Wallace Collection and Marlyebone- Last Post of Trip

Tuesday June 9 was a mainly sunny day but cool.  High 16C.  We headed out on the 388 bus for London Bridge station and then walked to Eames Gallery on Bermondsey Street to pick up our print.  It was all wrapped in a tube, ready to go.

Last look at the Shard-near London Bridge 

We took the Tube to Marylebone, one of our favourite 'hoods in London.  We had decided to go to the Wallace Collection, one of the most significant collections of fine and decorative arts in the world.  The collection is displayed at Hertford House, former home to Sir Richard and Lady Wallace.  The collection was bequeathed to the British nation by Lady Wallace in 1897.  It opened to the public as a museum in 1900.  We had visited the permanent collection a few years ago, but wanted to check out the temporary exhibition entitled: Winston Churchill: The Painter.

Outside of the Wallace Collection- Hertford House

As we entered the Museum, we first checked out a display in the small housekeeper's room entitled: The Wallace Collection At War.  In 1942, with the museum's treasures evacuated for safety, Hertford House became an unlikely stage for cultural diplomacy.  Two exhibitions transformed the empty galleries into a forum for Anglo-Soviet friendship.  Artists Aid Russia brought together around 900 works by living artists, from Augustus John to Jacob Epstein, with proceeds supporting Clementine Churchill's Red Cross Aid to Russia Fund.  The Fund sent medical equipment and clothing to Russia. Winston Churchill contributed by signing an exhibition catalogue, which was sold to raise funds.

The second exhibit was Twenty-five Years of Progress, designed by architect Erno Goldfinger, which filled the galleries with photomontages and banners celebrating Soviet achievements and Allied unity.

The exhibits were launched by Soviet Ambassador Ivan Maisky and his wife Agniya and revealed how art and propaganda were mobilized to strengthen the wartime alliance.  

The display drew on newly revisited archives, surviving catalogues and artworks actually shown in 1942 to illuminate how the Wallace Collection contributed to Britain's wartime cultural front.

Poster for exhibit

From the moment that Britain declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939, Hertford House ceased to be a museum.  The collection was evacuated to safer locations outside of London and the empty rooms were repurposed by the Ministry of Works for exhibitions aimed at galvanizing public support for Britain's wartime allies.  The most significant displays took place in 1942, in support of the Soviet Union after it entered the conflict on the Allied side.  

Pictures of the evacuation of the collection, with only large, heavy objects remaining on site.  The locations were kept secret and only became known after all the works had returned to Hertford House, which officially reopened on July 20, 1945.

Artists and Russia took place between July 1 and August 4, 1942.  The 904 works by a wide range of living artists were squeezed into eight galleries on the first floor and on the grand staircase. All the artists donated half of their sales towards the Red Cross Aid to Russia fund.

Churchill signed the exhibition catalogue which was sold to raise funds.

Henri Kay Henrion (1914-1990).  Poster for Exhibit. Henrion was born in Nuremberg and was one of a number of refugee artists interned on the Isle of Man as an enemy alien.  He was released early to work on exhibition design for the Ministry of Information.  This design had the hammer and sickle and artist's palette superimposed on a page from the Soviet newspaper Izvestia.

The Soviet diplomat  Ivan Mikhailovich Maisky (1884-1975), served as the Soviet Union's Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1932-1943.  He was an ardent Anglophile and played a vital role fostering the Anglo-Soviet alliance after 1941, developing a close working relationship with Winston Churchill.

In 1941, he was invited by the sculptor Jacob Epstein to sit for his portrait.  The finished bust was prominently displayed in Artists Aid Russia.

Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), I M Maisky: Russian Ambassador to London, 1941

Mrs. Churchill and Mrs. Maisky looking at Epstein's head of Mr. Maisky at the Artists Aid Russia Exhibit.  
The Times, July 2, 1942.

Arthur Shearsby (1881-1960), Staircase Turret from Royal Court, 1941.  The Palace of Westminster was damaged by air raids on 14 occasions.  Shearsby was one of a team of artists employed between 1940-42 to restore wall paintings within the Palace and to document scenes of bomb damage. This picture depicts salvage workers sifting rubble at the base of the staircase turret in the Royal Court.

Carel Weight (1908-1997), It Happened to US!, 1941.  Weight was a member of the left-wing Artists International Association which sought to bring socially conscious art to the masses and to help artists fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe.  Weight had been commissioned by the War Artists' Advisory Committee to represent 'bombing in a suburban district with people still going about their daily affairs.'  His image of an air raid in London was rejected by the Committee,  but it was well received at the Artists Aid Russia Exhibition as an expression of empathy with Russian civilians, subject to similar ordeals.

In November 1942, the Wallace Collection hosted a 15-day solidarity exhibition about life in the Soviet Union in peacetime and at war.  25 Years of Progress was sponsored by Anglo-Soviet political societies.  The exhibition was structured around screens and wall displays featuring maps, photographs and charts demonstrating what the Soviet Union had achieved since 1917.  It also documented atrocities endured by Russians, as well as their heroic efforts in resisting the Nazi invasion.

The opening of the exhibition: architect Erno Goldfinger with Mr. and Mrs. Maisky

25 Years of Progress-  a large photograph of Stalin, flanked by Churchill and Roosevelt,
dominated the first floor landing

Henri Kay Henrion, Poster for 25 Years of Progress, 1942.  He placed a red tank at a sharp angle and overlaid it with a hammer and sickle painted in bold blue.

The exhibit from the archives presented an interesting aspect of the Anglo-Soviet alliance during WWII.

We then had to go outside and down some stairs to the Churchill exhibit. 

Café in courtyard with stairs to Churchill exhibit.

Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1967) started painting in 1915 to help cope with the anguish caused by the failure of the Dardanelles and Gallipoli Campaigns during WWI, for which he was initially held responsible.  Churchill sought the advice of leading artists, John Lavery (a fashionable portraitist) and William Nicholson and he painted side by side with both artists, learning as he went along.  Painting became a lifelong passion and he continued painting for his whole life.  

This major retrospective, the first since his death, brings together over 50 works, more than half from private collections, rarely seen in public.

Poster for the exhibit

Churchill painted Lavery and later gave the portrait to Lavery, who showed it in the Royal Society of Portrait Painters exhibition in 1919.  It was the first known public exhibition of Churchill's work.  All pictures featured below were painted by Churchill, unless indicated otherwise.

John Lavery in his Studio, 1915

In Lavery's portrait of Churchill, he depicts him painting out of doors in front of his subject.  The two portraits were a pair of 'friendship portraits', commemorating their shared painting sessions.

Winston Churchill Painting in Lady Paget's Garden, John Lavery (1856-1941), 1915.

In 1916, out of political office, Churchill joined the army, and was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the 6th battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers in January 1916.  For the next three months, the battalion fought near the Belgian town of Ploegsteert, known by the British as 'Plugstreet'.  The battalion headquarters were hit by shell fire in February 1916.  Churchill, who had taken his painting equipment with him, painted the scenes of the destruction. 

Plug Street, Battalion Headquarters, 1916

During the 1930s, the celebrated British painter William Nicholson and Churchill painted regularly together at Chartwell. 

Summer Flower Piece, William Nicholson (1872-1949), 1930s.

Flowers, Painted in the Studio at Chartwell, 1930s

In 1921 and 1922, Churchill wrote two essays for The Strand Magazine in which he described how he had taken up painting as a form of therapy.  In 1948, these essays were blended with another Churchill article entitled Hobbies and republished as Painting as a Pastime, which became a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic.

During the time he was out of political office in the 1920s and 1930s, Churchill threw his immense creative energy into writing and painting.  In 1922, he purchased Chartwell, a Manor House in Kent.  He set up a painting studio in the garden.   He also visited friends and family, whose homes he liked to paint.  He was attached to his birthplace, Blenheim Palace, which he painted a number of times.  Churchill often gave his paintings to his hosts as tokens of thanks and friendship.

The Lake At Blenheim, 1926-29

Winter Sunshine, Chartwell, c. 1924- one of his first paintings of Chartwell.  He used an impressionist style and it was the first of Churchill's paintings to win a major prize. 

The Loggia, Warren House, Kingston upon Thames, 1916-17

Bottlescape, 1926-- Apparently the whole family was enlisted to find suitable bottles to arrange around a special bottle of brandy Churchill had been given for Christmas.  
It was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1955.

Ightham Mote, 1921-Churchill stayed there when house-hunting.  It was one of the few paintings that he sold to his friends for 50 pounds when he was short of money in 1921.

Sunset at Cannes Harbour, 1930s.  Cannes inspired Churchill to create some of his best paintings.  He returned at different times of the day to observe the changing light effects in the harbour.

Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, 1930s.

Churchill sometimes painted during visits as a statesman.  In 1921, as Secretary of State of the Colonies, he chaired the Cairo Conference.  While staying at Government House in Jerusalem, he painted the view from the balcony.

Jerusalem, 1921

Churchill painted often in Morocco.  His favourite views were panoramas of the city with the majestic Atlas Mountains behind.  He made six visits to Marrakech from 1935-1959, usually over Christmas and New Years.

The Garden of the Mamounia Hotel, Marrakech, c. 1954.  The Mamounia Hotel was his favourite place to stay.  We dropped in on the hotel when we were in Marrakech a few years ago.  Gorgeous.

The Gate at Marrakech, 1935.

Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque, 1943.  This was the only painting he attempted during WWII, as a gift for President Roosevelt.  They had attended the ten-day Casablanca Conference in January 1943, and at Churchill's suggestion, they travelled together to Marrakech to watch the sun set over the city.  Churchill painted the view the next day and sent the painting to Roosevelt as a gift for his birthday.

Valley of the Ourika and Atlas Mountains, 1948.  Churchill offered this vibrant landscape to President Eisenhower in gratitude for his role in organizing the touring exhibition of his paintings in 1958.

Churchill turned to painting again after he lost the general election on July 5, 1945.  During the post-war period, his talents as a painter were increasingly recognised.  He exhibited in the annual Summer Exhibition of the Royal Academy in 1947.  Churchill continued to paint until shortly before his death in January 1965.  Over a period of fifty years, he is thought to have produced well over 500 paintings.

Venice, 1951.  After his death, Clementine Churchill was asked for a painting to hang in the House of Commons.  This painting was presented from her collection.

La Mala, Cap d'Ail, 1921 (with later reworking).  Churchill bequeathed this painting to his youngest daughter Mary, who loaned it in 1991 to the Parliamentary Art Collection to hang in the House of Commons.  It was permanently transferred to the House of Commons following her death.
Today it hangs in the No Lobby of the House of Commons.

After the exhibit, we checked out some stores on Marlyebone High Street.  One of our favourites is Daunt Books- a fantastic bookstore with lots of great displays.

Daunt bookstore

We decided to stay on Marleybone for dinner.  We decided to splurge and have dinner at Fischer's, an Austrian restaurant with a classic Viennese menu in a space evocative of old-world Vienna.

Outside of Fischer's

Inside of the restaurant-- beautiful interior-- very packed by the time we left just after 8:00 p.m.

Delicious salad

Allan with tasty spatchcock chicken

I had a small chicken schnitzel (that was fairly big)

Allan at our corner seat

It was a great final meal of our trip.   We headed back to our place, to pack.    

On Wednesday June 10, we returned to Toronto.  Our flight wasn't until 5:30 p.m., so we had a relaxing morning/early afternoon starting with brunch at Franze & Evans on Redchurch street.   Great avocado toast with poached eggs and coffee.

Counter with treats at Franze & Evans 

We stopped at Beigel Bake on Brick Lane to get two salted beef on Beigels with pickles for the trip.

We have had a great three-city adventure.  Lots of highlights- it's going to be hard to pick our three favourites as we often do.  Highly recommend Rotterdam for architecture and art with great day trips to Delft and Den Hague.  Paris was terrific this trip-- lots of sun and blue sky and the exhibits we saw were some of our favouties--- Matisse, Lee Miller and Calder were standouts.  London Theatre is always a highlight and we really enjoyed our Airbnb and our hosts, exploring Benthal Green and more of Shoreditch.

We had a good flight back to Toronto.  While we left London 40 minutes late, we made up some time and were only 10 minutes late landing in  Toronto at 8:40 p.m.   Customs was a breeze (tip: fill in the Arrive Canada declaration form in the App within 72 hours of departure).  We had to wait for our luggage, but made it home on the TTC in good time.  This is the last post of our trip.  Thank you for joining us in another adventure.