British Street Portraits in Australia

 

Charles McGee, the London crossing sweeper from the 1820s, is fairly well known from  'London Life' prints,  but this is an unfamiliar  portrait by John Dempsey. Showing the shock of white hair, top hat and cudgel that must have been McGee's trademarks, it's in a sequence of 50 images that were presented to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in 1956, presumably by the descendant of a migrant.

Dempsey is described as an 'itinerant artist', which makes him sound blood-brother to his subjects, which is probably misleading.  The sequence is rather like a 'Cries of London' series, illustrating street vendors, but has a wider remit, and is in watercolour, therefore unique, although possibly conceived for a hand-coloured print edition; if so, are any copies known?

 

  Of the 50 sitters, three are of African ancestry, and the other two are in Norwich.

 

This figure is called 'Cotton'.  I'm assuming it's because he is selling reels of thread, though the image isn't quite clear, and the nickname may be an indirect allusion to his supposed earlier life in the  cottonfields of the American South.  His hat is a bit battered, like that of so many street vendors as portrayed in prints like these and those in Vagabondia.

 

The third figure is more  surprising, however.

 

 

'Black Charley' is a bootmaker, standing in the doorway of his shop, wearing a smart sprigged waistcoat in best Regency style, a snow-white stock, frock coat, breeches, gaiters and indoor shoes.  He looks plump and prosperous, hardly a street-seller. His shop has boots and shoes for gents and ladies and children.

This fascinating collection is currently on display at the Australian National Portrait Gallery in Canberra.  The full sequence is online here LINK

There's also a full catalogue, available here LINK

Jenny Morris portrait

 

 

Jenny Morris c.1898 [NPG]

  

 The William Morris Gallery has a pastel drawing that has seldom if ever been seen.  It was purchased at the Kelmscott Manor sale by Mary Annie Sloane and identified as a portrait of Jenny Morris by Evelyn de Morgan.

[Apologies for the quality of the photo below - better ones in due course]

 

 It was later presented by Sloane to the WMG but seems to have been rather buried in the collection - possibly because Jenny's life story has been deemed so sad following the onset of then untreatable epilepsy  when she was about fifteen.  I assume it was drawn around 1904-5 when de Morgan was working on her painting The Hour Glass, which features Jane Morris as an allegory of age.

The De Morgans were good friends with the Morris family and paid visits to Kelmscott Manor, on one of which Evelyn drew the Manor in pencil.  But I'd guess that the portraits were done in London,  unless any further info emerges.  The Williams [Morris and de M] were of course business partners after a fashion but the friendship seems to have deepened when WdeM gave up lustreware in favour of fiction and had unexpected late success as a novelist.  The DeMs were quite heavily into esoteric mysticism, and I wonder if their conversations prompted Jane to her odd declaration of belief in reincarnation. 

Black is the New Black

 

News Release

 

Friday 18 August 2017  

 

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY ACQUIRES LARGEST GROUP OF PORTRAITS OF AFRO-CARIBBEAN SITTERS FOR ITS PRIMARY COLLECTION

 

 

 

 

Naomi Campbell by Simon Frederick, 2016 © Simon Frederick; Sir Trevor McDonald by Simon Frederick, 2016 © Simon Frederick   

 

 

The National Portrait Gallery has acquired thirty-seven portraits of black Britons chosen for their achievements in politics, business, culture, religion and science, it was announced today, Friday 18 August.  It is the Gallery’s largest acquisition of portraits of Afro-Caribbean sitters into its primary collection and will be the subject of a major display at the Gallery in November 2018.

 

The sitters, representing a group of people at the height of their achievements, were photographed by Simon Frederick for a BBC TWO documentary Black is the New Black. Shown in 2016 the sitters disclosed heartfelt stories and opinions to paint a unique portrait of modern Britain’s past, present and future. With the support of OATH, Simon Frederick has offered the entire portfolio of thirty-nine prints as a gift to the National Portrait Gallery.

 

These include model Naomi Campbell, newsreader and journalist Sir Trevor McDonald, actress Thandie Newton, musicians Jazzie B of Soul II Soul, Dizzee Rascal and Tinie Tempah, footballer Les Ferdinand and recently appointed Editor in Chief of British Vogue Edward Enninful.

 

Other popular figures include Maggie Aderin-Pocock, presenter of The Sky at Night; David Harewood, celebrated for his role in the Showtime series Homeland; former Children’s Laureate Malorie Blackman, who has explored racism through her writing for children and young adults; Lord Morris, who became the first black leader of a major trade union in 1992; and John Sentamu who was appointed Archbishop of York in 2005, becoming Britain’s first black Archbishop. 

 

Artist and director Simon Frederick constructed still portrait photographs as well as filming the participants for Black is the New Black, a four-part documentary in which Frederick employed the power of talking heads with no archive footage or voiceovers.

 

    

 

Laura Mvula by Simon Frederick, 2016 © Simon Frederick; Edward Enninful by Simon Frederick, 2016 © Simon Frederick; Thandie Newton by Simon Frederick, 2016 © Simon Frederick; Tinie Tempah by Simon Frederick, 2016 © Simon Frederick

 

The acquisition is announced prior to a public talk by Simon Frederick at the National Portrait Gallery on Thursday 24 August 2017. Selected for the Gallery’s annual Slavery Remembrance Day talk, Simon Frederick will discuss the impact that the Gallery’s painting The Anti-Slavery Society Convention by Benjamin Robert Haydon of 1840 had on him as a child visiting the Gallery with his mother and how it led him to create Black is the New Black, allowing black people’s voices to be heard

and their experiences to be understood. The event at 7pm is free but ticketed www.npg.org.uk   

 

This event follows Simon Frederick’s last appearance at the Gallery in 2016 when he took part in a panel discussion about identity and achievement with three of the sitters in Black is the New Black Oswald Boateng, Ekow Eshun and Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock.

 

Dr Nicholas Cullinan, Director, National Portrait Gallery, London, says: ‘These striking portraits of black British sitters powerfully reflect the diversity and variety of contemporary British achievement in public life. The National Portrait Gallery is delighted to receive Simon Frederick’s very generous gift of photographs.’

 

Dr Phillip Prodger, Head of Photographs, National Portrait Gallery, London, says: ‘Photographing with sensitivity and insight, Simon Frederick has made extraordinary portraits of some of the most influential Britons of our time. We are proud to welcome these works into our collection, where they will be seen, enjoyed, and celebrated for generations to come.’   

   

The acquisition represents an addition and update to Donald McLellan’s Black Power series, displayed and acquired by the Gallery in 1998. This portfolio includes some sitters not already represented in the Collection including journalist Gary Younge and singer Alesha Dixon.

 

Artist, photographer and director Simon Frederick’s work spans from celebrity portraiture to art exhibitions to global advertising campaigns and TV. He is known for his recent role as a lead judge and co-host alongside Isabella Rossellini on the Sky Arts programme Master of Photography and for his series Black is the New Black on BBC TWO.   

 

THE ACQUISITION Black is the New Black portfolio P2034-2072

by Simon Frederick, 2016

39 archival inkjet prints, each approx. 380 x 260 mm image size on paper 420 x 295 mm

 

DISPLAY Black is the New Black

National Portrait Gallery, November 2018 – January 2019   

MF at KM

FOOTNOTE [or rather added HEADNOTE]
 from a website on uniforms
Women joining the Women’s Land Army (WLA) during WW1 were issued a simple uniform consisting of 2 green sweaters, 2 pairs of brown breeches (either twill or corduroy), 1 pair of brown overalls, 6 pairs of brown long woolen socks, 3 shirts, a green tie, a pair of shoes, a pair of ankle boots, a pair of tall boots, 2 overcoats, 1 raincoat, and a brown floppy hat or beret. It was a civilian English/Wales organization that hired women to do farm functions since many men were at war.

this blogpost is rather belated, but there are a good few weeks still for this exhibition at Kelmscott Manor presenting the usually shadowy [though physically large] figure of Mary Frances Vivian Lobb,  friend and companion of May Morris's later years.



From Cornwall to Kelmscott, Kelmscott Manor SAL, 2017

 

Images and documents come from the National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth, whither they were bequeathed by MF, as May called her, and recently researched by Simon Evans. 

MFVL's will,  National Library of Wales 

A much fuller account of MF is now emerging, which one hopes will erase the misogynistic and homophobic notions of a foul-mouthed land-girl handed down by contemporaries after both MM and MFVL were dead.  

 
More information on the exhibition HERE

John Blanke project

I've finally made my contribution to the JOHN BLANKE PROJECT initiated by Michael Ohajuru.
This is the site  http://www.johnblanke.com/

The image is tiny, but so eloquent!

Portraits of non-noble sitters in Tudor Britain are very rare, because this new form of visual art in the sixteenth century was aimed at sustaining the fame and power of high-status individuals. Lesser folk might have pictorial images in woodcuts or manuscript illustrations, but these were often crude and typically generic representations, not recognisable figures. The Black trumpeter in the 1511 Tournament Roll is therefore amazing on many levels.  

As the earliest depiction of an individual of African ancestry in British pictorial culture it demonstrates how in recognition of his unique or at least special qualities he literally stood out from his fellow trumpeters, shown as a team of look-alikes in the yellow and grey livery worn by all attendants in the procession.   They are bareheaded, too, whereas he wears a turban, which indicates the personal appearance of a known individual,  just like the dark skin carefully delineated alongside dozens of white faced figures.  As it happens, the Roll’s illuminator forgot to colour in his visible right hand holding the trumpet, which remains as pale as the others’.

This is more of a ‘thumbnail’ image than a carefully observed portrait in the classic manner  exemplified by  Holbein’s drawings of Tudor courtiers, but it is a likeness which contemporaries would recognise, of a known figure in the musical retinue.

Even more remarkably, it has proved possible to name this exceptional musician using Court records.  Or at least find the name given to him at the courts of Henries VII and VIII.   It’s too bad there is no surviving record of his real, or original name, which might have pointed to a country or region of birth.  ‘John Blanke’ has the hallmark of official convenience,  although one wonders whether it derives from a functionary entering the name of ‘John Black’, a common way of registering dark-skinned foreigners, or from ‘John -----’, a literal blank line in the absence of a familiar cognomen.

One can  assume he came as an immigrant to England, presumably in the entourage of Katherine or Catalina of Aragon when she arrived to marry Arthur Tudor in 1501.  Following Arthur’s death, she married Henry VIII in 1509, and the Westminster Tournament was held to mark the birth of their son, who sadly died within six weeks.  Katherine’s later life was no happier,  but John Blanke evidently throve as a court musician, and may well have had numerous British descendants. 

Tudor portraiture also flourished, on a rather grander scale than this tiny image – tiny, but invaluable as both portrait and history.

May Morris exhibition from WMG UPDATE

for MAY MORRIS ART & LIFE see here

 

 

 

25 August:  Guardian article  HERE

previous
Message from Rowan Bain  WMG 

THANK YOU for helping us reach 67%

11 July 2017

For May Morris: Art & Life by William Morris Gallery, London

Rowan Bain

Thank you to everyone who has helped us get to 67%, which, has unlocked the last £5,000 of match funding we needed to get us to our target! This means our landmark exhibition to give May Morris the recognition she deserves can go ahead.


However, there are four days of our Art Happens campaign left to go and still time to get one of the exclusive rewards - can you help us go even further? For every £100 extra we raise, we can conserve and prepare another of May’s works for the exhibition allowing even more of her work to be seen and appreciated.

As part of the exhibition, some of May’s work will be exhibited publicly for the first time since her death and will need careful preparation to ensure they can be enjoyed for generations to come. We will be working with skilled conservators to make sure that May’s works look their very best for the exhibition’s visitors, and for the future.

Alma Tadema at Leighton House

 Like most ambitious 19^th century artists, Lourens Tadema began as a history painter.  Born in the north Netherlands, he studied in the great Flemish art city of Antwerp and with Henri Leys, from whom he took the idea of incidents from the early medieval Merovingian period of Clovis, Clotilde, Fredegonda, etc.   Visits to Rome and especially Pompeii in 1863-4 changed his trajectory towards visual re-imaginings of Antiquity, a genre he specialised in following his move to London and marriage to Laura Epps, a student of Ford Madox Brown, who was similarly drawn to dramatic historical scenes.   Lawrence Alma Tadema, as he now styled himself perhaps in emulation of double-barrelled Brits, then carved out a distinctive career blending classical settings  familiar to Englishmen from their schooldays with domestic activities that featured throughout British genre painting. 

In his work, history painting ignored heroic themes in favour of household events, albeit in exotic homes and gardens furnished with fountains and marble terraces warmed by Mediterranean sun.   Some are simply stunning, others quite comically extravagant.   They catered for male and female clients together, wives and husbands imagining themselves lounging in such high-culture environments, far from everyday London life.  Punch punningly called him a ‘marbellous painter.’

Promoted by successful dealer Ernest Gambart, Tadema’s works were so popular that in less than twenty years he was able to build a large studio house in the wealthy artists’ quarter of St John’s Wood, and to live a life of luxurious industry and sociability.  He was knighted as Sir Lawrence in 1899 and nominated to the Order of Merit by Edward VII.  One might have expected a long list of pot-boiling variants on the same theme, and to an extent this formed his oeuvre.  He was and is admired for historical accuracy, in that his settings are based on the archaeology and scholarly research then available, although any hint of Roman realism in the style of Sickert is extinguished by the techincolor glow: no slavery or cloacae maximae here.  But the paintings' chief merits are visual - the often oblique or canted viewpoints with dramatic  foreshortening and cropping, in spatially innovative compositions that give the viewer a cinematic sense of being right there  This Tadema perhaps borrowed from both photography and French painting, creating a view of classical life as if seen by Manet or Caillebotte. He also put himself into numerous pictures, his round Dutch face instantly recognisable among  the togas; a provisional list of such self-portraits is in the NPG’s online Later Victorian Catalogue 

The current exhibition Alma Tadema: at Home in Antiquity, fills Leighton House with scores of canvases by Sir L and a few by his family and friends.  There is also a great video show of movie clips from Quo Vadis and Gli ultimi giorni di Pompeii (both 1913), The Ten Commandments (1956) and Gladiator (2000)  which show how strongly Tadema’s influenced visual ideas of Rome for a century and more.
https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/subsites/museums/leightonhousemuseum/almatademaathome/lawrencealmatadema.aspx

 

Below is a nice, modest study by his daughter Anna Alma-Tadema, from the Ashmolean Museum.