NEWTON’S ENGLAND
Front cover: Courtyard at Burghley House. 20 by 22 ins or 51 by 56 cms. Above: The Royal Opera Arcade. 10.5 by 14 ins or 27 by 36 cms. Below: Sudden Sunlight, Oxford. 10.5 by 13.5 ins or 27 by 34 cms.
While many of his contemporaries at Cambridge were Footlighting or Rowing, Trevor Newton seemed to spend much of his time drawing and painting. His specialities then were lavish invitations for May Week parties, illustrated menus for Club and Society dinners, posters and programmes for plays and concerts, along with a highly individual line in architectural fantasy drawn for its own sake and for the amusement of his friends. He managed to combine the frivolous and the Baroque in a curious and most engaging manner; Osbert Lancaster meets Tiepolo. Trevor is still drawing and painting as passionately as ever and though the content of his work may be more serious, in style and execution it still has all the youthful energy and verve which characterised it almost thirty years ago. Many of Trevor’s old friends and University contemporaries still have an original early Newton or two proudly displayed on their walls. This Exhibition is an opportunity for a wider public to become acquainted with - and to acquire - some fine examples of his later style. Snap them up while you still can‌
Stephen Fry December 2008
Top Left: Country Church Royal Arms. 16.5 by 13 ins or 42 by 32 cms. Top Right: Baroque Church Monument. 22 by 16.5 ins or 56 by 45 cms. Bottom: In Sir John Soane’s Museum. 13.5 by 17.25 ins or 34 by 44cms.
Sculpture at Saint Paul’s. 13 by 12 ins or 33 by 31 cms. Garter Procession, Windsor Castle. 10.5 by 16.25 ins or 27 by 42 cms.
Fountain at Castle Howard (Detail): 15.5 by 18.5 ins or 39 by 47 cms.
This exhibition is to do with England, more specifically with man-made England. Just as I like the idea of putting a lot of building onto a relatively small piece of paper, I like the idea of trying to condense a lot of Englishness into one exhibition. Our not-very-large part of these not-veryextensive islands is jam-packed with things, with objects to see at every turn; not just fine buildings and monuments, but humbler items which nevertheless bear a decidedly English stamp. Carved pew ends and fonts, crumbling barns, gaudily painted fairground horses, wrought iron gates - all of these can be as characteristically English as the grandest of country houses or the most sweeping of landscaped parks - perhaps more so.
Trevor Newton.