Introduction
The XXth century saw the formation of the stillwell remembered Bloomsbury Group, yet even if the name is famous its members as
such are less. Most people associate the Bloomsbury Group with Virginia Woolf,
but many other famous brilliant artists were also members.
We will
introduce you to the Bloomsbury artists and more particularly to Duncan Grant, his life, his painting
and the Omega Workshops into which most members took part.
I- The Bloomsbury Group
The Bloomsbury Group was formed in
1904 and was composed of English intellectuals, who were friends at Cambridge for the greater part of them. It
ended in 1950, but its heyday remained the period between 1916 and 1941. From
1904, the members of the group regularly met in the Bloomsbury area of London, hence the name of the group.
Most Bloomsbury members
had grown up in the world of education, law and literature. Yet, even though
they came from priviledged social backgrounds, they maintained a spirit of
rebellion against conventions and promoted freedom in their works and
lifestyles. They were considered as outrageous and scandalous people because of
their many love affairs within the group itself. In fact, even today, the
Bloomsbury Group is more debated in terms of its relationships rather than its
art. Besides, they had often been criticised as elitists whose works were
unoriginal and decorative. However, Bloomsbury work was
far from being traditional and it should not be overshadowed by the members’
lifestyles. In fact, the group had a great influence in twentieth century
British art. Indeed, artists such as Roger Fry, Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant
were the first to bring abstract art in Britain. Also,
one of the Bloomsbury Group important action, was its involvement in
organisations (e.g. the Friday Club, Grafton Group and the London Artists
Association) that supported young artists and thus, that played a great role in
the development of British art.
The Bloomsbury Group
knew great success in the 1910s and 1920s. Indeed, in 1910, the group became more famous in England, thanks to the members’ outspoken
pacific beliefs that were mainly criticised. Also, in the same year, Roger Fry
organised the first exhibition on Post-impressionist art in London, called Manet and the
Post-Impressionists and as a consequence, the public could have a glimpse
on what was happening in Britain in terms of art. Yet, in the 1930s, the members’ fame declined
as a result of the emergence of abstract artists such as Paul Nash, Ben
Nicolson, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore:
* Paul Nash (1889-1946) was an
artist who painted wooded places and bleack landscapes. He was most famous for Landscape
of the Vernal Equinoxe (1944).
* Ben Nicholson (1894-1982) was
an abstract artist who developed a style of geometrical relief. He promoted
astract art in Circle (1937), an international review of constructivism
and in the book Notes on abstract art (1941).
* Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975)
was an abstract sculptor who married Nicholson in 1934. Her sculptures were
worked in stones or cast in metals and later bronze. She also used pierced
forms, often strung with string or wire.
* Henry Moore (1898-1986) was
sculptor who worked with wood, stone and bronze. His worked often displays
feminine figures and he was influenced by natural and organic forms and also
Mexican and Pre-Colombian art.
1-1) The main members of the Bloomsbury Group:
Actually, the Bloomsbury Group was a
very heteroclite group. Indeed, it was comprised of artists, writers, but also
of economists, such as John Maynard Keynes and critics. First, we will make a
short presentation of the main members of the Bloomsbury Group. We will not try
to fulfil an exhaustive description of the group and that’s why I refer you to
the website http://www.tate.org.uk/archivejourneys/bloomsburyhtml/group.htm
for further details.
Among the writers of the Bloomsbury
Group, the most famous ones were Virginia Woolf, Lytton Strachey, and David
Garnett.
* Virginia Woolf was born on January
25, 1882,
in London, under the name of Adeline Virginia
Stephen. She contributed to the form of the novel, especially with her use of
the stream of consciousness. She wrote many novels, which were published by the
Hogarth Press, a small hand press she had set up with her husband, the
political theorist Leonard Woolf. She committed suicide on March
28, 1941,
after an attack of mental illness.
* David Garnett (1892-1981) operated a
bookstore in London and wrote many novels, such as Lady into fox, or Aspects of
love. He first married Rachel Alice Marshall and after her death, he
married Angelica Bell, a member of the Bloomsbury group and the daughter of Vannessa Bell and
Duncan Grant.
* Lytton Strachey (1880-1932) was a brilliant student at Trinity College, Cambridge. There, he met the various members
that were to form the Bloomsbury Group. He wrote reviews in the Spectator Magazine,
but his major success was the Eminent Victorians, a collection of brief
biographies. He had a triangular relationship, living with Dora Carrington and
her husband Ralph Partridge.
We will not
discuss the novelist E. M. Forster, as his status as a member of the Bloomsbury
Group is very much discussed.
The Bloomsbury group was less known for its
artists than for its writers. Yet, artists such as Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant
and Roger Fry played a great role in the twentieth century painting. Duncan
Grant will be fully introduced in part two.
* Vanessa Stephen Bell (1879-1961) was the elder
sister of Virginia Woolf and was married to the poet and art critic Clive Bell.
She started to take drawing classes at the age of seventeen and entered the
painting school of Royal Academy School at the age of twenty-two. She was
one of the major members of the Bloomsbury Group and had a love affair with
both Roger Fry and Duncan Grant. These two artists would have a great influence
in her art and she would also influence Duncan Grant’s style. In brief, Vanessa
Bell was a famous painter and designer of the early twentieth century.
* Roger Fry (1866-1934) also started his studies at Cambridge, but then, he was trained as a
painter at the Académie Julian in Paris. He exhibited his paintings
throughout his life and also became a critic, especially in the Italian art. He
was an important figure among the artists of the Bloomsbury Group and the
founder of the Omega Workshops.
1-2) The
places of the Bloomsbury Group:
The Group often met at the various
houses of the members and their friends. Almost all members had country houses.
For instance, they often met at the Gordon square home of Thoby Stephen in Bloomsbury, where they discussed about art,
literature and philosophy. He was the brother of Vanessa and Virginia Stephen,
later to be known as, Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf. Also, Charleston
Farmhouse in Sussex was an important place, especially
to Duncant Grant and Vanessa Bell, as it will be seen later. Besides, Bloomsury
artists enjoyed the kindness of patrons such as Lady Ottoline Morrell, who
often welcomed them at her Garsington home, where they met other intellectuals
and artists. As far as the artists were concerned, these various places enabled
them to develop their art, who was mainly influenced by the Post-Impressionists
and painted scenes that display the beauty of everyday domestic places.
However,
one major place remained associated to the Bloomsbury Group: the Omega
Workshops. In 1913, Roger Fry created the Omega Workshops at Fitzroy place, Bloomsbury. From then on, the artists of the Bloomsbury group had a place to express
themselves, particularly in the decorating and design scene. Nevertheless, the
Bloomsbury Group is still mainly known as a literary group, in spite of the
importance of plastic arts. The Omega Workshops will be presented in details in
part three.
II) Duncan Grant’s life
Duncan
Grant was born in Rothiemurchus, Inverness, in Scotland on January
21 1885,
but his father being a major in the army he spent his early childhood in India and Burma to come back to England at the age of nine for his
education.
He showed
little enthusiasm for studying but he really enjoyed art classes. His aunt Lady
Statchey organised private drawing lessons for him. Despite his father’s desire
to see him join the army, Grant at 17 attended Westminster school of art where he was
encouraged by Simon Bussy and also studied briefly at The Slade School of Art
in London. Spending the summer of 1905 with
his cousins Lytton and Pippa Stratchey he attended a meeting of the Thursday
club where he first met the “Bloomsury artists”.
He then
spent a year in Paris where he studied under Jacques Emile Blanche at La Palette. This latter
was a French portrait painter, a critic and a writer. That year he met British
Artists like Wyndham Lewis ( a British painter and author and one of the
central figures of Vorticism, movement
created by Ezra Pound. Lewis was also editor of the Vorticicist magazine
“Blast”, and is the author of Apes of God, and Hithler
), and Augustus John, he also became acquainted with Picasso.
Back in London he became romantically involved
with John Maynard Keynes, they travelled widely in Europe seing much that would influence
Grant’s artistic style.
In 1910
Grant met Roger Fry, who proved to be a major influence in his work. Together
they founded the Omega workshop in 1913. At that time his friendship with
Vanessa Bell developed into a relationship, she had a daughter from him
Angelica. They worked closely on artistic projects .They actually worked
together on the decoration of Berkwick Church in Sussex and in 1910 they also worked Webb’s
Court, King’s College in Cambridge.
They
remained very close for the rest of their lives. In 1916 he and his current
lover David Garnett moved with Vanessa and her children to Charleston Farmhouse
in Sussex . Nowadays it’s open to the public who can see
the different artistic creations they had decorated the house with. Vanessa and
Grant travelled widely in Europe and spent much of their time living in Cassis in the South of France.
As well as develloping his own painting Grant was in great demand to paint
murals and decoration. (so was Bell). In 1911 Duncan Grant worked on
his first major commission. He collaborated on a series of murals for the
refectory of Borough Polytechnic in
south London. His two panels Bathing and Football are in the Tate
Gallery, London. Bathing shows the progress of a naked man diving, swimming, and
climbing into a boat, as if it were a series of photographic exposures. In 1919
he became a member of the London groupe. In 1920 he had his first
one man exhibition at the Carfax Gallery in London and his work was exhibited
regularly until 1977. The high point of Grant's fame was in 1936, when
he was commissioned to decorate the First Class Lounge of the ocean liner, the
Queen Mary. He was asked to design or choose carpets, curtains and textiles and
to paint three large murals. He had made three paintings called Seguillada,
The Flower gatherer and the Sheaf. However his designs were
ultimately rejected as too avant garde even if Grant was never given any reason for
the rejection. After Vanessa’s death he continued painting and divided his time
between Charleston and London, he also travelled to France, Morrocco and Turkey. He died in 1978 of pneumonia.
Bathing, Duncan Grant 1911
Seguillada
III) The Omega Workshops
The Bloomsbury
Group members were interested in all sorts of art, and decorative art was one
of them. That is why The Omega workshop was created. But before dealing with
the Omega workshops in itself let’s first define what is decorative art.
Decorative
art is traditionnaly defined as ornamental and functional works in ceramic,
wood, glass, metal, or textile. The class includes furniture, furnishings,
interior design, and architecture. The decorative arts are often categorized in
opposition to the fine or high arts (or just art), which are, painting,
drawing, photography, and large-scale sculpture.
3-1) The
organisation of the Omega workshops.
Omega was
founded by Roger Fry and opened to the public in July 1913. Roger Fry, Vanessa
Bell and Duncan Grant were named as directors. Even if Bell and Grant resigned as directors a
couple of years afterwards and left for Charleston farmhouse. The workshops
incorporated showrooms as well as studios. Omega’s establishment was funded by
sympathetic friends and colleagues some of whom were members of the Bloomsbury
Group, Clive Bell and Virginia Woolf among others, but it also relied on the
patronage of wealthy London society within artistic and
literary circles. There was no formal recruitment process, Roger Fry visited
exhibitions and art schools to recruit new talents. Artists worked at the Omega
studios for three and a half days a week at a rate of thirty shillings. Designs
were unsigned and marked with the symbol Ω. 'Omega' is the last letter of the
Greek alphabet, and in the late nineteenth century it was used to mean the
'last word' on a subject. The artists designed the objects and did some
decorative work such as painting the furniture, but the manufacture was
undertaken by firms of professional craftsmen.
3-2)
What were the aims of the Omega workshops?
Fry, its
founder, was not concerned with social reforms or protesting against
contemporary machine manufacture. But from a financial point of view it helped
the artists to make a living out of decorative arts alongside their artistic
careers. From an artistic point of view it was a way to remove the false
divison between fine arts and decorative arts. Fry wanted all work to be
anonymous so that objects should be bought for their aesthetic qualities.
3-3) Now
who took part in the Omega workshops and what ojects were produced.
As we have
already mentioned employment was very informal and, with the exception of
Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, artists were often only associated with the
workshops for a short time before moving on.
The Omega
workshops attracted for a time young English avant-garde artists.(open pathways
throught new cultural or political terrain, for society to follow, origin opening
of the salon des refusés) These included Frederick and
Jessie Etchells (associated with Vorticism, worked in architecture, collaborated with
D.G on Polytechnic murals) and Wyndham Lewis .
As far as
the products were concerned Omega offered a huge range of products including
painted murals, mosaics, pottery, stained glass, painted furniture and
textiles. Dressmaking became a popular side of the business. Custommers could
buy individual items as well as whole interior decorative schemes. Omega even
branched out into theatre design (Too Much Money). Designs,
particularly those for textiles showed Post-Impressionist, Cubist and Fauvist
influences.
A carpet designed by Duncan Grant
Extract from the Omega Workshops catalogue,
1914
3-5) Now
why and when did it all end?
As early as
October 1913 Windham Lewis, Frederick Etchells and other artists left the Omega
workshops after a disagreement over the
Omega contribution to the Ideal Home Exhibition. Lewis started with others the
Vertigo workshop. The split also lead to the creation of the rival decorative
workshop The Rebel Art Centre. Moreover press coverage of the worshops had
been mediocre. But more importantly they
struggled financially; inefficient techniques, expensive materials, and a lack
of orders forced Omega to close in 1919. However Omega became influencial in
interior design in the 1920s and there was a revival of interests in Omega
designs in the 1980s.
3-6)
Decorative art and Charleston Farmhouse.
As mentioned above, Duncan Grant and Vanessa
Bell left the Omega workshop and moved to Charleston Farmhouse. The simplicity
of the house helped them discover again the artistic impressions they had
accumulated during their several voyages to Europe. It was a place where they could give into
their artistic desire, use their instincts, fantasies and imagination to
express personal messages using doors, walls as a support.
If you want
to see different paintings, objects or potteries, you have this internet
website :
www.charleston.org.uk
IV- Duncan Grant’s style in paintings
4-1)
Early influences
As early as 1903, when he was a
student at Westminster School of Art, Duncan Grant was interested in the works
of James McNeill Whistler and Edgar Degas. Whistler (1834-1903) was a painter
who travelled a lot between France and England. As a consequence, he acted as a
bridge between the avant-garde of the two countries. Degas (1834-1917) was a
French Impressionist painter and sculptor. The influence of Whistler, who
revitalised ritish portraiture, can be seen in Grant’s portrait of Lytton
Stratchey, which focuses on the mood and atmosphere of the suject.
Lytton Strachey by Duncan Grant 1909
Besides, Duncan Grant was influenced
by European art, thanks to the various travel he made on the mainland in the
early 1900s. For example, in 1904, he visited Italy, where he copied paintings by Piero
della Francesca and Masaccio. Then, in 1910, he went to Greece and Turkey, where he was fascinated by
Byzantine art and especially, Byzantine mosaics. These Italian and Byzantine
influences can be witnessed in the painting of the Dancers. Indeed, the
the curves of the bodies and the nude painting are reminiscent of the Italian
Renaissance, whereas the use of the vivid red, blue and golden colours reminds
us of Byzantine art. Also, both these influences can be seen in Grants
decorative art in the 1920s and 1930s.
Dancers, by Duncan Grant 1910-1911
4-2)
Post-Impressionism
Post-Impressionism was a movement
which started in France and covered the period between 1880
and 1920. It was an extension of Impressionism and at the same time a rejection
of its limitations. Impressionism can be defined as the objective recording of
nature regarding the fugitive effects of colour and light, and it was comprised
of artists such as Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet or Camille Pissaro. The term
Post-Impressionism was coined by Roger Fry and included painters such as Paul
Cézanne, Georges Seurat, Paul Gaugin, Vincent Van Gogh, Henri de
Toulouse-Lautrec and André Derain. In fact, most of these painters started as
Impressionists. Post-Impressionists used more vivid colours to express
themselves, they broke from traditional subject matter and used short
brushstrokes of broken colours to define forms.
In 1909, Duncan Grant was acquainted
to Picasso’s and Matisse’s works. From then on, he would experiment new ways of
paintings and especially, the non-literal use of colour. Moreover, his work was extremely influenced
by Roger Fry’s Post-Impressionist exhibition of 1910, where he was introduced
to the works of contemporary European and particularly French artists. As a
consequence, from 1911, Grant’s work was transformed and displayed a
Post-Impressionist style and his paintings were exhibited in the Second Post-Impressionist
Exhibition in 1911-1912. For instance, Duncan Grant’s Post-Impressionist
influences can be seen in his painting of The Tub, where he used bright
colours, flattened space and simplified forms. This painting is also
reminiscent of Picasso’s primitive style.
The Tub, by Duncant Grant 1913
Besides, Grant experimented further
in abstraction and thus, created the most original work of his period: the Abstract
Kinetic Collage. The collage was fifteen feet long and eleven inches high
and it was intended to be viewed in motion through an aperture along with a
Bach concerto. These ventures into abstraction and collage were also influenced
by Roger Fry and Vanessa Bell, as the three artists often painted together and
experimented in Post-Impressionism at the same time.
Then, after World War I, Duncan
Grant became less experimental in his work and resumed painting in a more
traditional style, focusing on the modelling of forms. These more traditional
paintings were exhibited at Carfax Gallery in 1920.
As a result, Duncan Grant was an
artist influenced by many masters and movement. With Roger Fry and Vanessa
Bell, they were the first British artists to introduce Post-Impressionism and
thus, they played great role in the development of twentieth century British
art.