Compton, Watts Artist's Village - some parallels Part 1

Limnerslease
Watts, M.S., George Frederic Watts: Volume 2, Hodder & Stoughton, 1912

The nearest Arts and Crafts movement to Haslemere was at Compton, what is now called Watts Gallery Artist's Village, online here.  Compton is a short distance away from Haslemere, just off the A3 outside Guildford, a distance of twelve miles.  Here the celebrated Victorian painter G.F. Watts lived with his wife Mary Seton Watts in their house, Limnerslease, that they built in 1891.  Mary established the Compton Pottery (1904) and spearheaded the creation of the unique Watts Chapel (1898), the Watts Gallery (1903).

The Haslemere Peasant Arts movement definitely knew the Watts.  Although how well they knew each other, and how much they shared the same beliefs is not documented.  Godfrey Blount and Ethel Blount were on the General Committee of the Healthy and Artistic Dress Union when Mary Seton Watts, "Mrs G.F. Watts" was a Vice-President, as can be seen from the photograph below - Mrs G.F. Watts being the last Vice-President listed, the Blounts being the second and third General Committee members, after Mrs Janet Ashbee.  I have posted more about the Blounts and the Healthy and Artistic Dress Union in this post.

The Dress Review,
listing of the Healthy and Artistic Dress Union committee
January 1904

So what parallels are there?

1. The Watts' enterprises involved the local community, as did the Haslemere Peasant Arts movement.  The Compton Cemetery Chapel is renowned to have been decorated by all inhabitants of Compton village.

2. The Watts were husband and wife as artists, as with Godfrey and Ethel Blount.  

3. The Home Arts and Industries Association (HAIA).  Prior to her marriage, Mary had been a committee member of the HAIA and G.F. Watts was "the biggest financial supporter of the movement" (Bills, Mark, An Artists' Village: G. F. Watts and Mary Watts at Compton, Philip Wilson Publishers, 2011).  We know that the Kings and Blounts exhibited for the HAIA.  There is not a great deal of information available about the HAIA, perhaps because the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society which seemed to have the more renowned Arts and Crafts makers has eclipsed their memory in history.  The Art Workers Quarterly said of the HAIA in 1904 that the HAIA 'is a society for teaching the working classes handicrafts such as wood carving, inlaying, metal repousse, basket weaving, leather work, book binding, and for encouraging these and others such as lace, embroidery spinning, weaving, pottery etc, by means of an annual exhibition' (from Arts and Crafts metalwork web).  

In a letter to The Spectator (1 November 1919, p13) Lady Mary Lovelace describes "Beginning in 1884, under the presidency of Lord Brownlow, with about 40 branches and 320 students spread all over the United Kingdom, the progress of the Association has been rapid and continuous, and included in the year 1913 200 classes with about 5,000 students. Th9 handicrafts taught are as follows Simple carpentry, wood-carving, inlaying and veneering, wrought-iron work, hand-beaten silver and other metal work, basket-work, rush matting, hand-weaving and spinning, carpet and rug-making, toy-making, lace-making, embroidery, smocking, knitting, pottery, plain and ornamental leather-work, bookbinding, stencilling, &c., &c....Two great men, John Ruskin and G. F. Watts, were from the beginning in heartiest sympathy with the work of the Association. In a small volume called Plain Handicrafts Mr. Watts wrote : " The rush of interest in the direction of what are understood RS worldly advantages has trampled out the sense of pleasure in the beautiful, and the need of its presence as an element essential to the satisfaction of daily life, which must have been unconsciously felt in ages less absorbed in acquiring wealth for itelf alone, proved by the fact that in everything done or used then, there was an apparent touch of the artistic sense, in buildings, in costumes, in pageants, in all things from a temple to the meanest utensil. Our Art Congresses would have been in old times as needless as congresses to impress on the general mind the advantages of money-making would be in these. The necessity to make all classes acquainted with the written language by which human thought is conveyed is now universally felt; the object of plain handicraft is to widely open the book of nature. The boy encouraged to imitate some natural object will ever after see in that object something unseen and unknown to him before, and he will find the time he formerly did not know what to do with (a state of being that continually drives thousands to the congested Metropolis) henceforth full of pleasurable sensations."

Before their marriage in 1884-1885 Mary Watts had organised an evening clay-modelling class at a boys' club in Whitechapel.  She described her pupils as 'chiefly shoe blacks'.  In June 1886 she was elected to the Council of the Home Arts.  Once married, G.F. Watts became a major donor to the movement, contributing £1,000 in 1895 and painting special commissions to fund the movement (Bills, ibid).  In 1895 Mary set up a Home Arts clay-modelling class in her studio at Limnerslease.  

4. Mary Watts trained at the Slade c.1873, before Godfrey and Ethel Blount's time there.   They shared a love of John Ruskin, "both Mary Watts and her husband were great admirers of Ruskin.  The 1938 probate inventory of Limnerslease lists many of his books, and when a servant purloined one in 1890, Watts asserted: 'He could have taken nothing from me that I value more." (Bills, ibid.).

The Great Studio, Limnerslease,
The Victorian Web

5. Limnerlease, designed by the architect Sir Ernest George had a particular emphasis on the studio, referred to by Bills (ibid.) as "the studio home".  The Blounts and the Kings also had a strong emphasis on home-working on the loom; when living at Foundry Cottage Blount is thought to have used the next door house, Meadow Cottage, as a studio, and at St Cross, buildings in the garden.  Watts had a different level of studio home, the studio at Limnerslease is an enormous room designed to accommodate his massive painting 'The Court of Death' (c.1870-1902, Tate), which is described as "intended for the chapel of a paupers cemetery.  In this 4.5 metre x 3 metre painting, Death is shown as an enthroned angel, holding a baby which shows, according to Watts that, 'even the germ of life is in the lap of Death'.  The allegorical nature of G.F. Watts' work seems to exhibit similarities with the novels of George MacDonald, Greville MacDonald's father.  Also, I wonder if Maude Egerton King's father, Henry George Hine, the Vice President of the Royal Institute of Watercolours, was acquainted with Watts?

Those familiar with the al fresco working on Kings Road, Haslemere post, will appreciate the joy of seeing Watts also working outside, below.  

G.F. Watts at work upon the statute of Lord Tennyson, August 1903
Watts, M.S., George Frederic Watts: Volume 2, Hodder & Stoughton, 1912

6.  Both movements attracted visiting artists and notables to the area.  Bills (ibid.) describes Limnerslease as attracting "many of the most notable continental musicians came to play to Watts at Limnerslease.  And it was not just musicians, authors too visited the shrine, as well as leasding figures of the age such as William Gladstone.  It was also a place where people stayed to have their portrait painted by one of the most sought-after portraitists of the day.  Mrs Josephine Butler, for whose heroism he [Watts] had a deep veneration was painted at Limnerslease where she came to stay" (ibid).  I wonder if the Dolmetsches visited?  Josephine Butler was an acquaintance of the MacDonalds as Greville describes "my parents' intimacy with such protagonists of the feminist movement as the beautiful and devoted Josephine Butler…" (MacDonald, Greville, Reminiscences of a Specialist, London, George Allen and Unwin, 1932).

Josephine Elizabeth Butler (nee Grey) by G. F. Watts, 1895
National Portrait Gallery

7.  A community of buildings was built to further the values of the cause.  In 1895 Mary had the support of the parish council to purchase land and erect a memorial chapel.  A wood-fire bottle kiln was built in Limnerslease's grounds, across the lane from the cemetery, with the advice of William De Morgan; "every aspect of Compton's cemetery chapel would be a symbolic celebration pf spiritual and material life, from birth to death and beyond, from the distinctive ground plan of the Eternal Circle intersected by the Cross of Faith, the intricate terracotta mouldings on the building, and the wooden door and its iron hinges to the glorious painted gesso interior." (ibid.)  The pottery produced there used the local clay from the iron-rich seam running through the grounds of Limnerslease.  This gave the pottery a distinctive terra-cotta hue. Locals were taught to model the terracotta tiles for the chapel at her Terra Cotta Home Arts classes run at Limnerslease.  It is said that the Watts Chapel was built by all the residents of Compton village, Mary listed 73 modellers plus 4 permanent staff in her book of the chapel which she dedicated to the HAIA founder, Eglantyne Jebb.

Mary Watts and her students making gesso panels for the Watts Chapel
at Limnerslease
Source: BBC

The infrastructure for the Watts Chapel helped to establish the Compton Pottery.  Underwood (Underwood, Hilary, 'Compton Pottery', An Artists' Village, ibid.) writes:

"The specialist kiln-burner left when the exterior of the chapel was finished, but the successful clay-modelling class continued.  During the chapel project it had met twice a week with thirty or forty pupils aged from ten to sixty.  Mary Watts re-employed the kiln-burner to fire their work, and provided him with a wheel to make additional pots to offset his wages.  Orders grew and 'several of the younger members of the class were so attracted by the artistic nature of the work that they expressed a desire to devote their whole time to it.

Potters' Arts Guild booklet
source: BBC

8.  The creation of a guild and a local industry.  Around 1900 Mary Watts decided to turn the successful class into a Home Arts 'developed industry', which would provide paid employment for its workers."  A house was built for the new pottery manager.  James Nicol from the Cumnock Pottery in Ayrshire.  Mary Watts had written to Nicols "offering him a 'delightful village industry - beautiful things beautifully made, by people in beautiful country' (ibid).  In 1904 the pottery was constituted as the  Potters' Arts Guild, similar to the many guilds established by the Haslemere Peasant Arts movement.   "Half the profits were retained by the guild as capital but credited to the individual worker's accounts, paying interest and available to them on departure" (ibid).  The pottery closed in 1951.  There is an interesting short film on the Compton Pottery in 1933 available at Pathe here.  The sitting fairy statute in the film, or one remarkably like it, was until recently by the entrance to the Watts Gallery.

Compton Pottery building
Source: BBC

Limnerslease, the Watts' home,
Compton, Surrey

Haslemere Educational Museum's Peasant Arts Christmas Card

Haslemere Educational Museum have made the bold step of printing a European Peasant Arts Collection Christmas card, of a slipware bowl from Germany.  It's a lovely festive card, which I hope they sell many of.  They are being sold in the museum shop at £4 for 10 cards.

Haslemere Museum Christmas Card, 2017
Slipware bowl from Germany

Haslemere Museum Christmas Card, 2017
Slipware bowl from Germany

Decorative Arts Society - Arthur Romney Green

The new issue of the Decorative Arts Society Journal, no. 41 (2017) includes a marvellous article by Neil Hyman on Arthur Romney Green 'Obscure Geometry: patterns of influence in the work of Arthur Romney Green'.

I have had the pleasure of meeting Neil during a number of his visits to Haslemere when he was researching this article including photographing the Arthur Romney Green (ARG) panelled oak chest at St Bartholomew's Church and visiting ARG's old workshop.  Both of which are shown in the article.  Neil believes that ARG's time in Haslemere had a significant influence on ARG's artistic style, which is a fascinating insight.

The Decorative Arts Society Journal 41, 2017

There is more on the Society and Journal, which is published annually, on their website here.

Haslemere Arts & Crafts Weekend has Begun!

Eric Knowles' lecture this evening was great and very entertaining.  It was interesting to see him have some slides on our Haslemere peasants!  I'm looking forward to tomorrow's lectures in the morning and my Peasant Walk in the afternoon.

The Gospel of Simplicity by Godfrey Blount - Part 3

from Arbor Vitae, Godfrey Blount, 1899

Godfrey Blount goes on to describe his Gospel of Simplicity: A Plea for Country Life and Handicrafts (1906) “It would lead a reaction against the selfish commercialism and unspiritual philosophy of the present day, and preach in their place the charm of content, the pride of true independence, that is to say of living for other people, and not on them, and the sweet unreasonableness of Faith.

"We must do things be cause they are wanted, love things because they are alive, and believe things because they are obvious and beautiful.

"We must return in some sort to ideas and methods which the modern world considers effete and superannuated, because it cannot understand their underlying principles, or that they can be any principle at all or motive for work other than that of getting the largest and quickest return for the least immediate trouble taken.

"We must return to Simplicity, but not to innocence; to simplicity, not because we are childishly ignorant ho complicated and confused and cruel we can make our lives, but because we know it only too well, and are determined to prevent their remaining so any longer; and so we must wage war against all useless and cruel fashion (for useless fashion must always be cruel), extravagance in dress, food, and service, because it hides the light from others as well as from ourselves.  If this is asceticism, it is asceticism for the sake of our own higher comfort and humanity’s good, it is in fact supremely aesthetic – sensitively susceptible to the higher claims of Beauty which is finally but another name for Simplicity."

from Arbor Vitae, Godfrey Blount, 1899

The Gospel of Simplicity by Godfrey Blount, Part 2

The Gospel of Simplicity’s influence can be seen in John Chiene’s book Looking Back, 1907-1860 

 “We want to get back to the time when we make the whole boot, and don’t spend our days in punching the eyeholes.  We want to get back to the gospel of simplicity, as preached by Godfrey Blount in No. 8 of the “Simple Life Series,” and by Dr Geo. Keith in his most valuable book, “Plea for a Simple Life.”

from The Herald of the Golden Age, November 1903

In the extract of The Gospel of Simplicity (Herald of the Golden Age, November 1903), in my previous post here, Blount continues “Politics can only seal, never initiate, reform.  They are therefore quite incompetent to cope with the increasing danger of substituting everywhere machinery for hand labour, dangerous because a nation’s prowess must consist in the number of her sons who can win their living from Nature unaided and direct.

What armies of the sword or plough do we imagine these fetid hives of manufacturing cities, which destroy the countryman in his third generation, will produce?

The truth is that the majority of us, in and out of Parliament, are too compromised with machinery in some form or other to question its necessity, to abstain from its convenience in private, or try to control its growth in public.  Hence our revolution must proceed on individual lines, by the conversion of persons here and there to the wisdom of ultimately adopting the more primitive, slower, simpler, but in the end more satisfactory and humane, methods of labour; and for a long time to come our movement must be ethical and patriotic in the best sense of the word, and appeal to sentiments with which politics have practically nothing to do. 

The popular cult of machinery is the saddest evidence of that hallucination that we can beat down the price Nature asks us for her fruits. 

from The Herald of the Golden Age, November 1903

If we cheapen her on one side, however, she is bound to compensate herself on another.  In spite of all the labour-saving inventions of the past century, one may venture to doubt if the ultimate cost of production has been lessened, when we come to calculate the social and moral condition their influence has had on the country, when we take into account our dependence on foreign nations for our food and clothing, the depopulation of the country, the growing danger of our big towns, and the increasing discontent, ignorance, and savagery, of the population that infests them.

In actual cost alone, it is doubtful if wholesome living, good food, clothes and accommodation are any cheaper to-day than they ever were; doubtful indeed if beyond a fairly defineable limit machinery can possibly lighten the average labour or conduct to the average happiness.

We tamper at our risk with a certain standard of effort, of personal hard work that Nature asks us in return for her gift of Life, just as we tamper at our risk with the physical and spiritual mysteries of that gift.

Machinery, in fact, has been making slaves and savages while it has been making fortunes.  It is owing to machinery that unskilled labour is superseding skilled, that the countryman has forgotten his lore, and the craftsman his cunning. 

In bringing this broad accusation against machinery I recognise of course that it is itself a result and not the cause of the disease we are suffering from, and the evil we have to fight against; the sin of greed, the love of money, the wish to gain more of the world’s wealth than is natural or healthy for us, this is the real root of the trouble, whether it takes the form of monopoly in land or capital, the means of distribution and production, or any other method in the vast field of human selfishness which remains to be exploited…

from The Herald of the Golden Age, November 1903

We cannot preach the faith that is in us unless we act it as well, by practising in what we do, and in how we live, that simplicity and directness which will keep us in loving touch with the great Nature of which we are a part.

There are many ways of doing this, of which agriculture must always come first.  But while land is difficult to come by, tools are easy to buy, and while the tenure of land is surrounded by uncertainties, there are no restrictions to our making things by hand.

We can all help to encourage the revival of handicraft without waiting for Parliament to protect us, and help individually to hasten a better day, or avert a worse.

"We conceive at present of labour as a disagreeable factor in our existence; our main object is to avoid the necessity for doing any of it ourselves and to shuffle it by hook or crook on to somebody else’s back, or to get it done by “labour-saving” machines, whereas it is labour alone, backed by a good conscience, that keeps us healthy, happy, and sane."

from The Herald of the Golden Age, November 1903

The Gospel of Simplicity by Godfrey Blount, Part 1

The Herald of the Golden Age journal,
November 1903

In November 1903 the journal The Herald of the Golden Age (online here) wrote about ‘Books Received’ on Godfrey Blount's ‘The Gospel of Simplicity’: “This powerful plea for a return to country life and handicraft, written by one of the Members of our Order, sounds note that is much needed at this present tie, and it deserves the widest circulation.  In order to give our readers a comprehensive idea of the contents of the booklet, some lengthy extract are printed on page 129.”

In fact the edition prints devotes over two full pages to the work.  This is where I have taken the extract below from.  Blount's The Gospel of Simplicity was printed as part of Arthur Fifield's "The Simple Life Press":

“A gospel of simplicity is obviously what age of complexity requires.  But it is not easy to define simplicity: to put it onto practice is the hardest task in the world.  The greatest art is the simplest and the most uncommon.

The Herald of the Golden Age,
November 1903

Could we dare to suggest an epitome of the Sermon on the Mount it might be, “Blessed are the simple for they know what Life means.”  And in his own way Socrates said, “The less we want the nearer we shall be to the gods who want nothing.”

But do not credit what I mean by Simplicity with bad manners and want of sensitiveness or taste.  On the contrary it is for its very want of taste that we condemn society.  Simplicity, because it faces the problems of Life and knows what can be known about Nature, sets eternal fashions.  Society, losing touch with these things, plunges into the bottomless pit of ever-increasing luxury.  But that is prostitution, not good taste. 

Nor does Simplicity involve a puritanical asceticism: far from that, it believes that all our pleasures are keen in proportion to their purity, and sacred if they have been honestly earned and involve no unkindness to our fellow creatures. 

Our duty as reformers then has a material and spiritual aspect as well as a person and public one.  No mere reform by Act of Parliament or philanthropic association aristocratically patronised can alter the fact that we cannot lead simple lives before we have simple wants and thoughts, nor hope to see clearly through the tangled social conditions that surround us before we have set our own lives in order.  It is fortunate perhaps that the tangle involves us all, because in trying to tread our way out of this Cretan labyrinth each one of us will be doing his best for all.

Illustration from The Herald of the Golden Age extract,
November 1903

My object is consequently to plead for a revival of Hand Craft, which carried out to a thorough and logical conclusion would involve a return to the country and agricultural pursuits.  These are the first of all handicrafts, for if we could revert to hand labour as the method of gaining our daily bread it would be the fitting counterpart of that desire for simplicity and aspiration which we are anxious to effect in our ideas about life as well as in our domestic matters.

Most reformers would I am sure demur at my inclusion of the land question under the, to them, less important question of a revival of Handicrafts, and would assume that greater facility for the acquisition of land must precede every other material reform.  I venture to partially disagree with them; not that this, too, is not urgently required – I am sure it must be – but that in the present absence of all worthy ambition the mere giving people an opportunity of leading healthy and innocent lives does not, unfortunately, ensure their doing so.

What we have to do is to create the feeling anew, to educate a new peasantry who will come to the country as emigrants to a new land, keen to face new experiences and learn new lessons, with no alternative in the background in case of failure.  The question, in fact, is a far greater one than mere land reform, it s one of education, of building suitable characters for a great nation that is to be.”