Review: Bloomsbury in Wiltshire

 I don't feel like I've been out and about much of late - the hot weather is not my favourite and so I've been staying in, but on the way back from visiting my Dad, we popped into Salisbury Museum to visit their current exhibition, Bloomsbury in Wiltshire...

I've been to Charlston on a few occasions now and absolutely loved it, but had no idea of the relationship between the Bloomsbury set and my home county. Turns out there are plenty of links, not least Ham Spray House, home of Carrington, Lytton Strachey, Ralph Partridge and Frances Partridge. There is also Cleeve House in Seend, not far from my home-town Devizes, Mill Cottage and Brook House in the south of the county, home of Julia Strachey, Stephen Tomlin (Mill Cottage) and Henry and Lady Pansy Lamb (Brook House). There is also the Guinness family house, Biddesden House, where Carrington painted a trompe l'oeil window in 1931. Blimey, I had no idea...

Well, mercifully, Salisbury Museum, next to the glorious cathedral, has an exhibition to sort all that out. In two big rooms of glorious stuff, it tells the story of how these complex, talented people lived, loved and worked in a few beautiful houses. Starting with Strachey and Carrington, possibly the best known of this side of Bloomsbury thanks to the 1995 film, and Ham Spray House, you can see artworks from this period when they lived together with Carrington's husband, Ralph Patridge.  There is a lovely pencil sketch of Carrington by Mark Gertler...

Carrington's work is unusual and it is a treat to see it. I was particularly struck by the Lily which was made from oil, ink and silver foil on glass which made it glitter...

A Lily in Spanish Landscape (c.1928) Carrington

Now, here is a slight criticism and I completely understand the problem - Carrington is also Dora Carrington and throughout the exhibition both versions of her name are used, which is not exactly confusing but a bit inconsistent (I was very hot and slightly sun-stroked and for a few minutes thought it was two people, I admit). It is definitely not as straightforward as Gluck (Hannah Gluckstein) who was Gluck and only Gluck, but I would definitely have stuck to one and possibly 'Carrington' would have respected the artist's wishes (she hated her first name and thought it vulgar). Anyway, possibly the most touching object in the room was a lock of Carrington's hair...

There are two locks, one given to Gerald Brenan, who she painted in 1921, and one taken on the day she died, together with flowers gathered on that day. She died in a tragic manner, taking her own life after the death of her close friend, Lytton Strachey. 

Gerald Brenan (1921) Carrington

Blimey, next room please...

Bust of Julia Strachey (1928) Stephen Tomlin

A frequent visitor to Ham Spray House (which, I'm sorry, sounds like a ham-scented perfume) was Lytton's niece Julia, writer, who met sculptor Stephen Tomlin there. The couple married in 1927 and moved to Mill Cottage, Swallowcliffe. Among other visitors were more familiar names, such as Duncan Grant...

Self Portrait (1909) Duncan Grant

Duncan Grant was also a cousin of Strachey (it's a small world) and at least two of Grant's paintings were displayed at Ham Spray House. There are also beautiful paintings by other friends, such as Vanessa Bell...

Venice, Gesuati (c.1930) Vanessa Bell

as well as decorated tiles by Carrington...

Ham Spray Tile, decorated by Carrington

...and paintings showing friends working in their own interiors, making you feel this was a world within our own post-war world.

Raymond Mortimer sitting at a desk at Long Crichel (undated) Edward Le Bas

It is quite easy to forget there were more people under the Bloomsbury umbrella that just the Woolfs and Bells - in that way, it is very similar to the Pre-Raphaelites. Carrington is Bloomsbury-adjacent, and you can see the ethos and mindset of that group spreading across the southern counties, painting, writing and living in a challenging (and privileged) way. There is a romance to all that free love and heartbreak and the art is undeniably beautiful, so take yourself off to Salisbury and enjoy a thorough gorgeous exhibition of the little-known aspects of Wiltshire history.

Bloomsbury in Wiltshire is on until 27th September and more information can be found here.