Eardley Knollys

Eardley Knollys 1902 – 1991

Works from the Studio Estate

2016

www.messums.com 28 Cork Street, London W1S 3NG Telephone: +44 (0)20 7437 5545 Eardley Knollys

“Despite all my interest in other peoples’ pictures, I never knew I could paint. It was After the War, Knollys moved to , where he joined Eddy Sackville-West, Desmond Shawe- after the war, when I was going abroad with Edward Le Bas…“Of course, you’re Taylor and later Raymond Mortimer in forming a salon at Crichel House, near Wimborne. This small, going to paint too”, he said... although I said I couldn’t. Ten days later, when he left Georgian rectory became a cultural haven, where guests included Sybil Colefax, Anthony Asquith, me to go to Lucca to meet Duncan Grant and , I was unable even to Graham Sutherland, Lord Berners, Nancy Mitford, Benjamin Britten, Henry Reed, Rose Macaulay, sleep for thinking about painting pictures. [But] I never looked back.” Laurie Lee, Ben Nicolson, Cecil Day-Lewis and Graham Greene.

By 1958, Knollys resigned from the National Trust to devote himself to painting. He moved from Long It was perhaps inevitable that Eardley Knollys become an artist, albeit rather late in life. A scion Crichel to Slade Hill House, near Petersfield in Hampshire. He shared this modest former hunting of minor aristocracy, after studying at Christ Church, Oxford, he inherited estates whose income lodge with Mattei Radev, a Bulgarian picture framer, with whom he shared a close, platonic freed him to pursue a love of watercolour. His early love of prints and drawings possibly compelled friendship. Painting from the studio he built there, his sense of composition nevertheless remained him towards a brief career in advertising at Lever Bros. and J. Walter Thompson. Hoping to break framed by London windowpanes, and he later said: “I tend to see things framed in a rectangle, into the film business, he then left for Hollywood, where he spent a year and a half, followed and once struck by a composition I have to make a drawing of it and take it to the studio. I do like by the obligatory pre-war travels in Europe. Eventually, he became private secretary to Viscount a ‘workshop’. [But] I can’t paint in my flat, there are too many memories.” Hambledon, owner of W. H. Smith, but was so skilled at managing both Lord Hambledon’s finances and his properties, that a few years later Knollys took up a second career. He became an art Knollys spent his later life in Hampshire painting, cooking and giving dinner parties – that were as dealer. likely to include one of the Sitwells as his cleaning lady – in rooms hung with paintings by Grant, Hitchens, Sutherland, Alfred Wallis, Winifred Nicholson, and Sir Matthew Smith, Around 1936, he became partners in the Storran Gallery, a small space near Harrod’s established whose works strongly influenced Knollys’ decorative Fauvism. When Knollys died in 1991, Radev sold by Ala Story, an Austrian dealer who showed works by Pavel Tchelitchew, Ivon Hitchens, Frances the house and moved his collection to London, where he effectively preserved it intact until his own Hodgkins, Christopher Wood and Victor Pasmore. Story’s assistant was Frank Coombs, a young death in 2008. That year, the collection was exhibited for the first time in a dedicated exhibition at member of the London Group, who later became the great love of Knollys’ life. When Ala Story Pallant House in Chichester. moved to California, Knollys bought her half of the business. Knollys and Coombs organised themed and monograph shows of works by Monet, Renoir, Gauguin, Picasso, Vlaminck, Derain, Earlier Duncan Grant had written: “It has been about twenty years since I first saw a canvas by Picasso and Modigliani, dealing on a sale-or-return basis, unimpeded by either overhead costs or Eardley Knollys. What I felt then was the integrity of his courageous enthusiasm – courageous their modest premises. Lady Ottoline Morell was a regular client, and in addition to Duncan Grant because it seemed to me relatively late in life, like Gauguin, he was burning all the boats in his and Graham Sutherland, they befriended many of the artists they showed. In 1937, they moved dedication to painting.” to Albany Court Yard off Piccadilly, a small, but brilliantly configured space, thanks to Coombs’s Knollys said of his own work: “I have always loved bright strong colours – muddy ones seem to me sophisticated mix of artificial and natural lighting. The gallery continued after the outbreak of symbols of gloom. This led me to the Pont Aven and Fauve painters, and they remain my favourites. WWII, despite Coombs joining the Royal Navy. (Knollys worked on a farm in Dorchester.) However, But I soon discovered – as they did – that youth and exceptional genius are needed to apply in the spring of 1941, Coombs was killed in a Belfast air raid. Knollys was devastated and while he blazing colours so recklessly... I try to drive along the splendid roads they opened – in my own car continued to buy and sell pictures, eventually he closed the gallery. of course and with some personal diversions.” He began to work as an assistant to Donald MacLeod, secretary of the National Trust. James Lees- The mixture of salon culture, country-house parties, old school and Charvet ties that colour Knollys’ Milne soon joined them and became one of Knollys’ closest friends, despite their different tastes and life might have been lifted straight out of P. G. Wodehouse (although it’s doubtful he would have politics. The two men shared a common passion in the growing plight of English heritage. (Lees- found this comparison flattering). Nevertheless, the enduring point of Knollys’ life was pleasure: the Milne had previously helped to set up the Country Houses Committee.) As more and more owners joy he took in painting, and the joy he took in sharing it with such a supportive, stimulating circle of country houses faced losing their properties in the wake of dwindling funds, servants and heirs, of friends. they looked to the National Trust for support. Knollys became responsible for advising properties Andrea Gates in Wales and Wessex, including Avebury Manor, whose Neolithic stone circle he championed to Director the Trust and which is now considered second only to Stonehenge in archaeological importance. Landscape 1.

The YoungerThe Trees 63 x7663 cms oil on canvas on oil 24 3 ⁄ 4 x29 7 ⁄ 8 ins 2. Reflections at Mottisfont

oil on canvas 7 1 91 x 64 cms 35 ⁄8 x 25 ⁄4 ins 3. Clumps of Trees

oil on canvas 1 7 51 x 76 cms 20 ⁄8 x 29 ⁄8 ins 4. Cityscape

oil on canvas 7 76 x 61 cms 29 ⁄8 x 24 ins 5. Reflections

oil on canvas 71 x 91 cms 28 x 36 ins 6. Blue Poplars

oil on canvas 7 71 x 91 cms 28 x 35 ⁄8 ins 7. In the Drome

oil on canvas 1 66 x 46 cms 26 x 18 ⁄8 ins 8. The Chalk Heap

oil on canvas 1 61 x 46 cms 24 x 18 ⁄8 ins 9. Olive Grove

oil on canvas 51 x 41 cms 20 x 16 ins 10. Summer, Renishaw

oil on canvas 1 76 x 41 cms 30 x 16 ⁄8 ins 11. Pink Blossom

oil on canvas 91 x 122 cms 36 x 48 ins 12. Thames Warehouse

oil on canvas 51 x 66 cms 20 x 26 ins 13. Hampshire View

oil on canvas 1 51 x 61 cms 20 ⁄8 x 24 ins 14. View from Window, Le Touquet

gouache on paper 1 7 55 x 43 cms 21 ⁄2 x 16 ⁄8 ins 15. Earthworks

oil on canvas 51 x 76 cms 20 x 30 ins 16. May Tree

oil on canvas 76 x 64 cms 30 x 25 ins 17. Landscape in the Var, Provence

oil on canvas 1 64 x 77 cms 25 x 30 ⁄4 ins 18. View from the Studio, The Slade

oil on canvas 1 60 x 117 cms 23 ⁄2 x 46 ins 19. The Valley

oil on canvas 51 x 66 cms 20 x 26 ins 20. Crofton Hall Lake

oil on canvas 53 x 69 cms 21 x 27 ins 21. Spring Blossom

oil on canvas 51 x 66 cms 20 x 26 ins 22. Hampshire Fields

oil on paper 1 1 45 x 65 cms 17 ⁄2 x 25 ⁄2 ins 23. River Valley, Hampshire

lithograph 46 x 56 cms 18 x 22 ins 24. Hampshire Landscape

lithograph 76 x 56 cms 30 x 22 ins Still life

25. Still Life with Chrysanthemum 26. Dahlias

pastel oil on canvas 1 28 x 53 cms 11 x 21 ins 61 x 51 cms 24 x 20 ⁄8 ins 27. Omega Roses 28. Chianti Bottle Still Life

oil on canvas oil on canvas 56 x 46 cms 22 x 18 ins 64 x 76 cms 25 x 30 ins 29. The Pink Bowl 30. Poppies in Purple Vase

oil on canvas oil on canvas 25 x 36 cms 10 x 14 ins 61 x 51 cms 24 x 20 ins 31. Black Vase Yellow Flowers 32. Still Life with Pears

pastel oil on canvas 1 61 x 47 cms 24 x 18 ⁄2 ins 76 x 64 cms 30 x 25 ins 33. Still Life: Lemons Peaches and Cucumber 34. Tulips

oil on canvas oil on canvas 1 61 x 64 cms 24 x 25 ins 66 x 51 cms 26 x 20 ⁄8 ins Biography Photo courtesy of the Radev Collection Radev the of courtesy Photo

1902 Born Arlesford, Hampshire on November 21 1920s Oxford University, founder member of Antony Eden’s Society. Working in Hollywood in various studio roles aiming to be a film director 1930–40 Secretary to Lord Hambleden, owner of W. H. Smith 1935 Moves to Belgravia, where he will have his London base for the rest of his life 1935–40 Proprieter Storran Gallery, Brompton Road, London 1942–57 National Trust, agent and representative for South West 1945 Shares Long Crichel House, near Wimborne, Dorset, with the music critics Edward Sackville-West and Desmond Shawe-Taylor (later joined by a third critic, Raymond Mortimer) 1949 Takes up painting on the urging of his artist friend Edward Le Bas 1949–64 Contemporary Art Society committee member 1957–72 National Trust committee member 1960 First one-man exhibition, at the Minories, Colchester 1965 Exhibition Hambledon Gallery, Blandford 1966 Leaves Long Crichel House and recreates a smaller version of this rural idyll at The Slade, near Alton, Hampshire, with Mattei Radev 1970–1984 London exhibitions at the Wilton, Mansard, Green & Abbott, Marjorie Parr, Alwin, and Achim Moeller galleries 1985 Exhibition Achim Moeller Gallery, New York 1986 Exhibition Southampton City Art Gallery 1987, 1989, 1991 Exhibitions Michael Parkin Fine Art, London 1991 Died London on September 6 1999, 2001 Memorial exhibitions, Bloomsbury Workshop, London 2002 Exhibition Messum’s Cork Street, London

2011 Exhibition Messum’s Cork Street, London CDIX ISBN 978-1-910993-01-9 Publication No: CDIX 2014 Exhibition Messum’s Cork Street, London Published by David Messum Fine Art © David Messum Fine Art 2016 Exhibition Messum’s Cork Street, London All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Studio, Lords Wood, Marlow, Buckinghamshire. Tel: 01628 486565 www.messums.com Photography: Steve Russell Printed by DLM-Creative ISBN 978-1-910993-01-9

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