October Talk: Curator of the Hardy's Wessex Exhibition

 We  were very fortunate to be able to welcome Harriet Still, one of the UK's leading experts on Thomas Hardy for our October talk. She curated the 2022 Hardy celebration that took place at Dorset Museum, Poole Museum, The Salisbury Museum and Wiltshire Museum, and has now travelled to Museum and Art Swindon.

 She studied English and History at the University of York before managing Hardy's Cottage on behalf of the National Trust. Since this introduction to Hardy, over a decade ago, she has sat on the Council of Management for the Thomas Hardy Society and the Hardy Country steering group, as well as acted in various Hardy productions with the New Hardy Players and played in the Hardy folk band Tatterdemalion. Interestingly Tatterdemalion are holding a Ceilidl tonight at the Corn Exchange in Dorchester. Wish I was nearer Dorchester, sounds like a very interesting band.

Harriet as the Curator of the exhibition and a leading expert on Hardy was able to talk us through his life through the artefacts still in existence, many of which are in the exhibition.

Harriet Still seen below was able to give us a fascinating insight into Thomas Hardy and answered an impressive number of diverse questions after the talk. 

I have been a lifelong admirer of Hardy since I read many of his works in my teens and was captivated by the 1967 film version of Far From the Madding Crowd starring Julie Christie and Terence Stamp. There has been at least one other version since that one, but I don't think anyone could surpass Stamp's depiction of Sergeant Troy.

Are we in Wessex in Swindon? Of course it's a mythical place, but nice to know we're within Wessex.

I realise these photos taken from the screen in the Council Chamber aren't very good, but give a flavour of topics covered. This one depicts urban Wessex, rural Wessex, ancient Wessex and coastal Wessex.

Hardy was born in 1840  in Dorchester and lived until he was 87, in that time he wrote 14novels, several short stories and thousands of poems. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature 25 times and was considered an excellent writer.

Hardy's Cottage can be visited to find out more about where he grew up. There's a great blog post by BaldHiker with many excellent photos and interesting information here.

Hardy had a social conscience as can be appreciated from reading his books, he was interested in equality for women, looking after the poor, employment rights and improving the lot of everyone.

If you haven't already seen the Hardy exhibition at Museum and Art Swindon on the first floor of the civic Offices in Euclid St, it's on until the 8th of February this year. And did you know how the shepherd uses a shepherd's crook to catch sheep?

Frank Quinton Exhibition - Last Day Wednesday 8 September

 I think it's true to say that many people in Swindon have been to see John Stooke's exhibition of Frank Quinton's work and bought the book to accompany the exhibition, but in case some people haven't done so, I wanted to say how wonderful the exhibition is, and to encourage people to go along tomorrow if they can do so.

The exhibition is held in a retail unit next to Marks and Spencer on the top floor of the Brunel Centre. John Stooke has managed to borrow approximately 60 works to display and produced labels explaining quite a bit about each painting. There are some paintings owned by Swindon Borough Council which are featured in the book, but which weren't available to be loaned for this exhibition. Strange when the mantra is currently 'more art to more people' from SBC. 

Graham Carter wonderfully encapsulates my feelings about the exhibition and treatment of Swindonians by SBC in the Swindon Advertiser on Monday. When John initially approached Swindon Museum and Art Gallery to ask if he could hold the exhibition there to coincide with the publication of his book, he was told all available spaces were booked up for 2-3 years hence. I wonder what has happened to the exhibitors who couldn't exhibit? The list of exhibitions scheduled for 2020 still appears on the doors of Apsley House. 

But to the photos of paintings, starting of course with Frank's rendition of Apsley House from an interesting viewpoint, taking in the 1960s extension:

Both well established trees are in situ, and the extension seems to fit well with the older part of the building. Blaylocks is on the left, and still there. You'd rarely see the junction looking so quiet, and I think, judging by where the people are standing, this was before the time when the footpath was moved from beside the road to in front of the building.

Above view of Edmund Street just down form the Beehive at the rear of the houses. They are very impressive, mostly HMOs now.

This lovely painting is of the Hermitage built in 1830, it was demolished in 1994, to be replaced by the new building, an old people's home.

There's a sad story behind this photograph of the painting of the Sir Daniel Arms, it was owned by Doreen Scott, wife of Jim Scott, great Quinton fan. John photographed it, and then went back to pick up the painting for scanning, the house was empty, sadly Doreen had died and house clearance people had thrown the painting into a skip!

This terrace of Regency style houses along Bath Road were favourites of Franks.

And this might possibly be my favourite painting in the exhibition, it features the Edwardian row of shops in front of Swindon College. The juxtaposition of the two architectural styles and of course the fact Swindon College is no longer there, make it a great painting.

Finally, a photo of the opening night of the exhibition, what a treat it was to get together and talk about the paintings and catch up with people not seen for ages, all in one place.