The class of 1904 continued…

The Forgotten Arts and Crafts Metalworkers Blanche Cecilia and Bertha Lillian Goff

The Goff sisters, Blanche Cecilia and Bertha Lillian, were metalworkers in the early twentieth century. The first evidence of the sisters having been connected with the Blackheath School of Art is when Blanche Goff’s metalwork was praised in the 1904 review:

‘Miss Blanche Goff’s beaten silver work and enamel jewellery deserve commendation.’[1]

Sadly, not much is known of Blanche today although we do know that she worked with her sister Bertha and that they exhibited together. There are records of their collaborative pieces being exhibited in the Society of Women Artists 1904 exhibition[2] and the Arts and Crafts exhibition of 1906[3]. They were also assistants to Christine Connell who married into the famous jewelling family Connell who had premises in the city in Cheapside.[4] Bertha and Blanche are recorded as assistants to Christine Connell in the Studio (Studio Talk, No. 134, p. 348, 1904); having also previously studied under her. The candlesticks that are reproduced on this page are described as follows:

The candlesticks are also of silver, with peacock-blue enamel decoration, and glass candle-rings of a similar colour. Miss Connell was assisted in the making by Miss Blanche Goff and Miss Bertha Goff, who were both pupils of Miss Connell and who are now her assistants.[5]

Bowl by Christine Connell and Cadlesticks by Christine Connell and Bertha and Blanche Goff, The Studio 1904.

These candlesticks present the only photographic record of objects which feature the hand of Blanche Goff.[6]

The 1909 Prospectus for the School of Art features the name Miss B Goff as a teacher of Enamelling.[7] My initial belief was that it was most likely Bertha Goff (more about her later) who was the teacher at Blackheath School of Art but looking through the index of the Arts and Crafts exhibition catalogue, 1906 the sisters are listed as Miss B Goff, not separately.[8] It certainly allows for the consideration that perhaps both Bertha and Blanche taught enamelling in Blackheath.

Bertha is now the sister who is best remembered for her arts and crafts silver objects; including exquisite jewellery. The catalogue for a sale of her work at Christie’s in 2001 describes Bertha’s work “epitomis[ing] the aims of Arts and Crafts”.[9] What is known of her early career is that she attended the Holloway School of Art as she received National Competition medals in 1902, 1903 and 1904 for designs for jewellery. The 1902 National Award catalogue highlighted that from Goff’s silver medal award winning sheet of designs the “necklace, belt and small dish…are especially worthy of praise”.[10]  In 1904 Bertha Goff received a silver medal for her “excellent designs for Jewellery, in which she has shown a knowledge of various methods of work and considerable taste in their application.[11]

Bertha Goff, Designs for Silver Work, National Student Award 1902 Catalogue.

Bertha Goff, Designs for Necklets and Coat Clasps with Specimens in Materials, National Student award 1904 Catalogue.

As can be seen from the beautiful necklace featuring Leda and the Swan below these designs provided the basis for the finished article. A design for a very similar pendant can be seen in the top photograph of Bertha Goff’s designs.

Bertha Goff, Leda and the Swan, circa 1904..

Source: Van den Bosch Jewellery website - http://www.vandenbosch.co.uk/Jewellery

As note 3 shows the Goff sisters lived close to the School of Art, in Lee. The census of 1911 shows that they were still living in the family home with Blanche 36 and Bertha 34 years of age and both women still listed as single. Rather unfortunately neither of the sisters has an occupation described in their entry. Prior to living in Lee the Goff family lived in north London, Finsbury, which may explain Bertha’s attendance at the Holloway School of Art in the early 1900’s. They are recorded as living in Lee from 1900 onward[12].

Beyond the 1911 census I have not yet been able to find much information regarding the Goff sisters. What I do know is that Blanche died on 11 February 1965 at the age of 91[13] and Bertha died at the age of 94 in 1975.[14] Both of these sisters currently remain as enigmas in the world of arts and crafts silversmiths. Hopefully with further research and interest in their work this will change in the future to shed further light on the influence the of the Blackheath School of Art in this detailed and elegant medium.

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[1] “Art Exhibitions: Blackheath School of Art”, Arts & Crafts Magazine, vol. 1-2, Hutchinson & Company, 1904, p.325.

[2] The Society of Women Artists Exhibition 1904, Arts and Crafts Magazine, vol. 1 – 2, Hutchinson & Company, 1904. A large and excellent display of jewellery and enamels included work by Mrs. Dick, Mrs. Bethune, Mrs. Mills, Alice S. Grant, Blanche and Bertha Goff, Mlle. Labrosse, Maud Partridge (Guild of Metal Workers, Barnstaple), A. M. Winton, Rosabella Drummond, Mrs. Hadaway, Mrs. A. Mure, Ethel Kirkpatrick, Ethel Virtue, the Misses Remington, Magdalen Z. Hoyer, Mrs. E. Roscoe Mullins, and Mrs. Brackett.

[3] Arts and Crafts exhibition Society catalogue of the eighth exhibition at the Grafton galleries’ Grafton Street, Bond Street, 1906:

318 By BLANCHE and BERTHA GOFF.

CASE OF JEWELLERY.

Exhibited by MISS GOFF.

321 By BLANCHE and BERTHA GOFF.

CASE OF JEWELLERY.

Exhibited by MISS GOFF.

Index:

Goff, Miss B., "Ashdene," The Avenue, Lee, S.E. 318, 321

[4] Mary Christine Connell (known as Christine) was born in 1871 and was married to George Lawrence Connell on 9 April 1904 in St Peter’s Church, Streatham. George’s father William George Connell ran Connell, Cheapside and George took over his father’s business with Christine, which was located at 83 Cheapside. I have not yet been able to find where Christine taught although my hunch would be that it was at Holloway School of Art where Bertha was a student until at least 1904. In the 1911 census George and Christine were listed as living at 3 Uffington Road, West Norwood. Such was their success that the only other person listed in the household was Mabel Miriam Welton who was their 21 year old General Domestic Servant.

[5] Studio Talk, Studio Magazine, No. 134, 1904, p. 348. Illustration has been taken from the same page.

[6] This is from my current research. I hope to find more evidence in the future.

[7] Prospectus is available to view in the London Metropolitan Archives.

[8] See note 3.

[9] Christie’s, Sale 9132, 20^th Century Jewellery, London, South Kensington, 19 June 2001, Lot 10. The pre-lot text lists that the collection to be sold by Bertha Goff’s great-niece was first highlighted by Geoffrey Munn on BBC’s Antique Roadshow. Munn pointed out on the programme that; "Completely comprehensive collections of this type are very rare indeed. In the long term it is desperately important that the entire collection stays together." Despite numerous attempts to contact Christie’s about this sale I am yet to receive a response. Thanks to Geoffrey Munn for further suggestions regarding tracing Bertha Goff’s great niece.

[10] Board of Education, South Kensington: National Competition 1902, London, p. 42. The illustration included is from the following page, p. 43.

[11] Board of Education, South Kensington: National Competition 1904, London, p. 41. The illustrations are on the previous page, p. 40.

[12] 'Bertha Lillian Goff', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 In 1900 the Goff family was recorded as residing at Ashdene, The Avenue, Lee, SE.

[13] The London Gazette, 19 February, 1965, p. 1891. Blanche Cecilia Goff, 16 Vine Avenue, Sevenoaks, Kent, Spinster, 11 February 1965.

[14] Records of Births and Deaths, Newbury, Vol 6A, p. 173. Bertha was born on 9 August 1876.

The re-discovery of a Blackheath philanthropist and a sitter in a portrait by Hugh Goldwin Riviere

If you have recently entered the Early Years Room, by the reception desk, at the Conservatoire you will have most likely noticed the impressive portrait of an elegant woman hanging over the fireplace. This woman was painted by the eminent portraitist Hugh Goldwin Riviere in 1908.

Hugh Goldwin Riviere, Julia Lindley, 1908.

Hugh Goldwin Riviere, Julia Lindley, detail of signature and date at lower right, 1908.

When I first arrived at the Conservatoire just over a year ago it was believed that the painting depicted a woman who acted like a maidservant in the early years of the music school. There was even a label at the reception desk highlighting this although there was no identity of the sitter.[1] Looking through the archives it became apparent, that if the label was correct then the identity of the sitter could be Miss Mary Botting Lady Superintendent of the Conservatoire. This was confirmed by my colleague Alex when she discovered that in the insurance dating from 2006 it was identified as ‘Mary Botting painting’. Initially I thought that this was the correct identification and was quite proud to think that I had solved a mystery rather quickly.

Although the more I thought about it, the identity of the sitter troubled me. Mary Botting, from all descriptions, effectively ran the Conservatoire singlehandedly. The main question was how someone in her position could be able to commission a portrait by such an esteemed painter. Riviere painted some of the elite society figures of the early twentieth century in London.[2] Botting certainly would not have moved in these circles. Later a photograph of Mary Botting surfaced, from the Blackheath Illustrated Review 1896 – 97. This photograph, taken more than 10 years before the painting was completed shows that Mary Botting looked nothing like the portrait being older than the depicted sitter.[3]

Portrait of Miss Mary Botting, Blackheath Illustrated, 1896-97.

Whilst looking through the Committee Meeting Minutes an interesting entry leaped out at me. In March 1937, after the death of a Miss Julia Lindley on 15 January 1937[4], the Blackheath Conservatoire was offered as a part of her bequest a Steinway Grand Piano, and £1000 to help students who could not afford tuition. At the same meeting it was also noted that Miss EJ Lindley had presented the Conservatoire with Julia Lindley’s portrait.[5] Unfortunately there was no mention of the artist of the portrait or when it was painted.

Notes regarding Julia Lindley's bequest and offer of her portrait,Committee Meeting Minutes January 1937, p.150.

So who was Julia Lindley? Julia Lindley was born in Hamburg in 1856, the daughter of the well-known engineer, William Lindley. She is recorded in the 1881 census as living in Shooters Hill Road with her occupation classified as ‘Annuitant’.[6] Jumping forward 20 years to the 1901 census, her address changed to 74 Shooters Hill Road, Blackheath, SE. At this time she was listed as the Head of the Household and her occupation as Private Means. Her ‘companion’ Miss Dall is listed as a visitor to the house on this occasion although additionally in this and the next census in 1911 she is also listed as a member of the household.[7]

That Julia Lindley was a great philanthropist is something that is still well known today. In addition to her generous bequests to the Conservatoire she bequeathed £1000 to the National Gallery and to the Royal Observatory.[8] The preceding bequests apart Julia Lindley was a life member of The Royal Geographical Society from 1893[9], a subscriber to the Annual of the British School at Athens in 1897, and a life member of The Royal Archaeological Institute from 1913.[10] In addition to her bequest to help students who struggled to pay their fees she also provided support for students during her lifetime.[11] Needless to say that she was a great benefactor of the arts and someone who took a great interest in cultural pursuits.

Letter from Edith Dealy to Miss EJ Lindley, 8 February 1937.

The next and perhaps most important clue comes from the letter written to Miss EJ Lindley by Edith Dealy, Mary Botting’s successor, on 8 February 1937. In the letter Dealy thanks EJ Lindley for the kind offer of the portrait and states:

‘As a benefactor of the Conservatoire our Committee Room seems a very suitable home for her portrait, & we shall value it with grateful appreciation for her many kind acts.’

As mentioned earlier the portrait hangs in the Early Years Room which was the Committee Room in the 1930’s.[12] It is nice now to be able to know the name of the sitter and be able to acknowledge the generosity of one of Blackheath’s great philanthropists, Julia Lindley.

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[1] The text of label was as follows: ‘Conservatoire Curiosities: Who is the lady in the painting? Well to be truthful, we don’t know. However, the traditional story is that she was the first ‘Lady Caretaker’ of the Conservatoire. Part of her job was to look after the tutors, which included making them afternoon tea. If you look closely in some of the teaching rooms, you can see a little buzzer. The story goes that the tutors would press this and then she would bring in their tea!’

[2] NPG archive features the following portraits of eminent public figures by Hugh Goldwin Riviere: Sir Jeremiah Colman, Lord Lister and Miss Peggy Wood.

[3] ‘New Schools: The Blackheath Conservatoire of Music’, Blackheath Illustrated, 1896-97, p. 69. I originally discovered the photograph in the scrapbook of Edith Dealy housed in the Trinity College Library, Greenwich.

[4] The Committee discussed the death of Miss Julia Lindley, Thursday 29 January 1937, and reported that the secretary had written a letter of condolence to her companion Miss Dall. Committee Meeting Minutes, p. 150.

[5] The meeting took place on 4 March 1937. Committee Meeting Minutes, p 151.

[6] Julia Lindley was 25 years old and the head of the Household was William Lindley. The address they lived at was 10 Shooters Hill Road. Annuitant is someone who is receiving benefits of an annuity (inheritance?).

[7] The listed occupants of the house in the 1901 census were (with ages): Jane Ewart 64, Julia Lindley 45, Emma E Pipe 33, Jane F Dall 31 and Annie E Jacklin 25. In the 1911 census they were as follows: Julia Lindley 55, Rose Whitelong 45, Jane Farmer Dall 41 and Annie Elizabeth Jacklin 35.

[8] The initial discussion about the bequest to the National Gallery started in August 1937. Thanks to Ceri Brough at The National Gallery for this information. The Observatory, A Monthly Review of Astronomy, Vol. 60, June 1937, p. 1, discusses the bequest.

[9] Royal Geographical Society List of Honorary Members, Honorary Corresponding Members and Fellows Corrected to 30 September, 1921, p. 54.

[10] The Royal Archaeological Institute List of Members 1933, p. 401.

[11] In a letter dated 15 December 1928 Edith Dealy thanks Julia Lindley for her support for the student Guy Jarrett.

[12] Thanks to my incredibly knowledgeable colleague Mary Moore who pointed this out to me recently.

The Class of 1904 part 2…

Nora Cundell

Nora Cundell, Self Portrait on horseback, Marble Canyon, Unsentimental Journey, 1940, p. 95.

Nora Lucy Mowbray Cundell, who was born in May 1889, was a student at the Blackheath School of Art in 1904 and lived locally. In their review of the show, Arts and Crafts Magazine described Cundell’s work as spirited in its conception in comparison with those of another student.[1] Art was in the Cundell genes as her father had exhibited with the Stock Exchange Art Group and his father, her grandfather Henry Cundell, was a renowned landscape painter. After leaving the Blackheath School of Art, Cundell studied at the Westminster Technical Institute under Sickert and then at the Slade from 1911 to 1914 and also in 1919. Many of Cundell’s works reflect the extravagant realism of Sickert and critics in the 1940’s allied this with the belief that her Dutch heritage brought to the fore an influence of Dutch seventeenth century artists like Pieter De Hooch and Johannes Vermeer.[2] Whilst works of this era are in UK collections such as the Tate[3] this is not the area of her career that I wish to focus on here.

I hope it is not too patronising to label Nora Cundell as a prototypical modern woman. From the early 1930’s she travelled on her own to the US and came to be accepted as a native Arizonan. She enjoyed her time in Arizona so much that she travelled there every year from then through to her death in 1948. In Arizona Cundell formed a close affinity with the landscape and people of Marble Canyon. She spent time with the Native Americans, especially the Navajo, in Arizona painting portraits and creating landscapes focusing on the desert.[4] It has been noted that her time in Arizona and south west USA greatly influenced her use of colour, lightening her palette.[5] The expressive use of colour from this period, in paintings like Marble Canyon, Arizona,[6] contrasts markedly with the more earthy realism of paintings like The Back Parlour, Café Loos, Étaples, France.[7]

Nora Cundell, An old Navajo who came to trade, (see note 4).

Nora Cundell, Marble Canyon, Arizona, oil on board, Museum of North Arizona, Flagstaff.

Nora Cundell,The Back Parlour, Café Loos, Étaples, France, Atkinson Gallery Collection.

Cundell published a book, Unsentimental Journey, telling the story of her numerous solo trips to the USA, travelling from New York to Arizona. The book itself is a revelation of anecdotes and observations of the unusual world of America through the eyes of an English woman travelling on her own to the Wild West. Cundell’s strong will comes to the fore in this tome as this was not seen to be the type of journey a British woman would make at this time, let alone on her own. Following her death in Windsor in August 1948 her ashes were brought back to the USA. Her ashes were scattered in Arizona, at the base of Vermilion Cliffs in May 1949.[8] In the history of the Conservatoire and Blackheath Art Schools I would dare to say that she would rate as one of the most fiercely independent and pioneering women.[9]

Nora Cundell, A Part of the Arizona Landscape, Unsentimental Journey, 1940, p. 139.

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[1] Arts and Crafts Magazine – ‘In spirited conception, at least, Miss Norah Cundell is not far behind Miss Stanton, in her Nursery Panel of a Children's Cake-Walk’. In the 1911 Royal Academy Exhibition catalogue Cundell's contact address is listed as Llantarnam House, Blackheath, S.E. The picture she exhibited was catalogue no. 721 - Five O'Clock.

[2] Nora Cundell Obituary, Montreal Gazette, 11 September 1948.

[3] Nora Cundell, Smiling Woman, 1922, Tate Gallery - http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/nora-lm-cundell-967 Other works can be seen in the Museum of the Order of St John, London and Rochdale Arts and Heritage Service - http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/artists/nora-lucy-mowbray-cundell

[4] Old Navajo who came to trade, taken from Unsentimental Journey facing page 156.

[5] Shaw Cable, P, Impressionist Imprints in South Western Art, 2014. Essay written to accompany the El Paso Museum of Art exhibition Renoir to Remington: Impressionism to the American West which compares and contrasts Cundell’s Portrait of a Navajo Woman (1939) with Renoir’s Heads of Two Young Girls.

[6] Image sourced from Arizona Daily Sun 16 November 2012. The painting also featured as catalogue no 13 in the exhibition Arizona’s Pioneering Women Artists at the Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, Arizona from 17 November 2012 to 12 May 2013.

[7] The Back Parlour, Café Loos, Étaples, France, Atkinson Gallery Collection. Image sourced from BBC Your Paintings website - http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-back-parlour-cafe-loos-taples-france-65885

[8] One Page History of Nora Cundell’s Life from Spring 1934 – May 1949, Colorado Plateau Archives. According to the document Shine Smith scattered her ashes in Marble Canyon and a brass plate was erected commemorating this which read: ‘Nora L M Cundell British artist and author has returned to rest in the place she loved’.

[9] The Galerie Gabrie website includes an anecdote that Cundell drove ambulances in World War 2 - http://www.gabrie.com/#!nora-cundell/c17l7 I am hoping to find more details about this in the future.

Blackheath School of Art: The Class of 1904

Percy Noel Boxer

Percy Noel Boxer lived in Lewisham and was a student at the Blackheath School of Art in 1904, at the age of 18.[1] We know this from the Arts and Crafts Magazine review of the students’ exhibition where Boxer’s watercolours were commended among those displayed in this medium. Boxer provided illustrations for James Sully’s Italian Travel Sketches published in 1912. These illustrations couple the rustic charm of neglected buildings and acute observations of everyday life in Rome, Palremo and Subiaco. One such highlight depicts a priest in his robes and wearing a hat, carrying an umbrella on his approach to the Papal Palace in Vitterbo.[2]

In 1920, a year after Boxer’s death at 33, a book featuring his sketches and those of Dorothy Woollard were published together in a tome entitled London: A Riverside Sketchbook. Many of these sketches feature south east London including Greenwich, Charlton and Blackwall. They provide a fascinating look back at London of the early twentieth century and the Thames which is ever changing. These drawings were also published, along with a note on the artist, in The Studio in the April 1916 edition. Percy Buckman’s notes accompanying this article reveal that Boxer was suffering from ill health and hadn’t been able to continue working at full capacity for some time.[3]

Cannon Street Station from London: A Riverside Sketchbook

A Corner Shop, Greenwich from London: A Riverside Sketchbook

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[1] McCormick, Paul - http://www.loyalregiment.com/2nd-lt-harold-stephen-boxer/

McCormick’s excellent website focuses on Percy’s younger brother, Lieutenant Harold Stephen Boxer. The Boxer family resided at 151 Burnt Ash Hill Lewisham and were affluent enough to be able to afford domestic help.

[2] Sully, James, Italian Travel Sketches, London, 1912. Portal and Loggia of Papal Palace, Vitterbo Before the Restoration of 1903 facing page 152.

[3] Buckman, Percy, “Pencil Drawings of Greenwich by Percy Noel Boxer”, The Studio, April 1916, pp. 155 – 162.

A Brief Introduction to the Blackheath School of Art

Blackheath Art School: An Introduction and depictions of the local area

I am hopeful that this will be the beginning of an exploration of the history of the Blackheath School of Art through regular blogs focusing on artists and personalities connected with the school. Thanks must go to Sydney Thornbury who has encouraged my endless fascination with the 'lost history' and John Bartram of the Blackheath Society who expertly edited my research into a more easily understandable text. Anyway, here goes...

Two of the best known artists who attended the Blackheath Art School (now a part of the Conservatoire) as students did so before it closed for World War I and World War II. John Skeaping studied under Frederic Halnon in 1914 (at the age of thirteen) for one term before enrolling at Goldsmith’s. In his career he became one of the foremost equine artists in Britain, producing sculpture for the Getty family, and is perhaps best known for his “How to Draw Animals” books. Those who have closely followed the career of Barbara Hepworth may recall him as her first husband.

One of the last students at the school was Joan Eardley, who attended for two terms in late 1938 before enrolling at Goldsmith’s in 1939. She subsequently attended Glasgow School of Art and became one of the most admired Scottish modern artists through her touching paintings of Glaswegian children and depictions of the coastline at Catterline, Aberdeenshire.

The 1904 Blackheath School of Art students’ exhibition was reviewed in the Arts and Crafts Magazine which provides a fantastic resource of names for researchers. In the review a young student Percy Noel Boxer, whose watercolour 'capital' work was included amongst the praise for this medium at the school: ‘In water-colour painting… excellent studies were shown, evidencing a degree of practical appreciation of the capabilities of the medium not often met with in school work.’  His drawings of Charlton and Greenwich featured in the Studio Magazine in 1916 and he is renowned for his drawing of Limehouse and of Greenwich and its surrounds. Tragically, he died young after a long illness and today little is known about him, although his works definitely deserve another look.

Another student who featured in this exhibition was Nora Cundell who received the following mention about her exhibited work: ‘In spirited conception, at least, Miss Norah Cundell is not far behind Miss Stanton, in her Nursery Panel of a Children's Cake-Walk’. Cundell subsequently studied under Walter Sickert and in her later years travelled to Arizona to spend time in the desert painting cowboys and the Native American Indians. Her 1940 tome, Unsentimental Journey, describes one of her many trailblazing adventures and is full of simple yet descriptive line drawings of the characters she encountered there.

Blanche Goff also receive a mention for her metalwork describing Blanche’s ‘beaten silver work and enamel jewellery [as] deserv[ing] commendation’. Her sister Bertha Goff, who attended Holloway School of Art, continued with this career and her arts and crafts style jewellery is sought after today. One of the two sisters later became a teacher at the school as a B Goff is listed as a teacher of Enamelling in 1909.

One of the local artists who attended the school was privileged to study under some of the foremost British printmakers of the day. This was Meryl Watts who is perhaps best known for her striking depictions of Portmeirion which were made into postcards. Living in nearby Saint Germain’s Place, some of her early woodcuts show Blackheath as it looked in the 1930s. Watts also features in the records of the Music school, having attended from 1919 to the late 1920s, participating in physical education classes and piano lessons. Currently she is the first student we have evidence of attending both schools.

Blackheath, 1930’s by Meryl Watts

A plethora of new names have come to light from documents in the London Metropolitan Archives and the National Archives, Kew. Some have particular claims to fame, including Phillip Boydell who taught ceramics and design at the school in the 1920s and designed the typeface for the Festival of Britain (Festival Titling) in 1951 and various iconic advertising images. Harold Nelson was a renowned bookplate artist who taught Black and White Illustration, according to the 1909 prospectus. He also designed a stamp for the 1929 postal union conference and worked for Punch magazine. A well-known local artist Hugh Bellingham Smith taught the ‘Study of the Figure’ (Life Drawing/ Painting) in 1909 and he painted numerous landscapes and works that survive depicting nearby Greenwich Park.

Children in Greenwich Park, sold at Bonham’s 2010, by Hugh Bellingham Smith

Placing existing works into the context of the Art School has been one of the most exciting parts of this research. The first discovered extant piece of ceramics, and also the earliest piece from the school, is on display in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The vase, created by Frances A Baker, was made in 1901. 

John Edgar Platt and Charles Paine, two esteemed printmakers, worked together at the school in the 1930s and both men produced advertising posters for London Transport. A work by Platt, The Lamb, appeared at auction at Bamford’s in the summer of 2015 and is inscribed ‘From JP to CP, 1934.’ It is, along with the vase in the V&A, one of a few artworks that are documented as having been completed at the school.

Michael Platt, the son of the principal, John Edgar Platt, studied at the school in the 1930s, later becoming a painter and teacher of art. One of his paintings depicted Blackheath during the war portraying how the Heath appeared in World War II looking towards Shooter’s Hill in the background.

Barrage Balloons and Tank Traps, Blackheath by Michael Platt, 1940 sold at Cheffins 2011

In the past the art school has been associated with Eric Gill as he was a guest lecturer in 1939. This is slightly unfair as other eminent artists and art historians including Muirhead Bone, Francis Dodd, Barnett Freedman and James Laver either delivered lectures or gave out awards at prize-giving events here.

There is a wealth of material surviving in the archives of the Conservatoire relating to its music school but very little original material that belongs to the art school before its 1940 closure. Neil Rhind’s research provided a starting point along with some interesting letters from Margaret T Holden Jones, Douglas Percy Bliss and Norman Sillman which provided names to look into.

The pride of the archive is the 1931 prospectus with names of teachers and a beautiful frontispiece which looks as though it may have been designed by James Woodford, but what happened to the art school’s original documents from this period remains a mystery. Various possibilities have been suggested, for example that John Edgar Platt, the principal at the time of the 1940 closure, was not interested in keeping paperwork, that the material was destroyed when David Moir Carnegie’s house was destroyed by bombs or that it was left on a bus. Spencer Jones, the Chairman of the school’s board of governors at its closure, had the final word, writing in a letter to Mr Houghton of the London County Council on 22 June 1959 that all the material, including minute books and accounts were destroyed when Moir Carnegie’s house was bombed.

These names are just a fraction of the people who either studied or taught at Blackheath, Greenwich, Lee and Lewisham School of Art before its closure in 1940. Hopefully more names will come to light to further enhance its reputation as a respected and renowned school. The Conservatoire waiting room has on display works by a number of the artists mentioned here, so please feel free to come and have a look. 

Deptford Creek - a boating lake for dummies??

Strolling across the ha'penny bridge over Deptford Creek last night I stumbled across some people in boats tending to mannequins. It was rather a bizarre sight as the creek is usually inhabited by a couple of swans and moored (possibly abandoned?) boats.

There were also some rather intriguing light fittings hanging along the pathway and even some lampshades hanging under the railway arches by the Crossfields Estate.

I believe it might be something to do with the Lift Festival but have yet to discover the answer...

For more about the festival see here

Boaters tending to mannequins.

 

 

Australia at the Royal Academy

It might be rather late given the exhibition finished in December but here goes nonetheless. My blog has been hijacked by a rather simple art lover...

 

Right from the first moment of entering Australia at the RA it is apparent that this exhibition was going to be a nostalgic trip. Shaun Gladwell’s, Approach to Mundi Mundi reflecting the vastness of the country and the distances people will travel to get around. The first thing I learnt in coming to the UK over 17 years ago is that Australia is not the centre of the universe; although many of my friends back home still struggle to believe me when I try to explain this.

One of the biggest regrets I have is never being brave enough to take the step to study Aboriginal Art as it meant committing to Anthropology and moving away from Art History; a discipline that I felt at home with. Sadly the Australia I grew up in dismissed Aborigines and their cultural heritage with suspicion, more because we did not make an effort to understand it, however I digress.

The first topographical images of Australian cities highlighted the British tradition that was first brought to the colony. Produced quite early, in the European part of the nation’s history just over 10 years after the first settlement they depict the development of the country, showing just how isolated these little snippets of old England were.

The fascination with Romanticism; and the overwhelming sublime quality of the harsh landscape comes to the fore in the works of Von Guerard especially Mount Kosciusko and Bushfire. These paintings could hold their own in the extraordinary catalogues of both Friedrich and Church respectively. This was a country that was harsh yet beautiful. The representation of the first contact with the indigenous people is something that was not always properly discussed in the tradition of Australian Art History. For all of the beautiful landscapes of John Glover which include native inhabitants, by this time Tasmania was devoid of the land’s custodians.[1] Yet in the same room there are some more naive works of art which show the Aborigines in a more sympathetic light. William Barak’s depiction of an Aboriginal tribe is quite touching in its crudeness. This is all the more interesting by his writing to Queen Victoria to enquire about the better treatment of his people, as he himself was a Native Police tracker.

Artists such as Roberts and Streeton are firm Australian favourites and are well represented. Monumental images such as Fire’s On! by Streeton show the unforgiving qualities of the Australian landscape so much show that the rugged painterly brush strokes which represent the rocks are repeated in the blue sky to create a warm yet unbreakable wall of monumentality. Despite the attempts to break down the wall with explosives their efforts are futile as can be seen by the casualty being stretchered out of the mine’s entrance. The mythology of Australia being a land of rugged outback heroes has been eulogised for many a year and Tom Roberts with paintings such as A Break Away! showing a drover hurtling through a desert landscape to catch a stray sheep is one such key image. Frederic McCubbin’s Lost represented the realities faced by the pioneering families, that the desolation and loneliness of the landscape was a frightening prospect. The futility and sadness that often attempted to suppress the strength of the white settlers was never more beautifully produced in such a sentimental way than in The Pioneer, an ode to the family. For all of these images of the outback there is also a small collection of burgeoning images of the city with the cigar box lids of the “9 x 5” exhibition including street scenes and even one of an Australian Rules football match representing the changing interest in the emerging urban landscapes of the country. Roberts showing his interest in not only the outback but also the bustle of the city in his small painting, Allegro con brio, Bourke Street. This attempt to create an Impressionism in Australia comes to the fore with Charles Conders water scenes, including the iconic Holiday at Mentone, which would not be out of place with Monet’s early beach scenes.

Placed at the behind  McCubbin’s monumental triptych was Grace Cossington-Smith’s  immense polyptych, creating an interesting dialogue between the traditional representations of the Australian outback and the early modern focus on everyday life in the cities. The iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge showing how Australia does also have a heritage of producing industrial landscapes not just ones inspired by nature. This is an area where the exhibition excelled showing works by other early leading women artists including Clarice Beckett’s Tonalist urban landscapes with trams and also the exquisite The Expulsion by Margaret Preston, replacing Adam and Eve with aborigines, native flowers (Sturt Desert Pea) and animals (a kangaroo and koala).[2] It was touching that these were next to the exquisite landscapes of Albert Namatjira, incidentally one of the few aboriginal artists we looked at in Art History classes as he worked in a recognisable style.

The interest in the Australian family was brought to the fore again through John Brack’s The Car featuring family with two children undertaking a journey within the cramped confines of their vehicle. The isolation of a man and an abandoned pram, in Jeffrey Smart’s beach scene is ambiguous in that the viewer is unable to work out whether the man is the owner of the pram and whether there is a child within. This ever modernising landscape and the people in it further highlighted by the increasing interest in the beach which I guess came with the urbanisation of the cities and the interests of the workers especially in the cities of Sydney and Melbourne. Max Dupain’s photograph, Sunbaker, exposing a more modern view of Australian’s as bronzed and sporty.

The early modern painters of the cities are perhaps where my interest waned especially as I have very little knowledge or understanding of what comes after. Nevertheless the paintings of Second World War Australia are where it started to show gaps in the survey. Whilst paintings like Albert Tucker’s Bathers more than ably represented the Angry Penguins group and the interest in Surrealism it this section began to be more noticeable for its omissions. Painters like John Olsen, John Perceval, Clifton Pugh, Joy Hester, Vic O’Connor and William Dobell were noticeable absentees (and I could mention others). John Blackman’s paintings of the aboriginal bride would have been an excellent way to show that Australia’s attitude to its indigenous population did not advance much from the early settlers to the 1950’s.

Nevertheless the Nolan paintings showed the mythology of Australia’s past, a heroic way and iconic way of representing of the historical infancy of the country (granted white). Ned Kelly being an Australian figure, equal to Britain’s Robin Hood in that he was worshipped by those less fortunate. Arthur Boyd actually creating a biblical, apocalyptic vision of Australia, “Brueghelian”[3] if I may use the word I learnt from the RA’s label drawing on Pieter the Elder’s Tower of Babel for his horrible, haunting mess of the town’s inhabitants in The Mining Town (casting Aside the Money Lenders from the Temple). I am not sure why the RA added an “h” to this term; it does remain a mystery. One of perhaps the best known artists in Australian homes, Russell Drysdale’s landscapes depict the beauty and desolation of the outback.

It seems as though the exhibition was brought together with Australian galleries to display the ever changing landscape of the country. Yet there is a focus on the people within these landscapes and the lack of portraiture does tend to let the show down. It would have been fantastic if the exhibition could have been broken down into eras rather than one large survey. However we really should be thankful that the RA has been able to highlight the art of Australia and put on, what for me was a fantastic nostalgia trip reminding me that the art of my country does matter.

 

For more about the exhibition please see here

 

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[1] Glover sadly being a supporter of Governor Arthur who was a part of the clearance of the Aborigines from Tasmania.

[2] Sadly there were no examples of Preston’s native wildflower images.

[3] Not sure why the RA added an “h” to the term, it will remain a mystery to me as Pieter Bruegel the Elder was Boyd’s starting point.