PEGGY ANGUS DESIGNER, TEACHER, PAINTER
JAMES RUSSELL
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The dining room, N.L.C.S., decorated by students, 1950s.
around the school. When he visited the art department, Peggy introduced her staff and, rather than describing each woman according to their artistic achievements, she referred instead to some private aspect of their past lives. So, Philippa was introduced as ‘a Christian Scientist’, even though she had long disavowed the religion of her childhood.
Though Peggy could be mischievous, she was an excellent manager who galvanised staff and pupils alike. She was also the creator of a remarkable art curriculum that had begun life during her visit to the Hermitage Museum, and within which she brilliantly combined art history and practical art teaching. Like the Soviet Five-Year Plans that she admired, Peggy’s seven-year curriculum was a
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Design by one of Peggy’s students, N.L.C.S., watercolour, 1950s/60s.
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Carter’s of Poole catalogue showcasing the designs of Peggy Angus, 1950s.
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Cover of Carter’s Quarterly Bulletin, November 1951, featuring Peggy’s tiles and showing the effect of repeating simple shapes.
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A sinuous vine and clusters of grapes, designed to celebrate a Sussex vineyard.
Elsewhere Olive wrote of this paper, which may in fact have first been cut for another patron and friend, Diana Hall, ‘The image is Virgilian in form and in feeling. Printed in orange-red and yellow, it emphasised the architectural details of what was formerly the library of a small country house and gave it a resounding opulence. Printed in soft red and olive green, it set an unpretending kitchen aglow and concentrated the eye on the homely objects, the country chairs, the painted glass pictures, the popular prints and pottery which furnished it. The vine seems to live and flourish…’15
What is particularly interesting here is the reference to Peggy’s wallpaper ‘concentrating the eye’ on the delightful array of artworks on display around the room. One might imagine the designer wanting her wallpaper to dominate the room, to be the main focus of attention, but in fact the opposite was the case. The wallpaper, so Peggy believed, should serve as a background to paintings and other artworks – indeed, she was of the strongly held and oftexpressed opinion that paintings should never be hung on a plain wall. Years before, she had shown in The Stuffed Duck her delight in an interior where
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Oakleaves combines abstract and natural forms to mesmerising effect.
wallpaper focused the eye on a set of ‘homely objects’, and now she devoted herself to helping her patrons create such interiors. Seeing her papers as part of the fabric of a room, she steered her patrons towards colour combinations that minimised contrast and so made the pattern emerge subtly. Likewise, the rough method of printing, coupled with the use of ordinary emulsion, ensured that there were no hard edges in the paper. Indeed, sometimes it takes a second look at a wall to notice the wallpaper, the first glance resting on the pictures hung against it; far from being imposed on the room, as most commercial wallpapers would be, Peggy’s wallpapers seem to emanate from the wall itself.
Surviving account books show that Peggy designed hundreds of wallpapers. Initially, these were based on tile designs and tended to emulate the tile murals. One was made simply of circles, another of ogee shapes, while a third consisted of a bold vertical stripe with pairs of curlicues branching from it. From these simple beginnings Peggy created an array of patterns based on geometric or natural forms, or, more often than not, on her study of older interpretations of these forms. As her teaching suggests, she loved every kind of patternmaking, from Victorian tile designs and the motifs of mediaeval and Renaissance craftsmen to the vernacular themes of the decorators of Romani caravans and barges.
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Above: A vibrant abstract design known as Pineapple. Facing page: Two designs based on a simple alternation of semi-circles, a staple of Peggy’s tile murals. Top: Persian Leaf. Bottom: Ogee.
cleaning up initially, then gradually taking on more responsibilities. In exchange it was up to the senior artist to pass on their skills and techniques – as she did unhesitatingly – and to guide his or her charges in their career. The hanging of every wallpaper, whether in East Sussex or Hampstead or Cambridge, represented a
joint achievement involving patron, designer, printer and hangers. Rare was the friend of Peggy’s who did not, at some time, help out with the wallpaper, and many of the papers featured in this book were printed by people mentioned in the text. To Olive Cook, the wallpapers have another vital quality. As she put it, ‘The pulsating life, the robust, often rough and essentially rural character of her
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Above and facing page: After establishing the concept of a design with her patron, Peggy made drawings, usually in black pen and/or body colour. While her skill as a designer enabled her to work effectively within the constraints of a tile or group of tiles, her talents in illustration (seen in those youthful sketchbooks) now came to the fore.
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Few people who met Peggy Angus ever forgot her. Passionate, outspoken and irreverent, she began her career as a painter and muralist before finding her vision as a designer of tile murals and wallpaper. As a teacher she inspired generations of students, of all ages and abilities, instilling in them her belief that art is integral to human life.
ISBN: 978-1-85149-768-3
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