I gave up commenting on politics a while ago feeling that there was not much I could contribute to the widening recognition of the more corrosive aspects of Johnson’s rule; but as people begin to draw up the charge sheet of his time in office, I was struck by the Observer’s editorial (see below) which says most of what needs to be said, clearly and straightforwardly, at a time when one hopes he is departing into the history books.

The only thing I feel in addition, which seems to be being forgotten, since Dominic Cumming’s has turned out to be Johnson’s biggest critic, is that Johnson’s first and original mistake was the appointment of Cummings who was at least as responsible as Johnson in introducing an atmosphere of intellectual arrogance, ruthlessness, recklessness, and a total disregard for the conventions of government, as if life was going to be forever not about running the country, but extending the Brexit campaign. So, they should go down in the history books together.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/10/observer-view-on-boris-johnson-baleful-legacy?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Nothing could be nicer than Charleston in the early July heat: the garden a touch overblown; the house with guides in every room; everything looking, if anything, even more as if the inhabitants had just walked out than I remembered:-

Berwick Church is in course of restoration, with help from the HLF. It preserves the mural decoration done by Vanessa and Quentin Bell with Duncan Grant better than I had remembered: a mixture of Omega style decoration round the pulpit with their memories of Tuscan wall decoration in the aisles and the entrance to the chancel:-

To my great shame, I have never previously been to Farleys Farmhouse, the house which Roland Penrose and Lee Miller bought in 1949 (they married in 1947) and where they entertained so many friends and artists, including Picasso, who were expected to help prepare the food, including peeling potatoes, round the kitchen table. I strongly recommend it: quite small-scale; very atmospheric; completely preserved as it was, with Penrose’s paintings and exhibitions of Lee Miller’s photographs in a barn in the car park:-

As the evening lengthened and we stayed to see a brilliant performance of Jonathan Dove’s Mansfield Park, the sun shone on the late seventeenth-century façades:-

I have done posts on Boughton before – Ralph, Duke of Montagu’s very French chateau in the middle of very English countryside, with trees in the garden planted by John, the second Duke, known, not surprisingly, as ‘John the planter’.

I love the way you come out of small Northamptonshire villages to be confronted by grand avenues and a cluster of out houses like a small dynastic village in the Loire valley:-

I love the sense of geometry and nature, the sweep of the landscape, the red kites and old trees, planted 300 years ago:-

Following a blog post in late May, I was invited to see what remains of the house and gardens where my great-great-great grandfather lived at Newport, the surprisingly unspoilt part of North Essex, north of Stansted Airport.

The house was burnt down in 1966 as part of an insurance scam by an associate of the Krays, rebuilt on a much smaller scale in 2000. I’m not sure how much of the estate would have been recognisable to Joseph Smith: maybe some of the trees planted by Capability Brown in 1753; and the stable block thought to have been designed by Matthew Brettingham who worked there in the 1750s. Best of all were the wonderful greenhouses which must date from a later phase of the estate when it was bought by Carl Meyer, who worked for the Rothschilds, for £60,000:-

After a hundred years, the company which installed the greenhouses got in touch offering to repair them:-

We caught the last day of this year’s Masterpiece.

Untitled (1991) by Rachel Whiteread:-

A group of pieces by George Ohr:-

A collage of the tools of the trade used by Factum Arte in documenting the different ways of recording the tomb of Seti I (a beautiful display):-

I recommend going on the last day when it’s quieter and a pleasure to wander round.

Lying in the bath this morning and thinking about seeing Drawn to War last night, I thought a couple of things were obvious.

The first, as came out of the discussion afterwards, is that Ravilious’s reputation was originally as a decorative artist – the creator of mugs for Wedgwood – and that his watercolours are inevitably less seen, because of the fugitive nature of the medium.

The second is whether or not there is an influence of surrealism. What everyone, including Alan Bennett, suggests in the film is that the images are not quite as innocent as they seem. There is always a sense of hidden depths, of impending war, barbed wire beside the downland, which is why the images have a power beyond the merely decorative. Ravilious seems not to have been particularly part of the London art world, preferring to live in Essex, but he must have been aware of surrealism which was such a prominent part of the art world in the late 1930s.

We went to a screening of Eric Ravilious: Drawn to War at the Gate Cinema – for me, a second viewing. It’s just as good second time round. I was better able to appreciate the extraordinary wealth of documentary material. Ravilious’s daughter, Anne Ullmann, is recorded on film and has obviously done a huge amount to keep memory of Ravilious alive, encouraging one of his mistresses, Helen Binyon, to publish a memoir in 1983, publishing her mother’s autobiography, Long Live Great Bardfield, and finding a cache of watercolours under Edward Bawden’s bed. Then, his granddaughter, Ella, works at the V&A and there is even a twitter account for Ravilious. Rather amazingly, there is cine film of Ravilious’s wedding, as well as Ravilious’s own letters. And, although he died when he was only 39, he had already accomplished a huge amount, including his work for Wedgwood and book illustrations, alongside his work as a war artist.

There was discussion afterwards as to why he is so popular, but regarded more as a decorative than fine artist. Alan Bennett was good on how his very popularity makes him seem not quite a real artist. Anyway, I recommend the film very much.