Cathy's Art Diary

Clever display at Sissinghurst Castle Garden looking at how the previous owners of the house Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson’s circle defied societal norms of gender and sexuality. This show was cleverly arranged in the library using the books on the shelves to highlight the lives of the couple’s friends and lovers, explaining who they were and what they did. There were also displays on various literary legal cases with a focus on the Radcliffe Hall case. It was a good way of telling quite a complicated story in a simple and engaging way.   Closes 30 March 2025  

Surprising exhibition at National Trust property Polesden Lacey of the treasures collected by Margaret Greville. I say surprising because I had not realised there was an exhibition at the house and had just gone to kill time before a party so this was a bonus. It was nicely arranged with an introduction to the collection and then rooms on different types of objects from pictures, though ceramics and ending with a lovely room of Faberge objects. Mrs Greville had been collecting in the late 19th and early 20th centuries both via auctions and through gifts from friends. It was nice that the labels not only told you about the object but also about where and how it was acquired. It was also a good opportunity to see the upstairs rooms which are normally closed to the public and I liked the way when you did then go downstairs it continued with sign posting to important objects in the main rooms. Closes 30 October 2022

Quirky decoration of National Trust property Polesden Lacey for Christmas. This year’s decorations, by contemporary artists NEON, take inspiration from the society hostess, Margaret Greville, who lived there. Using her jewellery collection, which is now part of the Royal Collection, they take elements of the jewels and create three installations within the house. The Trust then responded to these quirky displays with a more traditional approach in the next room. My favourite room, shown here, was the billiard room hung with diamond shaped frames which moved gently in a breeze casting different shadows around the room. I also liked the corridor to the servants quarters lined with white foliage and feather balls. Closed 6 January 2020

Delightful decoration of National Trust property Standen as a family Christmas of the 1930s. The property was filled with scenes the life of the family of the house, the Beales, from a room set up for present wrapping, a dining table at the end of a food fight and the simple decorations in the servants’ hall. I loved a bust with added pearls and nostalgic paper chains. Outside the Trust had commissioned designers, NEON to decorate a large tree which they did with gold wind chimes which tinkled gently and glimmered as the wind caught the branches. Closed 5 January 2020

Fascinating exhibition at Ightham Mote looking at a period in the house’s history when it was rented by Queen Palmer, the wife of an American railway engineer who founded Colorado Springs. I’ve visited Ightham Mote a lot but they have never featured this family before. They have done it this year partly because of a campaign to buy John Singer Sargent’s picture of them playing bowls on the lawn at Ightham which is on display along with his portrait of the daughter Elsie painted at the house.   Queen Palmer was an engaging hostess and attracted the elite of the Aesthetic Movement to the house including Henry James, the actress Ellen Terry and the costume designer Alice Comyns Carr as well as John Singer Sargent. There were interesting display boards on the family and visitors and they even found a Bloomsbury connection as the aforementioned daughter, Elsie, married Leo Myers, an author who was a friend of Virginia and Leonard Woolf. Closed June 2018  

Charming exhibition at Somerset House marking 50 years of the National Trust’s programme to care for the coast line. The work was an installation by four artists Tania Kovats (visual arts), Owen Sheers (poetry), Martyn Ware (sound and music) and Benjamin Wigley (film maker). The first room has a large display of Wigley’s film of the coastal landscapes cared for by the trust and is a very soothing place to sit and reflect on the work. My favourite room had the names of all the harbours and headlands of the UK with a new bell in the middle of the room by Tania Kovats cast at the autumn equinox on close to Land’s End which was being rung at high tide on the Thames throughout the show. It was a nice touch to publish the whole of Sheers poem about the Gower Peninsula in full in the small booklet that was being given out. Closes 13 December 2015.