Glyn Philpot: Buried Treasure

If Glyn Philpot had stuck to his very lucrative line in society portrait painting, the retrospective of his work at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester wouldn't have an awful lot to recommend it, frankly. But then, he probably wouldn't be getting a retrospective at the Pallant, and the reason to visit Glyn Philpot: Flesh and Spirit is to see the astonishing, unexpected pictures Philpot created in the late 1920s and 1930s when he said goodbye to the stuffed shirts and fancy frocks and embraced modernism with a vengeance. 

This is the first major Philpot exhibition in almost 40 years. How has his work sailed under the radar for so long?

Among the first paintings that greet you in this show are a set of striking images of Henry Thomas, a former seaman from Jamaica who modelled for Philpot as well as working as a domestic servant for him. 

This image recalls the format of a Renaissance portrait or the head of a ruler on a coin, but it's a dignified black man, not a white king or emperor, that's represented, and against a batik background. Rather subversive for the mid-1930s. 

Close by is a recently rediscovered portrait by Philpot of the American actor, singer and civil-rights activist Paul Robeson as Othello. In another act of subversion, Robeson was the first black actor to play the role in over a century when he appeared in a production at the Savoy Theatre in London in 1930, and Philpot played host to him and his wife at his country house near Horsham.

 

Philpot had been painting black sitters since before World War I, even as he was making a name for himself for his society pictures, which were in a highly traditional style.

He could afford a mansion in the country, because by the 1920s he was in such demand as a portrait painter that he could charge as much as £3000 for single picture, and he was fulfilling 12 major commissions a year. We weren't that taken by his pictures of society beauties such as a rather vapid and vacuous-looking Countess of Dalkeith or even of Loelia, Duchess of Westminster, described by Tatler as "squadron leader of Society's Young Brigade", however skilfully painted; by no means as impressive as the work of William Orpen, we felt.  

Philpot seemed to reserve his best portraiture for men, such as The Man in Black: his lover Robert Allerton, a wealthy philanthropist and collector whom the artist met in 1913, and who was described as "the richest bachelor in Chicago".

And there's also much more empathy in his pictures of Thomas, seen here as Balthazar, one of the three Wise Men who bore gifts to the infant Jesus. The robe, the desert landscape and the starry night sky behind Balthazar's head make this a compelling image.

Let's move on to another sensitive and characterful black portrait: one of three Philpot made of the Martinique-born cabaret performer Julien Zaïre during a stay in Paris in 1931-32. Two of them are in this exhibition, both in a style that draws on the German New Objectivity movement. 

Zaïre's stage name was Tom Whiskey, and he's depicted in dinner jacket and black tie as the epitome of Jazz Age sophistication. It's possible he performed at the Tagada Beguine, a night club close to Philpot's modernist Montparnasse studio, filled with the latest chrome furniture, where Zaïre posed for this portrait.   

Zaïre introduced Philpot to Félix, the doorman at the club, and Félix is the central character in Entrance to the Tagada, pulling aside the curtain to reveal the dancing going on inside. Félix and the man on the right exchange glances from under their hats, but the glamorous woman in her fur coat doesn't look at the doorman.  

It's a very cinematic image, and it's no surprise to learn that Philpot was a regular film-goer. 

He was one of numerous painters around this time who found themselves drawn towards nightlife and performance -- whether music, theatre, dance, or indeed the circus. Here's one memorable theatre image in the show: Glen Byam Shaw as 'Laertes' in Hamlet. Shaw is wearing a costume designed for a celebrated 1934 production by John Gielgud. 

Very, very dramatic, but really very, very camp. 

Quite a lot of Philpot's paintings express his homosexuality, such as his reinterpretation of the episode from Homer in which Penelope weaves and unravels a shroud as she fends off suitors while her husband Odysseus is away endlessly fighting the Trojan War. In Philpot's Penelope, the suitors on show are probably a lot more interested in each other than her, showing off their muscles and looking sultry. There's another hilarious reworking of the legend, 101st Afternoon with Penelope, with her son Telemachus chain-smoking out of boredom, his ashtray full of cigarette ends, as he sits on modernist furniture looking aggressively towards the door. 

Philpot's circus images are equally unsettling. The Resting Acrobats appear anything but at rest -- tense, drained, almost drugged -- while Acrobats Waiting to Rehearse have the air of a couple of sinister characters from a Harold Pinter play. 

Quite the contrast from the almost mundane, commonplace circus characters painted by Philpot's contemporary Laura Knight. You could imagine Philpot and Knight sitting on opposite sides of the same circus ring. painting completely different pictures of the same performers....

There's a washed-out, almost monochrome quality to some of Philpot's late works, notably portraits (he died of a stroke in 1937, aged only 53). The artist's friend Guendolen Cleaver has only a smattering of lipstick and nail varnish to break up the blackness of her achingly modish dress and hat, rendered by Philpot in very loose paint. Her expression is almost contemptuous; perhaps some buffoon has just dared to spell Guendolen with a W. 

For our last picture, let's use one of the most eye-catching works in this eye-catching show: It's called An Ascending Angel, and the angel is ascending a staircase in Philpot's modernist Paris apartment, in a costume that's developed from one the artist created for Satan in an earlier play. You can see the glazed bars of the studio windows. 

The Manchester Guardian loved it: "a striking and powerful design". The Daily Mail's critic likened the angel, however, to "a window cleaner". 

Make up your own mind. Get down to Chichester this summer to enjoy this outstanding exhibition, full of a lot more exciting art than we can show you here. It's possibly the best show we've been to at this gallery, which has an excellent track record. 

Practicalities

Glyn Philpot: Flesh and Spirit is on at the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester until October 23. The gallery is open from 1000 to 1700 Tuesdays to Saturdays and 1100 to 1700 on Sundays and bank holidays. Admission costs a standard £12.50, including a £1.50 Gift Aid donation, but you get 10% off if you book online, which you can do here. Allow yourself two hours for this fascinating show.

The gallery is just a few minutes walk from Chichester station, to which there's a train every half an hour from London Victoria Mondays to Saturdays. The journey takes about 90 minutes.

Images

Glyn Philpot, Portrait of Henry Thomas in Profile, 1934-35, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester
Glyn Philpot, Balthazar, 1929, Private collection. © Pallant House Gallery/Luke Unsworth
Glyn Philpot, Tom Whiskey (M. Julien Zaïre), 1931, Private collection, courtesy of Richard Osborn Fine Art
Glyn Philpot, Entrance to the Tagada, 1931, Private collection. Photo © The Fine Art Society, London/Bridgeman Images
Glyn Philpot, Glen Byam Shaw as 'Laertes' in Hamlet, 1934-35, Ömer Koç Collection. © Pallant House Gallery/Barney Hindle
Glyn Philpot, Acrobats Waiting to Rehearse, 1935, The Royal Pavilion & Museums Trust, Brighton & Hove. © Royal Pavilion & Museums Trust, Brighton & Hove
Glyn Philpot, An Ascending Angel, 1931, The Ingram Collection of Modern British Art