The legacy of British Modernism art in Gloucestershire

In June 1945 Britain’s leading living Modernist painter, Paul Nash (1889-1946) held his first post-war public gallery exhibition at Cheltenham Art Gallery (now The Wilson). Paul Nash was one of several influential 20th-century landscape painters who either studied, visited, or lived in Gloucestershire, at crucial periods in their personal and creative lives.

Paul Nash in his studio with his painting ‘Landscape of the Vernal Equinox’. Photo: nashclumps.org These artists included the British Impressionist, Philip Wilson Steer (1860-1942) known as the 20th-century successor to Constable, who had trained at Gloucester School of Art; the Camden Town-associated Hubert Wellington (1879-1967), who had been born in Gloucester and also trained at Gloucester, and his friend, Harold Gilman (1876-1919) President of the London Group (1914-1918) and founder of Neo-Realism; the Vorticist, Bernard Adeney (1878-1966) who had exhibited several works in Roger Fry’s ‘Second Post Impressionist Exhibition;’ the influential artist and educator, William Rothenstein (1872-1945) and his brother, Albert Rutherston (1881-1953); Stanley (1891-1959) and Gilbert Spencer (1892- 1979) and Paul’s brother, John Nash (1893-1977). During the period 1900-1945, these artists were drawn to the rural parishes surrounding Stroud and Painswick; Chalford, Newent and the Cleeve Hill area. These places offered a distinct sense of place, epitomised by ancient villages and hamlets, farmsteads and tithe barns all built of the local golden limestone; deciduous woodlands and orchards; winding lanes and valley vistas; unfolding fields and gently undulating green hills; and the structural contrasts offered by man-made mills and canals set amongst the landscape.

Wych Elm in Winter by William Rothenstein. Image: Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery John Nash first visited Gloucestershire in 1914, when he stayed at the Rising Sun Hotel on Cleeve Hill, and 19 Royal Parade in Cheltenham, with his father, William Harry Nash, Barrister for Revising the List of Parliamentary Electors, Stroud and Tewkesbury Divisions. This visit resulted in John’s first oil painting, ‘A Gloucestershire Landscape’, 1914, a studio work created from Nash’s notes and drawings, and reliant upon Harold Gilman’s technical advice. Subsequent trips to Sapperton and Chalford, during 1918-1921, 1923-1925, 1927 and 1929, resulted in paintings and drawings of canals and mills, such as St Mary’s Mill and Henry Workman’s Saw Mill, showing the influence of Cézanne and Picasso. Paul Nash first visited Gloucestershire in 1917, as a respite from the war, staying with the Dymock poet, John Drinkwater (1882-1937), at Winstons Cottage, on the estate of Far Oakridge House. Drinkwater organised Nash’s exhibition at the Birmingham Rep. From 1938-1945, Paul made numerous visits, staying with his life-long friend and patron, Clare Neilson and her husband, Charles, at Madams, Newent, and the Rising Sun Hotel. These trips resulted in a significant body of work, including the famous Surrealist-inspired ‘Monster field’ oil paintings, photographs and drawings. The latter featured two dead elm trees found on Carswall’s Farm, Newent. Nash’s other Gloucestershire connection was through his wife, Margaret née Odeh, who had attended Cheltenham Ladies’ College.

Philip Wilson Steer, by George Charles Beresford, 1922. Photo: npg.org.uk/Creative Commons For artists based in London, Gloucestershire was an easily accessible seemingly unspoilt part of England which, with its landed estates and many sheep farms and apple orchards, retained an image of Arcadia. Spring and summer were favoured seasons for these artists. Steer retained a lasting emotional attachment to Gloucestershire and made several summer painting trips, staying in Painswick, and painting the surrounding countryside and the horse-shoe bend of the River Severn. Adrian Allinson (1890-1959) a founder member of the Camden Town painters and The London Group, whilst retaining a London studio, settled for a time, during 1930s: renting The Old Cottage, Burleigh,Brimscombe, and then purchasing for his wife (known as Joan Maria Dolores) and son, Journey’s End, Tetbury Street, Minchinhampton. The hamlets of Avening and Box, and Brimscombe Basin all featured in his paintings. Allinson’s earlier connection with Gloucestershire was Wycliffe College, Stonehouse, from where he was expelled, due to his family’s atheism.

‘Beechwood, Gloucestershire’, by Harold Gilman, c.1916 From 1913-1932 Hubert Wellington created a considerable number of Gloucestershire landscapes featuring Frampton Mansell, Sapperton, the Golden Valley, Chalford Canal, Theescombe, Uley and the Minchampton area, during regular visits to his Gloucestershire family. In the Summer 1916 he stayed at the Bell Inn, Sapperton, accompanied by Harold Gilman. Whilst Wellington focused on stone buildings, lanes and farmland, Gilman focused on trees; an exception is Wellington’s drawing ‘Chestnut Trees, Frampton Mansell,’ (whereabouts unknown). William Rothenstein’s woodland is the likely location of these tree-inspired works. Trees, in particular a beloved wych elm, featured throughout the seasons in several of Rothenstein’s paintings. In 1912 the beauty of the Golden Valley, had inspired Rothenstein to purchase the then dilapidated farmstead Iles Farm (now Iles Green) and its estate, 55 acres including a beech woodland, at Far Oakridge, and he lived there until 1920; from 1922 he lived between London and Gloucestershire, including Waterlane House near Bisley, retiring to Far Oakridge House in 1935. Rothenstein played an active and financially-supportive role in village life, employing the Arts & Crafts architect, Norman Jewson (1884–1975), to restore and extend Iles Farm, and many local craftsmen. Rothenstein’s considerable body of work captured the glowing nature of farm buildings’ golden-hued stone in sunlight, trees and farmland, alongside notable portraits of local Cotswold craftsmen. His series of lithographs, commissioned by The Ministry of Information, in 1917, provide a valuable insight into early 20th-century farming methods in Gloucestershire. He is buried at St Bartholemew’s Church, Oakridge.

‘Summer Day, Frampton Mansell’, by Hubert Wellington, 1915 Rothenstein supported The Cheltenham Group of Artists, an exhibiting group of professionally-trained artists; a leading member was Alfred Thornton, who lived at Poultry Court, Painswick. Rothenstein’s brother, Albert Rutherston, lived first at Manor Farm, Througham, Miserden and later Nash End Cottage, at Bisley, creating works inspired by his rural surroundings. Bernard Adeney and his then wife, the artist, Thérèse Lessore (1885–1954) lived at Bisley where he painted woodlands and farmland. During 1939-1941 Stanley Spencer stayed at the White Hart Inn, in Leonard Stanley, accompanied by the artists, George and Daphne Charlton. Here Spencer created a significant body of landscapes (including ‘Pullens Farm,’ current whereabouts unknown) as well as documenting village life and his passionate affair with Daphne. In 1920s Gilbert Spencer also visited Gloucestershire, staying at Andoversford, creating in situ paintings and studio inventions of bucolic life for a London audience.

‘To Wander Amongst the Trees’, oil on cotton duck canvas, 101x76cm, by Angela Summerfield Gloucestershire in the 21st century is continuing to attract innovative contemporary landscape painters. During 2016-2017, Kurt Jackson, one of Britain’s leading ecology-inspired painters, visited the Snowshill area. Taking the theme of village life, his resultant mixed-media paintings are invested with the vital message that lives lived and to be lived are irrevocably intertwined with the land that sustains them. Descended from a Camden Town painter, the artist Fiona McIntyre has made her home outside Cirencester, since 2004. Creating her own art materials is part of her response to the ancient and, at times, mystical Gloucestershire landscape and its anamorphic Oaks and Alders: ‘a resonance that permeates everything and that I feed off as a painter.’ Trees also feature in the paintings of Angela Summerfield, the granddaughter of a Corsham-trained painter, who relocated from London, in 2014. Habitual walks along the country lane in Toddington, North Gloucestershire, where she now lives, are part of her ‘purposeful wanderings.’ Angela’s resultant studio paintings, which can take several months to over a year to create, celebrate the interconnected vitally of Nature and human nature. Gardens are a key ecological and emotional aspect of Gloucestershire life. Angela’s oil paintings also respond to this, through her own parkland wildlife-friendly garden, which she has created.

The Old Chestnut of Tortworth, pigments in oil, 75x100x4.5 cm, by Fiona McIntyre Angela’s 15-year retrospective ‘To Wander Amongst the Trees’, is at Spring Gallery, Cheltenham, September 17-23. Fiona’s ‘Sacred Earth’ exhibition opens this September, at Nature in Art.

Dr Angela Summerfield is an artist and former Senior Curator of Art, Royal Academy of Arts. She would be delighted to hear from readers in confidence concerning the artists mentioned, their homes and works in private collections. Please email [email protected]