Preliminary design for Lady Hamilton rug

Maker

(artist)
1879-1961

Title

Date of Production

1914

Medium

graphite and bodycolour on a grid of pen and black ink lines, on wove paper

Dimensions

Height: 40.3 cm
Width: 62.8 cm

Accession Number

D.1958.PD.89

Mode of Acquisition

Pamela Diamand, gift, 1958

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Label Text

One of the Omega Workshops’ original shareholders, Lady Hamilton offered Fry’s artists their only real opportunity for a harmonised domestic decoration project in her home at 1 Hyde Park Gardens in Bayswater. Four or five rugs were eventually woven, but with a less densely packed and more restrained colour scheme than this preliminary design. The squared paper provided a framework for working out the abstract design, rather than being of practical use for the rug-maker.

Notes

A design for this rug was found in Vanessa Bell's studio after her death, making the attribution to her reasonably secure. The rug was one of four or five made for the home of General Sir Ian and Lady Hamilton at 1 Hyde Park Gardens in Bayswater, 1914 (see one at the V&A, CIRC.660-1962).

Provenance

Roger Fry (1866-1934); by descent to his daughter Pamela Diamand; Pamela Diamand Gift 1958

Exhibition History

Vanessa Bell: A World of Form and Colour, MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, 19/10/2024-23/02/2025

Modern Couples, Centre Pompidou-Metz, France, 26/04/2018-20/08/2018; Barbican Art Gallery, London, 10/10/2018-27/01/2019 ...More

Special Display - Bloomsbury Art & Design, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 18/02/2017-20/09/2017

Beyond Bloomsbury - Designs of the Omega Workshops 1913-19, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 18/06/2009-20/09/2009

From Victorian to Modern - Innovation and tradition in the work
of Gwen John, Vanessa Bell and Laura Knight, Norwich Castle Museum, Norfolk, England, 30/04/2007-17/06/2007

From Victorian to Modern - Innovation and tradition in the work
of Gwen John, Vanessa Bell and Laura Knight, Laing Art Gallery & Newcastle & England, 13/01/2007-15/04/2007

Blast to Freeze, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, France, 24/02/2003-11/05/2003

Blast to Freeze, Kunstmuseum, Wolfsburg, Germany, 14/09/2002-05/01/2003

Roger Fry and the Omega Workshops, The Courtauld Gallery (Prints and Drawings Study Room), 01/08/1990-02/12/1990

The Omega Workshops 1913 to 1919, Crafts Council Gallery, London, 18/01/1984-18/03/1984 ...Less

Literature

The Omega Workshops 1913 to 1919, Crafts Council Gallery, London, 1984
cat. no. D11

Blast to Freeze, Kunstmuseum, Wolfsburg, Germany, 2002-03

From Victorian to Modern - Innovation and tradition in the work of Gwen John, Vanessa Bell and Laura Knight, Norwich Castle Museum, Norfolk, England, 2007
cat. no. 40
fig. 43
exhibited Newcastle and Norwich only ...More

Beyond Bloomsbury - Designs of the Omega Workshops 1913-19, Courtauld Gallery, London, 2009
cat. no. 30
ill. on p. 110 ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Inscription: Recto: right centre, graphite: “23” and “16 y 17 / 17 11 / 16 10” [the first “16” unclear as bodycolour obscures it]. Verso: left upper edge, blue ink: “HHF. 263.”.

Collector's mark: none.

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