My Most Interesting Thing:Epstein's Standing Mother and Child Statue

1.) What is it?
Epstein's standing Mother and Child Statue

2.) Why have you chosen it?
A stricking pose and beautiful sculpture that looks great at it's current location

3.) When did it first catch your eye?
Everytime I walk down the stairs or enter Carrick Hill house.

4.) If it was yours, what would you do with it?
Display it in my garden

5.) What stuff do you (or did you) collect?
Shoes!

Chosen by: annonymous, Carrick Hill Volunteer

Musings from the Backwater Blogger

It is becoming increasingly apparent as we work our way through the collections at Carrick Hill that the paintings are not just an eclectic gathering of modernist works collected by a discerning eye interested in modern thought, or an inheritance from a culturally aware upbringing. They also form a Hayward travelogue.

A fascination for me is to look at the works not just as the outstanding pieces that so many of them are, but as markers of Ursula and Bill’s frequent movement through the world and within Australia. Of course works by artists like Stanley Spencer and Jacob Epstein relate to regular visits to England. The provenance and history of much of the major modernist collection is recorded and most works were purchased from a London dealer or directly from the artists with whom the Hayward's had contact. But there are other works which have no such associated records and when this happens it is from the item itself that the story must be extracted.

One such work is a small painting titled in oil by the artist on its face Beche de mer lugger. There is absolutely nothing else on this work that would indicate who that artist might be, or where on earth (literally) the painting might have originated.   A lugger is a traditional style of shallow-draft fishing boat with a simple double masted rig, and beche de mer means sea cucumber, a creature that is considered a delicacy in many cultures. This painting shows one of these luggers moored in a tranquil bay. The crew sit in a relaxed group on the foredeck. The paint handling is fluid and the palette muted. Stylistically it fits loosely with the other modern works in the collection and the painting and its original frame probably date from the late 1930s or early 1940s.

Like a couple of other pieces in the collection, this painting seems almost like a souvenir. Did these ‘souvenirs’ work as reminders for the Hayward's of enjoyable stays? Were they gifts to each other or to them from other people? Beche de mer lugger has a price written in pencil on the back – £8-8-0 – is that around about the right price if it was purchased by Ursula or Bill during the war?  If it was acquired then, where might they have got it from? Ursula lived for a time in Brisbane (1942); perhaps she travelled further north to Cooktown where these luggers had at one time been in use? Bill served in Papua New Guinea, Borneo, Morotai and Labuan; perhaps he picked it up during that time? Did they ever visit Vanuatu, another sea cucumber fishing location?

So many questions unanswered and a mere nibble around the edges of knowledge concerning this charming painting. Maybe the archives will divulge something as the search continues.

What jogs the mind to seek things for the eye?

Well - Adelaide Writers’ Week is on with a vengeance here in Adelaide and earlier in the week two authors with an interest in the 1930s came to visit Carrick Hill.  Both fascinating and knowledgeable people, both British: Selina Hastings is a biographer of literary figures such as Somerset Maugham and Nancy Mitford; and Paul French writes on China both fiction and non-fiction.

I love taking people through the house as I am able to see the place through their eyes and thereby adjust my perception of the meaning and significance of the collection.  Both writers were delighted with the British modernist artists and became so absorbed in the Stanley Spencers', Augustus Johns', Derwent Lees' and Jacob Epsteins' that I forgot to quiz Paul on his China tastes.

 We did have a brief moment on Chinoiserie when we came to the lacquered cabinet in the drawing room (created in England in the 1820s), but I realised too late that Paul might have much more to tell.  His talk on the story behind the detective story of Midnight in Peking (Bejing) and observations on Shanghai (where he lives and works as  Market Strategist)were intriguing.  So on returning to my desk that afternoon I thought I’d check just how many references to China our Mosaic Collections program would throw up as I could not think of a single object from China – it was 26.  These included books, furniture and ceramics.

The most outstanding item is a turquoise glazed pottery jardiniere (30cm high with 54cm diameter) modelled with good luck symbols and sat on a gilded wooden stand.  I believe it’s a fish bowl, but that is only my conjecture, as I can see the golden shapes swimming round.  When I first arrived I had it filled with water and floated camellia flowers in it after the annual Camellia Show held at Carrick Hill each August left us with blooms to die for.  However it leaked and therefore only orchids are occasionally displayed in it now.  It is a glorious object, only roughly dated in the catalogue 17^th/18^th century so much more work required as there are no provenance details on record.

A quiet word from the List Mistress - the beginning of the collection

The Library, Carrick Hill, Adelaide, photo Mick Bradley

Documentation of the Carrick Hill collection has finally entered the 21^st century with the recent installation of the MOSAIC Collection Management System that will allow us to electronically catalogue and digitise the collection.  On the 31 January 3837 records were uploaded into the database, these records currently contain minimal information but they give us base records that will be improved with information from the old hand-written catalogue worksheets and research files.  At this stage, the project is being run by just one person on a part-time basis but in the first month two weeks over 800 records have been edited and in a few months, a group of trained volunteers will be ready to assist project by entering enhanced research information and digitised images.  Our goal is to have a 100 of our most significant objects fully documented and added to the Carrick Hill website by early 2013.

For the first time the large personal library of books that were owned by Sir Edward and Lady Ursula Hayward will be included in the new centralised database.  This will allow us to directly link the books to the paintings and sculptures that form the core of the Carrick Hill collection.  These books provide a window into the private life of the Hayward’s and include a range of first editions and popular novels; there are the expected gardening, farming, sporting and business books plus a significant number of art, design and architecture reference books that informed the Hayward’s interests and collecting tastes.    

Two of the eight Jacob Epstein bronzes from the collection with some of the many art books owned by Lady Ursula Hayward.  Collection Carrick Hill Trust, Adelaide, Hayward Bequest

The 'List Mistress' Caroline Berlyn