Rossetti’s The Blue Silk Dress (1868), on show at Bath’s Holburne Museum
EXHIBITIONS HUON MALLALIEU FIRLE PLACE: THE REGENCY WARDROBE 29th August 29 to 26th October CHARLESTON: DUNCAN GRANT 1920 18th September 18 to 13th March
SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES, KELMSCOTT MANOR
HOLBURNE MUSEUM, BATH: ROSSETTI’S PORTRAITS 24th September 24 to 9th January Stephanie Smart is a most remarkable artist and craftswoman; in her case, the always dubious distinction does not exist. She creates dream figures, using many types of paper, paper-craft techniques and embroidery thread – 30,000 yards for this project – combined with illustrated and written details. Like all good dreams, her figures give the illusion of reality. She says, ‘The ambition behind every piece is that it be simultaneously visually beautiful, technically ambitious and conceptually interesting.’ Had she wished to be a fashion designer, she would have been a good one – but what a waste that would have been. At first sight, the 11 life-size Regency outfits (on stands, without actual bodies), 12 accessories, four wall-hangings and
jewel box seem to be copies of real items. In fact, they are variations on the themes suggested by the paintings and works of art among which they are posed at Firle Place, East Sussex. Smart has created installations for a number of houses in Sussex and elsewhere. Elements from this one will be at Chertsey Museum, 6th November to 26th February, and Worthing Museum from 17th April to 1st August. Her original inspiration was a paper kaftan inscribed with Koranic quotations in the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul, which was made for Suleiman the Magnificent. She founded her House of Embroidered Paper to make similar wonders in 2017.
Particularly impressive is the historical research behind her storytelling. Who knew, for instance, that artists might be employed to make elaborate designs on Jane Austen’s dance floors, not just to prevent falls, but also to be erased by morning – intimations of mortality like Buddhist sand pictures? Firle Place is open only on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays – in case you’re planning a combined visit to Charleston. Charleston, the rural face of Bloomsbury, is on the Firle estate, and there is a Duncan Grant portrait at Firle – but what a contrast between the houses. Grant has not had a solo show since 1978, and this is a fascinating recreation of his first, in 1920. More than 30 paintings have been gathered: landscapes, still lifes and portraits, which chronicle the creation of the artistic colony. Surprisingly, the Holburne exhibition is the first ever devoted to Rossetti’s portraits, and many ‘stunners’ are duly on parade, with Jane Morris and Lizzie Siddal to the fore. So too are drawings of his early colleagues, including one of Holman Hunt that was part of a group to be sent to the Pre-Raphaelite sculptor Thomas Woolner, who had emigrated to Australia. Rossetti could be a sloppy draughtsman, but that is not evident here. The Oldie October 2021 69
