A Sense of Place

Since working as a volunteer at Charleston, I’ve become quite protective of the Bloomsbury group, and the contents of the House, and now find I get a slight jolt of surprise when I see things from Charleston, or linked with the family, out in the wider world. This is, of course, ridiculous, but I have become so familiarised with the house and contents I take for granted that the object and furniture and people I am speaking about when stewarding are actually known across the world.

I do feel that Charleston is unique in that the group painted their roomscapes and each other on a regular basis, and the tables, chairs, and vignettes frequently crop up in artwork by Roger Fry, Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, often including other members of the group sitting, reading, cooking or painting. Charleston being a place of refuge and relaxation must have encouraged a degree of observation from visitors, and that this is captured so frequently means we get to see an intimate view as to how the house looked and functioned while they lived there.

This newsletter, Beyond Bloomsbury shows a great selection of some such artwork, and I have to stop myself going “ooh! ooh! that’s where I was yesterday!” when I see a painting of the Dining Room or Library. I had not been to Charleston before I started volunteering there, so I suppose I have gone about my Bloomsbury initiation the wrong way round. The decorated walls, and antique furniture, and even some of the paintings feature in the artwork by Bell and Grant, and this gives a sense of place in a way few other artists can achieve.

This week I was in the Dining Room, and many of the visitors were interested in the textiles. There is a curtain in this room which dates from 1930, one of the few original fabrics in the house.

You can see the woven texture, whereas the newer, Laura Ashley printed fabric which is used on the upholstery and curtain fabrics elsewhere shows a crisper smoother finish. This is a Duncan Grant design called Clouds and I have mentioned it before in other posts; it’s used on a chair in Clive Bell’s Library. I was watching YouTube earlier today about a tiny apartment in Paris, and imagine my delight to see that she’d used a screen covered in West Wind to divide her bedroom from the living space in her flat.

Apartment Therapy - Home to artist Sofia de Moser Leitão

I would love to know what proportion of people do actually go home and paint their homes in some way, following a trip to Charleston. I think it is so important for museums to inspire as much as educate, and I really hope some of the Bloomsbury spirit continues to seep into people’s lives when they return home.