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| Over sentimalised, pale like a washed out blonde, but those bee skeps remind you of a simpler time. |
Heywood Sumner: Years ago I fell in love with this artist's work, he is not particularly good but I remember borrowing a book from the library, which he had handwritten and illustrated on his home on Cuckoo Hill at Gorley in the New Forest. He had also illustrated a book by Barry Cunliffe (exceptionally well known archaeologist;) on Cranborne Chase in Wiltshire, which is far too expensive to buy. He also appears in the book of Arts and Crafts mentioned below, though he doesn't seem to have got on too well. But these artists and craftsmen created on the backs of the Pre-raphaelites a standard of creative genius in house, furniture and assorted bric brac that has become lost in machine made stuff we find today.
previous blogs...
https://northstoke.blogspot.com/2014/08/sumner-and-hambledon-hill.html
https://northstoke.blogspot.com/2010/11/heywood-sumner.html
https://northstoke.blogspot.com/2014/11/hunting-miscellaneous.html
I bought a book recently - Arts and Craft Movement in Britain, full of interesting photos but what I noticed is that the fire dogs and silver dish made recently on the Arts and Crafts programme, were on opposite pages in the book. Now was that laziness on the part of the researchers or just coincidence? The firedogs are made of brass and steel and are rather beautiful
Firedogs made by Alfred Bucknell and designed by Ernest Gimson
Silver Dish, designed by C.R.Ashbee and made by the Guild of Handicraft
Until I read this post I had not heard of Heywood Sumner though I may have come across his illustrations before. They evoke a different, more innocent time and speak of quiet lanes and bee-humming summers. Even his name suggests the rusticity of the arts and crafts movement.
ReplyDeleteI suppose the word is romanticised, Wm.Morris went back to early medieval times, whilst the Arts and Crafts people were very hands on. His paintings of the New Forest are very lush, but he definitely had problems with people and horses .....
DeleteThat era in art is my favorite. It is interesting how some artist just captures us and we never forget the feeling when we saw his/her work. Very nostalgic.
ReplyDeleteWell I suppose the act of creating beautiful artworks draws us in, a carved chair or the sun streaming through stained glass always captures our imagination. It is fascinating to flip through the book.
ReplyDeleteI suspect they did all their research in the one book! Somewhere about I have the Heywood Sumner book. That will niggle me now till I find it, but I need to find my book on Dorset Buttons first!
ReplyDeleteActually I have just ordered the Sumner book Jennie, it is fairly cheap on those booksellers behind Amazon! So are you collecting Dorset buttons?
ReplyDeleteThat silver dish, Thelma, is one of the most beautiful things I have seen in a long time. What a pleasure to dwell on such beauty rather than politics!
ReplyDeleteIs that a hint Pat;) It is beautiful, but as much as I love beautiful things I also hate waffling, corruption and too much self interest.
DeleteThe illustrations remind me of the pictures in the books I read as a child.
ReplyDeleteArilx
That is true Aril. Studying those pictures for hours in storybooks.
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