WHILE the Bloomsbury set – Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell et al – is most frequently associated with their unconventional and creative lives in London and Sussex, the Bloomsbury Group also had strong Wiltshire connections, which are celebrated in the summer exhibition at Salisbury Museum in the Cathedral Close, and in a commissioned play, which will be performed by members of the city’s Studio Theatre on 3rd to 5th June.
Devised and directed by Studio member Lesley Bates, the play, The Blue Stocking and the Shepherdess: Bloomsbury Life at Ham Spray, looks at the Bloomsbury years at Ham Spray House on the north Wiltshire Downs, through the lens of the women who lived there.
Artist Dora Carrington and diarist Frances Partridge were the mistresses of Ham Spray House between 1924 and 1960 and recorded what went on in their letters and diaries.
Studio members Rachel Fletcher, Yetti Dutton, Sophie Townsend, Caroline Butcher, Tamsin Jacson and Dave Simmons offer a revealing insight into the lives of the Bloomsbury set.
This the second time the museum has collaborated with Studio Theatre, following the success of Darling Edith and Others, performed during the Museum’s Rex Whistler exhibition two years ago.
The Studio Theatre performances take place at the museum from Wednesday 3rd to Friday 5th June at 7pm.
The Bloomsbury Group, of whom the American wit Dorothy Parker famously said that they “lived in squares, painted in circles and loved in triangles,” were a circle of early 20th century English artists, writers and intellectuals, who regularly gathered at Ham Spray House, the home of Lytton Strachey, Dora Carrington and Ralph and Frances Partridge, between 1924 and 1960.
Originally started in 1905 by Virginia Woolf, her sister Vanessa Bell, and their two brothers, in the Bloomsbury district of London, the group was known for its avant-garde opinions and experimental art. The exhibition will include a diverse selection of artworks from both public and private collections, including loans from the National Portrait Gallery, Fitzwilliam Museum, Jerwood Foundation and the Tate. It will feature paintings and sculptures created by, or depicting, residents of Ham Spray House, alongside works by Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, Stephen Tomlin and Roger Fry.
Footage from three rare films will also be shown – they feature members of the Bloomsbury Group and poignantly capture the lost world of England before the Second World War. Also on display will be ephemera from that time, including photo albums and a selection of ceramics designed by members of the Bloomsbury Group.
The group’s unconventional radical ideas and artistic output profoundly reshaped the culture of Britain, making them important figures in modern art and literature, as well as leaders of bohemian intellectualism.
“The Bloomsbury Group’s story is often told in the context of London and Sussex, yet their years in Wiltshire were among their most intimate and creatively rich,” says museum director Adrian Green. “By exploring their time at Ham Spray House, this exhibition reveals a remarkable local chapter in the lives of some of Britain’s most influential artists and thinkers.”
The exhibition runs from 23rd May to 27th September.