John Craxton’s Sunlight, Joy and Colour On Show At Pallant House

John Craxton, Still Life with Sailors, 1980-1985

The artist John Craxton (1922-2009) was a contemporary and friend of Lucian Freud. The current exhibition, John Craxton: A Modern Odyssey, at Pallant House Gallery concentrates on his life and work.

The show is arranged chronologically portraying the artist’s life as an odyssey from his early life in pre-war Britain and culminating in his awakening in Greece.

John Craxton was born into a Bohemian, musical family in London. He lived in his imagination drawing on his fascination for the ancient and mythology, themes expressed in his art. As he struck out he produced a series of melancholic landscapes and was, to his annoyance, associated by many with the Neo-Romantic movement.

His early self portrait displays the introspective qualities and palette of much of his work from this earlier period.

John Craxton, Self Portrait, 1946-1947

The influences of his mentor Graham Sutherland and the inspiration of Picasso, who he met, began to permeate his paintings with an increasingly radiant palette.

Shortly after the end of the war, in 1946, Craxton’s odyssey finally arrived in Greece. He was accompanied by his rebellious friend and contemporary, the artist Lucian Freud. Once in Greece Craxton’s work began to be emblematic of his homosexuality the works filled with a new found freedom; a sense of joyous rebelliousness and liberation. The work is far less introspective. He painted portraits, life and the scenes around him. The paintings are inculcated with the influences of cubism and surrealism with bold outlines and vibrant colour. The resilience of the people and the animals in the landscape are often tinged with a breaking smile, perhaps reflecting Craxton’s state of mind.

Still Life with Three Sailors painted in the 1980s captures these qualities. It depicts three conscripted sailors seated at a table in a Cretan taverna on the harbourside. These later works draw on Greece’s layered creative history, myths, sculpture, Byzantine mosaics and Icons. The sailors are like mariners in a Greek myth far from home.

But it is the composition, palette and domesticity of the scene which delights. The wall notice behind them implores taverna dancers not to break the plates whilst being applauded with the words ‘No Breakage by Order’. There is a lightness and humour to Craxton’s signing of the cigarette packet and dating of the beer bottle.

It is in these later works that you find sunlight, joy and colour – the perfect antidote to our winter rain and grey weather.

John Craxton: A Modern Odyssey runs at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester until 21st April 2024.

Art and Antiques Discovered and Sold in the Heart of Sussex

Juan Manuel Blanes’s Gaucho on Horseback in a Uruguayan Prairie Landscape, oil on canvas, circa 1875-1878

As the New Year and auction season begins I have been reflecting on some of the remarkable art and collections I discovered and sold at Toovey’s here in the heart of Sussex in 2023.

It was the late W Leslie Weller, MBE, DL, who first pioneered a regional centre of specialism and auctioneering with Sotheby’s in Sussex. He was a great inspiration, patron and encouragement to me over the years. I was honoured to sell his renowned Sussex library and collection as a single-owner auction. Sotheby’s auction house in Sussex closed more than twenty years ago. But Leslie was pleased that his vision of a regional auction house with specialists in the major collecting disciplines, here in the heart of Sussex, was alive and well at Toovey’s. Today we continue to attract local, national and international collectors and dealers to our specialist auctions as he did.

Last year at Toovey’s a major work by Uruguay’s most important painter Juan Manuel Blanes (1830-1901) of a Gaucho broke the world record for his paintings at auction selling for £1.15 million.

Juan Manuel Blanes was renowned for painting grand history paintings and portraits as well as scenes and events that shaped Uruguay’s national identity during the years of conflict that resulted in independence from Spain.

Toovey’s picture specialist Tim Williams’s research revealed the painting’s remarkable provenance and enabled him to promoted the picture to an international audience of collectors resulting in the world record price.

English Country House Taste is layered and eclectic always reflecting the taste and interests of the collector and often a patchwork quilt of stories and interests. It is unpretentious, layered and evolving.

An interior from the Donald Church and Michael Godfrey Collections

The beautiful collections of the artist and interior decorator, Donald Church, and the connoisseur, Michael Godfrey represented the best of English Country House taste and were the subject of a series of specialist sales at Toovey’s. Michael and Donald shared a great friendship.

Donald Church had a remarkable career working with many of the leading interior decorators of the post-war period including the hugely influential John Fowler of Colefax and Fowler.

Michael Godfrey’s collection, too, was informed by exceptional taste and included fine Georgian furniture and Works of Art, 18th century Worcester porcelain, paintings and prints.

The prices reflected the quality of their collections and showed the strength of demand for the finest traditional pieces with good provenance.

I am looking forward to 2024, it looks set to be another exciting year at Toovey’s!

Community and Aspiration at the Heart of Sussex in 2023

Simon Knight and Rupert Toovey at Lancing College Chapel for the launch of the 2023 Sussex Heritage Trust Awards

2023 has been a year marked by both joys and sorrows.

The close of the second great Elizabethan age and the loss of HM Queen Elizabeth II was followed by the joyous coronation of HM King Charles III.

Throughout his life the King has provided the most remarkable model of servant leadership with a deep sense of faith, calling, vocation and stewardship.

King Charles’ vision is aspirational on a societal level with a wholeness to his approach. Heritage, conservation, education, health and well being and social inclusion work in concert with business, the environment and countryside. His approach to vernacular, regional architecture has been to build buildings that build communities.

Here in Sussex these values were given eloquent expression by our county’s people, communities and charities throughout 2023. Amongst these was the work of the Sussex Heritage Trust and the West Grinstead Ploughing Match & Agricultural Society. Both of these organisations seek to promote best practice and aspiration in our built and rural environments. They do this through their awards and prizes whilst providing bursaries and encouraging people, especially the young, to invest in careers in the agriculture industry and endangered heritage crafts and trades.

Rowan Allan at the 2023 West Grinstead Ploughing Match and Agricultural Society Show

Rowan Allan, together with Felicity Elliott, is the Honorary Secretary of The West Grinstead & District Ploughing Match & Agricultural Society. The Society has been holding shows for over 150 years. It seeks to re-connect town and country and show people what farming and the countryside are really about. There is extraordinary stewardship amongst our district’s farming community. Our landscape is part of our nation’s heritage and identity and it is wholly dependent on the life given to it by our farmers.

This year’s Sussex Heritage Trust awards were launched by the now past Chairman of the Trust, Simon Knight, DL, at Lancing College Chapel. The chapel has received numerous awards from the Trust and is open to the public.

The work of the Sussex Heritage Trust’s is important in promoting best practice in our county’s built environment and landscape whilst encouraging and supporting talented young people into careers in conservation, building and horticulture.

I am proud that Toovey’s and so many local businesses continue to invest in and support charities and communities across Sussex.

The hope filled work of people, charities and organisations across Sussex blesses us and they deserve our thanks and support.

I wish you all a hope filled and peaceful New Year!

Love and Service at the Heart of the Christmas Story

Florence from the Pitti Palace

Journeying is part of what it is to be human. It is important to remain questioning and open minded, to reflect on our place in the world.

I was blessed to find myself in Florence in September and was unprepared for how profoundly moved I would be by my encounter with the Christian masterpieces in the Uffizi Gallery and the Renaissance Pitti Palace where I came upon Raphael’s beautiful, intimate Madonna della Sedia painted in 1514. Mary and the Christ child’s gaze invite us into the Christmas story.

The late 19th century Continental gilt-mounted porcelain devotional panel reproduces Raphael’s famous painting. It was made to enable prayer and reflection. Christmas, too, offers us this same opportunity, a punctuation mark in our busy lives.

A late 19th century devotional panel depicting the Madonna della Sedia, after Raphael

In recent times, and not least this year, there has been much in our daily lives and the news to remind us of the difficulties of our current time. In particular the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. The accompanying mass migration of people has given cause for some in our country to voice a fear that our way of life and the things which we hold dear are in some way under threat. And yet the solution is not to be fearful but to be confident of what is at the heart of our nation’s common narrative, the values expressed in the Christian story of Christmas.

As a Christian I draw comfort from my belief that on that first Christmas day God came among us as a baby born in a stable, wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. His parents were displaced and without their home. The world over the millennia has often talked of value in terms of the material. By these standards Mary and Joseph had little and yet they knew that they had been richly blessed. What they had been given, this remarkable child, they shared with the world.

This intimate Christian story invites us to be active in the world and not spectators. By their example Jesus and his parents leave us in no doubt that acts of kindness to one another and a genuine concern for others can transform our lives and the lives of those around us. These are universal values held by people of good heart from all faiths and none.

The message of Christmas is that true value is defined by love and service to others, especially those in need.

I wish you all a very happy and blessed Christmas.

The Unsurpassed Work of Silversmith Paul Storr

George, the third silvergilt honeypot and stand in the form of the bee by Paul store, London 1798

During the first half of the 19th century, Paul Storr (1770 to 1844) was the most celebrated silversmith in England and his work is unsurpassed.

The George III silver gilt honeypot and stand you see here is by Paul Storr. Made in the form of a bee skep. It measures just 11.5cm high and is beautifully conceived and modelled. The wreath finial has a plain cartouche but on other Paul Storr honeypots like this one it is often engraved with a crest.

My wife’s grandparents and Uncle Maurice were celebrated beekeepers on the island of Jersey so this object speaks into some precious memories for me.

The history of bee skeps is thought to go back some 2000 years. From the Middle Ages bee skeps were made of straw to keep bees in before the invention of the beehive in 1851. Today skeps are mostly used for collecting swarms of bees.

This naturalistic object is bound up with the Romanticism and ideas of the rural idyll prevalent in the early 19th century which placed an emphasis on our emotional response to the beautiful and sublime which contrasted with the effects of the Industrial Revolution, urbanisation and the rationalism of the Enlightenment.

Detail of the honeypot’s stand showing the maker’s mark for Paul Storr on the underside, London 1798

Alongside the leopards mask of the London assay office, the Lion Passant silver mark and date letter for 1798 is the Paul Storr maker’s mark PS which remained relatively unchanged throughout his career. This honeypot was only made a year before Paul Storr was commissioned to make the ‘Battle of the Nile cup’ for presentation to Lord Nelson in 1799.

Today pieces from Paul Storr’s workshops can be found at the Duke of Wellington’s London home, Apsley House, as well as Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace, Arundel Castle and museums around the world.

In 1807 Paul Storr joined Philip Randall at Randall Bridge and Randall. It was the leading firm of silversmiths in the early 19th century. It held the Royal Warrant from 1806. Working here Paul Storr would produce silver objects for both George III and George IV.

In 1819 he left the firm to regain his artistic freedom producing beautiful naturalistic pieces. In 1822 he partnered with John Mortimer founding Storr and Mortimer in 1822 with retail premises in New Bond Street, London.

Paul Storr’s remarkable talents are still revered by collectors today and the silver-gilt skep honeypot has just sold at Toovey’s for £10,400.