Charleston House

The recent visit to Charleston House was a birthday present for a friend, but really I was also keen to look around the house and garden again. Charleston became home to a group of artists, writers and intellectuals known as the Bloomsbury group. led by the pivotal figure Vanessa Stephen, who later became famous as Vanessa Bell after marrying Clive Bell. Relationships between the Bloomsbury group were complicated. How the development of Charleston House came about is neatly summarised on the Charleston website:

'In 1916, the painter Vanessa Bell and her friend and lover Duncan Grant moved to Charleston along with Duncan’s partner David Garnett. It was the height of the First World War and, as conscientious objectors, Garnett and Grant needed to find farm work to avoid conscription.

Almost as soon as they moved in, Bell and Grant began to paint every surface in the farmhouse, transforming it into a living, breathing work of art. Over the following decades, Charleston became a gathering point for some of the 20th century’s most radical artists, writers and thinkers known collectively as the Bloomsbury group. It is where they lived out their progressive social and artistic ideals. Today, it continues to be a place that brings people together to engage with art and ideas'.

We arrived before we were due to go on our guided tour of the house and so started in the garden; our visit was at the end of August, and although there were lots of interesting things in the garden, this almost perfect Cobaea scandens flower around the gatepost was perfect:

The garden has been restored in the 1980s to look like it was in 1916, with inspiration for the luxuriant planting coming from photographs taken in the garden.

This semi circular pool with spouting head below was built in 1958 by Quentin Bell, son of Vanessa and Clive, their inauguration apparently celebrated with champagne.

Here are John and Tim in the lower part of the garden

and this path leading back to the house is fringed on the right hand side by hollyhocks, almost over when the photo was taken.

From the garden, we went into the house for a guided tour of many of the rooms, each one has a guide who explains many of the paintings and features of the room, and answers questions. It's hard not to photograph everything, but there is a book which acts as a guide to Charleston and which I hope will help me explain some of the photos

The tour starts in the kitchen, a wonderful room with lots of interesting touches. Above mugs made by Quentin Bell hang on the wall of a boxed in staircase.

Above, the lampshade is one of several similar ones around the farmhouse, with the Aga in the background

The kitchen cupboard above was decorated in the 1950s by Vanessa

Above the tile splashback was a late addition made by Quentin during its restoration

From the kitchen, we moved into Clive Bell's study, the two panels decorating the door were painted by Duncan Grant at different times, the top panel in 1917, and the lower one of the acrobat was a replacement for the original panel, kicked in by Julian and Quentin Bell when the room was used as a schoolroom

The painting above appears in the lower part of the bay window, and the painting below is 'Flowers' painted in 1911 by Roderic O'Connor who had been a friend of Clive's in his bachelor days

The hand painted grey and yellow pattern on a black background were stencilled by Duncan and Quentin onto the wallpaper in 1939 and identifies the fact we are now in the Dining Room. The painting, 'Polyanthus in Vase' is by Vanessa Bell

I love the beautifully painted table, it makes me want to paint my dining room table

This fireplace below is in an alcove which had been opened up and allowed room for 2 armchairs so one could sit very close to the fire!

It's possible to see all artworks in the Charleston collection here, but I can't find this one!!

We now move to Maynard Keynes' bedroom where the linen chest below resides, it's painted inside and out. On the inside of the lid is a painting by Duncan of a mythological scene entitled 'Leda and the Duck, a humorous take on 'Leda and the Swan' of Greek legend.

I thought this was a very good example of what can be done when you paint all the furniture

The stained glass panel inserted into the door of the room is an example of one of Quentin's experiments into the medium

Below iyou can see the paintings on the door to Duncan's dressing room

The hearthrug below is a facsimile of one designed by Duncan in 1925, the colours taken from underneath the original rug which hadn't faded.

We're now in the Garden Room with a painting by Duncan Grant in 1928 with two figures holding a flower painting hangs above the fireplace. The two figured originally held a mirror which broke. The fireplace was built by Roger Fry

From the Garden Room, there are patio doors giving views of the garden

Here we are in Vanessa Bell's bedroom where the hat she wore for painting lies on the bed and paintings of her three children, all by Duncan Grant, hang on the wall behind the bed