Truth is often stranger than fiction, isn't it? Head to the newly opened venue of Charleston in Lewes for Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: An Untold Story , an exhibition that relates a piece of art history that, you have to say, would make a good film. And here are the two principal characters: Dorothy, on the left, a talented graduate of the Slade School of Fine Art , and her fellow student, friend, lover, partner and collaborator Patricia, perhaps not quite so talented, but both passionate about art. The photograph seems to tell you a lot. Dorothy looks a little bit awkward and ill at ease, slightly frumpy, androgynous even. Patricia appears confident, glamorous, exuberant, perhaps a little.... possessive? But maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves. We need to establish the plot.... The rather retiring Hepworth and the outgoing, gregarious Preece became inseparable as students, and they planned to set up a studio together after graduation. In 1922, Preece took exam
Grinling Gibbons: indisputably Britain's most outstanding woodcarver. Petworth House in West Sussex has one of the greatest examples of his work in its Carved Room, but while that's a breathtaking ensemble of wall decorations and elaborate picture frames, it's not necessarily always so easy to pick out the fine detail of a carving several feet above your head in the subdued lighting of a National Trust stately home.
That's the reason why Centuries in the Making at Bonhams in London is such an eye-opener. Here you encounter Gibbons' extraordinary skills up really close, the intricacies and the subtleties of the carving highlighted and spotlit. This exhibition, part of a year of events to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Gibbons' death, is only on in the West End free of charge for a few weeks this August, but it will be heading to Compton Verney in Warwickshire in the autumn for an extended run.
This is one of the smallest objects in this exhibition, but in many ways it's the most astonishing: a cravat carved in limewood. We've seen it before, but we made a bee-line for it shortly after coming into the show, catching sight of it displayed in its own glass case.
It's a perfectly Baroque creation, a masterpiece of trompe l'oeil that once belonged to the 18th-century collector Horace Walpole. You're not given the full story here, but, as we found out during a show at his Gothick house Strawberry Hill a couple of years ago, Walpole once welcomed a group of French aristocrats to the mansion clad in an extravagant outfit that included the cravat.
The lightness, the finesse of the work can hardly be overstated. Every stitch of the lace is reproduced. Quite mind-boggling.
Gibbons was born to English parents in Rotterdam in 1648, and not much is known about his early training, but he moved to England in 1667, a year after the Great Fire of London, having completed an apprenticeship. He actually began working in York, before moving south to the surrounds of the naval shipyard at Deptford in what is now south-east London. The diarist John Evelyn obtained an introduction to King Charles II for him, writing that he had by chance seen him through a window in a cottage there working on an intricate carving of The Crucifixion after a painting by Tintoretto.
The Crucifixion, Gibbons' first authenticated work, with some 100 figures, is now in the National Trust house of Dunham Massey in Cheshire and sadly not in this exhibition: you have to content yourself with a photograph.
However, this show has brought together a number of Gibbons pieces that you can normally only see in situ, such as this coat of arms from the Wren Library in Trinity College, Cambridge. Gibbons collaborated with Sir Christopher Wren on the library and his carved embellishments enrich Wren's design. The benefactors of the library were acknowledged with a coat of arms each, and a cornucopia of fruit, flowers and acorns, not to mention the squirrel, adorns this piece, the arms of Isaac Barrow.
You can really home in on the fine detail of these carvings, such as the lobster in another panel below, thought to have been commissioned by Sir Robert Dashwood for his house at Kirtlington in Oxfordshire. This is what Walpole called "art that arrives even unto deception". This ensemble displays not just Gibbons' skill at replicating the shell of a lobster, but the scales on fish, the feathers on birds and the strings of a fishing net.
Just how much of all this carving did Gibbons do himself? Of course, it's impossible to tell. Like any artist in demand, he had a workshop full of assistants and apprentices, learning their trade and carrying out the less complicated work. At the height of his career, we learn, he had as many as 50 craftsmen working for him. But then, this wasn't just an artist's studio, it was in some ways a production line in a high-class interior-decorating business, turning out friezes, cornices, statuary and mouldings by the yard for royal palaces and churches, including St Paul's Cathedral.
A more individual work from All Hallows by the Tower church in London is one of the highlights of this show. Another very Baroque artwork created by a foreign-born artist in a country not much given to Baroque, it's more three-dimensional than most. In this case, the fruit and the ears of wheat that feature so often in his other work are outshone by three cherubs (two of which you can see here). By the 1680s, the spirit of Puritanism was long gone.
A more individual work from All Hallows by the Tower church in London is one of the highlights of this show. Another very Baroque artwork created by a foreign-born artist in a country not much given to Baroque, it's more three-dimensional than most. In this case, the fruit and the ears of wheat that feature so often in his other work are outshone by three cherubs (two of which you can see here). By the 1680s, the spirit of Puritanism was long gone.
This font cover is displayed perfectly at eye level so you can really admire the spotlit details. However, the accompanying caption is right down on the floor, requiring you to kneel, crouch or squat, not to mention squint. That's not very user-friendly, especially when the bulk of the art-lovers going round on the weekday morning when we visited were of somewhat advanced years. And sadly, the captions generally are unusually difficult to read, rather too grey in a rather too small typeface.
That's not the only nit we have to pick with the way this show has been put together. The layout is more than a bit muddly. It took us some time to work out that the central space was supposed to be a general introduction to Gibbons and we were going round the wrong way (the cravat, which you might have thought could be the centrepiece, had lured us in the wrong direction).
We expect these imperfections will be smoothed out when the exhibition goes to Compton Verney. Even so, there are some stunning artworks to be seen here for free from the man who remains Britain's master carver, three centuries on, and still influencing today's artists, as you can appreciate from a selection of modern works that round off the show.
Practicalities
Centuries in the Making is on at Bonhams in London's New Bond Street until August 27. The exhibition is open Monday to Friday from 1000 to 1630, and admission is free, with no need to book unless you are in a group of more than six. Bonhams is close to the Oxford Street end of New Bond Street, just around the corner from Bond Street Tube station. Allow yourself an hour to see the show.
The exhibition opens at Compton Verney on September 25 and will close on January 30. The excellent John Nash show currently showing in Eastbourne can also be seen at the Warwickshire venue from October 23.
Images
Grinling Gibbons, carved limewood cravat, c. 1690, © Victoria and Albert Museum, LondonGrinling Gibbons, Isaac Barrow Coat of Arms, Wren Library, 1693-94, Trinity College, Cambridge
Grinling Gibbons, detail from Kirtlington Panel, c. 1690-1700, private collection
Grinling Gibbons, font cover, 1682, All Hallows by the Tower Church, London. © All Hallows by the Tower
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