Fyfield had hidden clues to a murder mystery amongst the portraits. Sir Merton resolved to create a "tropical garden" out of the wild sand dunes and "a beauty spot that any English garden lover would desire". The garden was originally filled with marble and bronze sculptures, as well as a secluded summerhouse. The Victorian stone grotto and fountain still survive, as does the Japanese garden with goldfish ponds, bridges and fountain. Martin Renshaw
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REVIEWS Cheltenham College Visit Although I am a lifelong resident of Cheltenham, I have never visited Cheltenham College and welcomed the opportunity to join this trip. After entering through the narthex into the chapel I was impressed by its scale: the ceiling height is 55 feet, the vaulting is just four feet lower than that of Tewkesbury Abbey and the nave is wider than many cathedral naves. Your eye is immediately drawn to the reredos, a memorial to pupils who died in the South African War, which has statues of figures representing many walks of life. Nick Nelson, Head of Art History, entertained us with a very informative talk, describing how the chapel was built to commemorate the first fifty years of Cheltenham College. After launching a competition for the design of the chapel, it seems fitting that a former pupil, Henry Prothero, was given the commission to build it in the ‘muscular gothic style’. Nick gives pupils an introduction to the chapel’s history which
brings the space alive for them. Many of the chapel’s fittings are memorials to the 702 pupils who gave their lives in the Great War. Shockingly, this is a similar total to the current number of pupils. A beautiful memorial surrounding the South Door is dedicated to the scholar and poet Frederic Myers, depicting the tree of life handcrafted in sycamore. Entwined in its branches are insects, bulrushes, birds, a cobweb and even a dead mole. The chapel is the heart of college life and routine. Amusingly, Nick told us how chapel seating arrangements mean the girls have to sit facing the boys which leads to flirtation; the girls become embarrassed and often refuse to sing. Interestingly, the chapel has its own hymn books which were presented by the Cadbury family. The morning ended with a tour of Thirlestaine House, led by Rachael Merrison, Records & Heritage Manager. This housed Lord Northwick’s extensive art collection and is fittingly now home to the college’s art department. Louise Hall
Omar Ramsden: Arts and Crafts Silversmith, his Life and Work Helen Ashton gave us a fascinating talk about her search for facts which turned into a definitive account of the life and work of Omar Ramsden and his business partner Alwyn Carr. Led by the discovery of a family connection, she sought people who knew the family, visited places where they lived and researched historical sources. Omar's mother, Norah Ibbotson, named him after Omar Pasha, the Turkish Field Marshall and Governor, because her family called their sons after prominent men. Omar and Alwyn were educated at the Sheffield School of Arts, where the curriculum schooled its students in crafts, encouraged by firms Mappin & Webb or Walker & Hall. Omar had a family background in engraving (Sheffield was the hub of the metalwork industry) and met Alwyn there. Both took to being silversmiths, winning several prizes. After their seven-year apprenticeship they toured Europe in 1898 and brought back sketchbooks of designs. They established a small studio on the Albert Road, London. A winged hammer motif was often found on their designs for stationery, or items in metal and stone. They
moved to larger premises called St Dunstan's Studio (named after the patron of silversmiths), where they could both live and work and showcase their pieces for sale. This house has been restored to its Arts and Crafts origins by its current owner. Helen showed us photos of a silver bowl, buckle, sugarshaker, tea-set, and tea spoons with the typical ship or rose motifs they favoured. The silver decoration of a scent bottle made of fine Whitefriars glass shows they were aiming upmarket. At the end of the talk, Kirsty Hartsiotis, who came in specially on her day off, showed us some pieces held in The Wilson, including a book of fables decorated with silver corners and clasp, too fragile to be opened for display. We learned so much about their lives and work. We should ignore any myths that were published in old magazines or perpetuated in more modern exhibition reviews and read the true story in Helen Ashton's book In Search of Ramsden and Carr. Do type ‘Ramsden and Carr images’ in an internet search to find many examples of their work. Sue and Patrick Hodgkinson 18
REVIEWS Tim Porter on Music of the Arts and Crafts Movement In January, Tim Porter gave an interesting talk on music of the Arts and Crafts movement. This was richly illustrated with excerpts of music to demonstrate his points. Tim’s background is music, having worked as a musician and composer in touring theatre. However, his long-term interest in history has influenced his work. He speaks regularly at various museums, including the Ashmolean, colleges and societies. Tim’s argument was that the Arts and Crafts philosophies of Morris and Ruskin were reinterpreted by a new generation of artists and crafts people and carried forward into the 20th century. Music then responded because Arts and Crafts was such a strong phenomenon. However, he argued that the response can be hard to identify due to lack of direct comment by Morris and Ruskin. He identified: • The forward-thinking use of traditional techniques • The use of clean, clear uncluttered skills – e.g. counterpoints • Reinterpretation of folk material – e.g. Vaughan Williams and Bartok • Community involvement • Nature as a prime source • Arts and crafts texts set to music 19
As well as the familiar Holst, Grainger, Vaughan Williams, Tim included less obvious composers to illustrate his talk. He also argued that other later composers also demonstrated Arts and Crafts influences, including Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, Herbert Howells and Enrique Granados. As he put it: the ongoing influence is “debatable as Arts and Crafts blurs into other 20th century ‘isms’”. The talk was well attended and very much enjoyed. In case anyone wishes to follow up, I include a list of the music used to illustrate his talk: Gustav Holst – The Dream City Percy Grainger – Lisbon Vaughan Williams – Mannin Veen and England Arise Laszlo Halmos – Jubilate Deo Lajos Bardos – Ave Maris Stella Bela Bartok – Transylvanian Dances Charles Ives – Concord Sonata George Dyson – The Seekers. Sue Pearce
Festive Lunch & Performance at the Everyman Theatre At 12:15 on Thursday afternoon, 5 December, 42 of us gathered in Matcham’s Restaurant at the Everyman where we were greeted by festively decorated tables and a cheerful band of staff circulating to take our drinks orders. Everyone seated, Adrian Barlow, our Chair greeted us and reminded us of the private viewing that evening at The Wilson. Mark Goucher, the Chief Executive of The Everyman, next welcomed us and imparted the good news that sales for Cinderella had now reached 45,000, with only a few tickets remaining for late in the run. Our pre-ordered lunches were then served and much enjoyed all round. We then repaired to The Irving Studio to see the Hammerpuzzle
Company's adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Under the Greenwood Tree. Just four players portrayed the love problems of Fancy Day over the course of the four seasons in rural Dorset, centred around the Church and the village school; a clever interpretation and staging. Afterwards, the cast reappeared to answer questions, from which we learnt that they had only come together for rehearsals 12 days before the first performance and that, on alternate days, they are performing The Owl and the Pussycat. They are earning their keep! So, a big thank you to Martha Alleguen for her organisation of a successful social Christmastide gathering. Betty and Alan Crocker
REVIEWS The British Landscape: Chroma Collective Every year the third year students studying photojournalism and documentary photography, at the University of Gloucestershire, take on a module called The British Landscape, where they showcase their most successful image within a group exhibition. I was delighted when I was asked to review this exhibition, as this was me two years ago! Entering into The Wilson cafe and up the spiral stairs, your eye is immediately drawn to the way that the collective has thoroughly thought through their location and how they are going to have aesthetic correlations with the landscape. The light grey walls, harsh lighting, circular tables and industrial looking room somehow fuse with the smell of ground coffee from the cafeteria below, reminiscent of a feeling of home. What the viewer is given is an immediate understanding of the environment and where these images have been taken.
Miriam Havertmann's beautiful triptych instantly lights up the room and draws your eye in, with its crisp winter blue sun and orange tinted branches flowing through each image. One thing that I noticed which was extremely important was the captions - each one sheds light on the photojournalists' way of working and lends a deeper understanding to the story of each photograph. I especially saw this with Charlotte Starbuck's image which is presented as a contact sheet repeating the same image 16 times as the day goes on. However, it is the caption that tells the reader the names, ages and dates of those who have lost their lives at the detention centres around the UK. I think that Brandon Saviours' project Coffee Shops is extremely relatable, especially as Cheltenham has been hailed 'coffee capital' of Britain's towns because it boasts more high street branches than anywhere else, with 19 big-name coffee shop branches within two miles of the centre. The contact sheet layout makes you realise how many coffee shops are in Britain. What really stands out in the exhibition is the ability of the photographers to look beyond the mundane landscape to capture the overlooked; finding beauty in the everyday landscapes we pass by. Charlotte Colenutt
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FAVOURITE WORKS OF ART
STILL LIFE, STRANGE LIVES VANESSA BELL
The Wilson is shut for now, but a painting purchased some years ago with the help of the Friends and on display in the Friends' Gallery stays in my mind. I cannot remember its title, so I’ll call it simply Still Life, with Sash Window. Just now, many of us are having to live strange lives, with plenty of time for gazing out of windows, but I doubt if any of us have a view quite as strange, yet strangely familiar, as the scene V. BELL (the italic capitals of her signature just legible in the corner) has painted here. At first the picture seems straightforward. Close to a wide-open window stands a small table on which are positioned two bottles and an earthenware bowl. Behind the table something is propped against the wall, perhaps a canvas on a stretcher. Is this the artist’s studio, the objects on the table placed on what could be a superannuated
palette? The room appears to be high up: through the window the painter looks out and down on the roofs of much lower buildings. But here the difficulties begin, for the roof lines suggest the houses are crowding together at impossible angles, pressing up indeed against the wall of the studio. No less oddly, a great gabled chimney stack seems to have become dislodged and now hovers between two roofs, one thatched and one tiled. What creates this disturbance is the cascade of trees, huge green boulders tumbling down a hillside and colliding with the houses that stand in their way. So, the two halves of the painting confront each other, the studio’s still life opposing the strange confusion outside. Actually, ‘observing’ would be more accurate than ‘opposing’: the two bottles, one a bouteille de vin with an orange-striped label and dainty neck, the other a grey broad-shouldered demijohn, stand like a couple, looking out. Isolated behind the window they wait, watching as the chaos comes ever closer: the orange ridge tiles of the nearest roof are even now edging above the windowsill. How unexpectedly this painting speaks of our times! Adrian Barlow
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SUBSCRIPTIONS Membership subscriptions were due on 1 April 2020 and we've had payments from most of you, including those who pay by standing order. Many thanks to all. I look forward to hearing from the rest of you. Once again rates have been held at £20 for Individual and £35 for Joint memberships. If you joined on or after 1 October 2019, your membership runs to 31 March 2021, so no payment is required this year. There are several payment options, though our preference is always a standing order. Standing orders should be in favour of the Friends of The Wilson at Lloyds Bank PLC, 130 High Street, Cheltenham, GL50 1EW. Sort code 30-91-87, account number 00005816. Please add Member as the reference. Standing orders should be payable immediately and annually on 1 April each succeeding year. You can also renew online at our website www.friendsofthewilson.org.uk: here you can pay by credit or debit card, or even PayPal if you have an account. So, this is a quick and easy option. Want to pay by cheque? Well that's still possible. Cheques should be made payable to the 'FOTW' and sent to the Membership Secretary, Flat 3 Queensholme, Pittville Circus Road, Cheltenham, GL52 2QE. Please enclose a stamped-addressed envelope for the return of your 23
card/s. Just one last thing. If you'd like to help us further, you may want to think about Gift Aid. Many of you have already signed up, which is really helpful. As a registered charity we can claim from HMRC 25p for every £1 contributed by a Friend, be it from subscriptions or donations. This can add several thousand pounds a year to our income. If you are a taxpayer, it is simply a matter of signing a form which I can readily furnish. Please get in touch if you can help or would like clarification. Thank you for your support. Martin Renshaw membership@friendsofthewilson.org.uk
We welcome new members: Julie Arnold Stephen Baldwin Clair Chilvers & Peter Cottingham Nigel & Sally Dimmer Iris Hills Judith Holroyd Robert & Rosemary Ingram Gillian Steels & Ian Jones Patricia Le Rolland Fiona & Mike Madigan Valerie & Clive Mitchell Charmaine Murphy Michael Vonk
DEADLINE Deadline for September 2020 issue: 25 July. Please send articles, illustrations, letters, news and reports to the editor editor@friendsofthewilson.org.uk. Articles may be edited and the editor’s decision is final. Articles should be a maximum of 280 words, unless otherwise agreed with the editor, and accompanied by images if possible. Change of address or contact details: Please provide any changes of address or contact details to the Membership Secretary (membership@friendsofthewilson.or g.uk). Newsletter Dates and Mailing Preferences: Newsletters are published in January, May and September each year. Wherever possible, we will include booking forms for events such as visits and talks inside your copy of the Newsletter. At other times we will contact you by email if we have your email address, as this keeps our costs (and administrative effort) to a minimum. If we do not have your email address already, please let us know.
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CONTACTS President PJ Crook Chair Adrian Barlow 01242 515192 chair@friendsofthewilson.org.uk Secretary John Beard (01242 514059) secretary@friendsofthewilson.org.uk Treasurer Liz Giles (01242 224773) treasurer@friendsofthewilson.org.uk Membership Secretary Martin Renshaw (01242 696692) membership@friendsofthewilson.org.uk Cheltenham Trust Liaison Jaki Davis (07747795709) jaki.meekingsdavis@hotmail.com Talks Organiser Sue Pearce (01242 522467) sue.pearce@blueyonder.co.uk Collections David Addison (01242 238905) davidaddison10@btinternet.com Volunteer Liaison Robert Rimell (07858007852) rimell@me.com Newsletter Mailing Sue Reeves (01242 675497) sue.reeves39@uwclub.net Events Bookings Alison Pascoe (01242 519413) Martha Alleguen (01242 526601) events@friendsofthewilson.org.uk Newsletter Designer/Editor Charlotte Colenutt (07307845556) editor@friendsofthewilson.org.uk With thanks to Rebecca Sherratt for her assistance in editing the newsletter
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Cover photo: Vanessa Bell, Window, Still Life (1915)
The Wilson, Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum Clarence Street, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL50 3JT 01242 237431 ArtGallery@cheltenhamtrust.org.uk www.cheltenhammuseum.org.uk Friends of The Wilson, Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum Registered charity number 289514 www.friendsofthewilson.org.uk queries@friendsofthewilson.org.uk editor@friendsofthewilson.org.uk 26