Art at Charleston Farmhouse:
Vanessa Bell & Duncan Grant
Gallery Talks visit to Charleston Farmhouse, Firle, East Sussex from 10.45am until 3.30pm. The group will have their own reserved timed entrance.
Julie will guide the group through each of the rooms and studios inside the house, which is surrounded by the beauty of the South Downs and a work of modernist art in its own right. After lunch in the Threshing Barn café, the group will visit the special exhibitions and have time to enjoy the wonderful gardens. There'll then be an optional visit to nearby Berwick Church to admire the newly-restored stunning Bloomsbury murals.
Charleston Farmhouse, home to Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant in the early 20th century, is a hidden treasure of peace and beauty where the Bloomsbury free-flowing decorative style is to be found throughout the entire house. In the iconic interior, barely a surface is left undecorated; paintings fill the walls, tables and chairs are colourfully hand painted and patterned murals embellish the walls, fireplaces and door frames. Furniture, fabrics, rugs and ceramics created collaboratively by the Bloomsbury set are incorporated into the overall décor, alongside lovingly collected objects. A hideaway and focal point of the Bloomsbury group and a testament to its ideology, Charleston embodies their exuberance of spirit, experimental way of life and desire for sensibility. Designed as a living painting, the garden provides a setting for quiet contemplation as well as of discovery and excitement.
If you would like to join the group for this tour, please contact me and I will send you further details.
Dining table decoration and handmade wallpaper by Vanessa Bell, pottery lamp by Quentin Bell, chair by Omega Workshop, portrait painting by Duncan Grant