A NARRATIVE in RELIEF the Historiography of English Modern Painting (1910-1915), from the 1910S to the 1950S
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University of Plymouth PEARL https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk 04 University of Plymouth Research Theses 01 Research Theses Main Collection 2010 A NARRATIVE IN RELIEF The Historiography of English Modern Painting (1910-1915), from the 1910s to the 1950s BRAND, CAROL FRANCES http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/2249 University of Plymouth All content in PEARL is protected by copyright law. Author manuscripts are made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the details provided on the item record or document. In the absence of an open licence (e.g. Creative Commons), permissions for further reuse of content should be sought from the publisher or author. A NARRATIVE IN RELIEF The Historiography of English Modern Painting (1910-1915), from the 1910s to the 1950s. by CAROLFRANCESBRAND A thesis submitted to the University of Plymouth in partial fulfilment for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY School of Humanities and Performing Arts Faculty of Arts July 2010 ii Carol Frances Brand A NARRATIVE IN RELIEF The Historiography of English Modern Painting (1910-1915), from the 1910s to the 1950s. Abstract The groups of painters in England who experimented with new visual expressions of modernity between 1910 and 1915 are the subject of this historiographical research. More precisely, the accounts of Vorticism, Bloomsbury post-Impressionism and the modern art of painters associated with Sickert, (principally the Camden Town Group), have been critically examined over a forty year period in order to trace the narrative of their place in contemporary art criticism and their entry into histories of what soon became the recent past. This textually-based methodology has produced an insight into the forces acting upon the critical reception of a particular period subsequently seen by historians as a discrete phase in the evolution of British art. The readings of texts are organised chronologically so as to illustrate the iii formation of a historical narrative and its variants, and to show how immediate responses and retrospective evaluations connect discursively. The findings of the research have four aspects. Firstly, it has been fruitful to isolate the narrative of the years 1910-15 over forty years so as to test whether it is possible, using this longitudinal methodology, to comment productively on the integrity of this historical episode, and to establish how the narrative became a critical orthodoxy governed by a limited range of analytical perspectives. Secondly, estimations as to the quality of the art produced in these years developed a distinct, often negative, patterning in journalism and art historical writing and this is also traced in some detail over time. Dominant tropes in the critical language have been identified over this forty year period which became the default positions of historical analysis and which, I argue, impeded sophisticated or revisionist thinking. With a few notable exceptions, the analysis of early English modern art is poorly served by its commentators in this period and this weakened discursive health. Thirdly, this thesis also considers the nature and influence of, periodicals, newspapers, 'little magazines' and the genres of art-writing that were extant between 1910 and 1956 and relates this to the distinctions and similarities between art criticism and art history at this time. A fourth analytic strand concerns outside influences on the production of critical and historical texts. lt explores the impact of promotional art writing, and exposes the professional pressures on, and rivalries between, writers and considers some of the wider political circumstances through which this particular debate on recent art was refracted. iv Coliltents Ackngwledg~men~ vi Author's !Declaration! vii ,List of. Illustrations .viii iCtiaptercbne lntrodlictionrto: Research iMethodology, !Parameters, Analytical .Issues, eurrent 'Scholarsl:lip and Synoptic, Critical Findings 1 Chapter'Two ln_ception <md R~c~pticm 1Chapter Three 92 .Now Becomes· Yesterday iChapter Four Past Sense ;Chapter Five. 222 Forty ~ears, On !Thesis. Conclusion 2·74: llllJstr~tiom•. 283 Bil>li()grilj)tlY 295· Acknowledgements This study was undertaken after reviewing the scholarship relating to twentieth century English painting and concluding that a historiographical exercise would contribute to this body of knowledge. From 2006-2009 I received a studentship from The University of Plymouth for which I am very grateful. I am also grateful to Professor Sam Smiles, my supervisor, for his wisdom and encouragement. My thanks also go to other members of the University who readily gave me time and answers to many questions. I also acknowledge, with thanks, the support of all my family. vi Author's Declaration At no time during the registration for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy has the author been registered for any other University award without prior agreement of the Graduate Committee. This study was financed by the University of Plymouth and was not conducted in collaboration with any other body or institution. Relevant seminars and conferences were regularly attended and archives were studied at appropriate institutions. Word Count ... 79,439 .................. Signed .....~---~·-·················· Date .J5L~../. .lJ ... vii Illustrations 1. Edgar Degas, L 'Absinthe. 1876 2. Spencer Gore, Rule Britannia. 1910 3. Frederick Etchells, The dead mole. 1912 4. Roger Fry, Angles sur I'Anglin. 1912 5. Duncan Grant, The Queen of Sheba.1912 6. Duncan Grant, The Dancers. 1910-11 7. Spencer Gore, Letchworth Station. 1912 8. Stanley Spencer, John Donne arriving in Heaven. 1911 9. Wyndham Lewis, Kermesse. 1912 10. David Bomberg, Vision of Ezekiel. 1912 11. David Bomberg, In the Hold. 1913-14 12. William Roberts, The Resurrection. 1912 13.Augustus John, Woman Smiling. 1908-9 14. Waiter Sickert, Ennui. c.1915 15.Vanessa Bell, StudlandBeach. c.1912 16. Harold Gilman, Mrs. Mounter at the Breakfast Table. exh. 1917 17. Wyndham Lewis, Plan of War. 1913-14 18.Charles Ginner, The Great Loom. unknown 19.Jacob Epstein, The Rock Drill. 1913-16 20. Mark Gertler, Portrait of a Girl. 1924 21.Wyndham Lewis, Composition. 1913 22.Duncan Grant, In the Tub. 1912 viii Chapter One Introduction to: Research Methodology, Parameters. Analvtical Issues. Current Scholarship. and Synoptic Critical Findings The task of this research is to identify and expose a specific historical narrative and then to offer a commentary as to its development over forty years or so. The validity of this exercise resides in the notoriety and persistence of this narrative within twentieth-century histories of modern art in England. That 1910- 15 is regarded as the most intense and contained period when modernism emerged in England is historiographically secure, and this thesis builds its argument and evidence base from that consensus. What follows in subsequent chapters is an assessment of how this consensus, and its variants, which amounts to a collective historical narrative, was processed through the next decades until reaching an interim maturation in the early 1950s. The methodology that guides this history of a history depends upon different levels of analysis. At an empirical level representative evidence within the vehicles of critical reception, such as books, essays, and journalism is brought together in chronological order to track the responses to the visual experimentation that flourished in the years just prior to the Great War. These primary sources are supplemented by reference to other aspects of critical reception such as exhibition catalogues, museum acquisition data and the activities of the art market. Corroboration of my analytical assertions will also arise from letters and diaries, both published and unpublished. Further to this, and in parallel, a research perspective is developed which gives emphasis to how these estimations of the recent past evolved as historical records and what degree of success they offer as art writing, both for specialist 1 ..----------- -- and lay readerships. This reflexivity necessitates a third layer of analytical awareness, namely recourse to theoretical thinking that illuminates the transpositions and adaptations inherent in the transfer from a lived reality into historical accounts. This also has to take account of the intermediate stage when current events are recorded, principally by journalism, a stage often 1 described as the 'first draft of history' . This methodology is enriched by the ideas and insights of Hayden White, Michael Baxandall and Stephen Bann amongst others, whose ability to identify and fruitfully explore the mechanisms of history-making at a critical distance from primary sources has been drawn on in the case study proffered below. Theorists of literary genres have also, with a similar level of critical detachment, been of value as a way to develop a particular historiographical perspective in this research. A central aim in this survey of the writing on English modernism is to be particularly mindful of and informed by Hayden White's theoretical amalgamation of the techniques of literary criticism and historiographical analysis, so as to develop a questioning attitude towards the vehicles of written critical reception thereby exposing the discursive forces at work within representative texts, a methodology that has an inherent impersonality. lt is relevant at the outset to be clear as to the parameters of this research; to say specifically what art is included in the detailed perusal of