Object number
2008/89
Title
Trunch, c. 1930,
Collection
Exhibition
Creator
Description
This is a work of striking colour and vibrancy that depicts the village in Norfolk near where Claughton Pellew-Harvey lived. He was a friend and associate of the artist brothers John and Paul Nash - he and Paul were at the Slade School of Art together - and one of that group of artists of the inter-war period that found inspiration in themes and the rural landscape. For Pellew-Harvey this was particularly poignant because he was imprisoned as a conscientious objector in the First World War and thereafter sought solace deep in the Norfolk countryside with his wife and fellow artist Kechie Tennent (1888-1968).
Physical description
painting: oil on canvas; wooden frame; fair condition
Archival history
MERL miscellaneous note - This painting is the first item to be acquired by the Museum's project on Collecting 20th CEntury Rural Culture. The aim is to acquire material that builds, decade by decade, an idea of the countryside in the twentieth century... This is one of the participating projects in the Heritage Lottery Fund's £3million Collecting Cultures initiative., MERL 'Handwritten accession' form (Museum of English Rural Life) – Description: Oil on canvas painting, given the title of 'Trunch c. 1930' by Claughton Pellew-Harvey. In wooden frame. Perspex glazing added by MERL. Nov 08 // Dimensions: Frame: 108cm x 88cm x 5cm deep // Associated information: Purchased at Bonhams 'East Anglian View' sale in ury St Edmuinds, 30th October 2008. Purcahsed as part of the Collecting 20th Century Rural Culture project... Further examination and communication with the family, suggests this picture may have been painted by Pellew's artist wife Kechie Tennent... // References: Bonhams Catalogue for Sale, 30/10/08 'A Cornish Inheritance - The Harveys of Gloucester' by David Gore (MERL LIBRARY 9693)', MERL miscellaneous note - Claughton Pellew was born in Redruth, Cornwall, and studied at the Slade alongside Paul and John Nash. Paul later wrote that Pellew was 'the first creature of a truly poetic mind I had ever met', and both brothers holidayed with Pellew in Norfolk before the Great War. In 1913, Pellew converted to Catholicism, putting him at odds with and separating him from many of his former friends at the Slade. With the onset of the First World War, he withdrew to an isolated life in Norfolk with his wife, the artist Kechie Tennent (1888-1968). He was a conscienscious objector to the War, and following the introduction of the Military Service Act in 1916, declared himself an 'absolutist', refusing any form of war service. In the summer of 1916, he was arrested and imprisoned in a variety of penal institutions, including Wormwood Scrubs and Dartmoor, for the duration of the conflict. On his release, he returned to life and painting in north Norfolk, and is particularly admired for his engravings and wood cuts inspired by nature and rural life., Collecting 20thc Rural Culture blog [Thursday, 6 November 2008] - The first item to be acquired through this project is an oil painting by Claughton Pellew-Harvey (1890-1966) which was purchased at auction at the end of October. It is a work of striking colour and vibrancy that depicts the village of Trunch in Norfolk, near where Pellew-Harvey lived, in about 1930.//Pellew-Harvey was a friend and associate of the artist brothers John and Paul Nash – he and Paul were at the Slade School of Art together – and one of that group of artists of the inter-war period that found inspiration in themes of nature and the rural landscape. For Pellew-Harvey this was particularly poignant because he was imprisoned as a conscientious objector in the First World War and thereafter sought solace deep in the Norfolk countryside with his wife and fellow artist Kechie Tennent (1888-1968)., Brochure, January 2019 - advertising James Methuen-Campbell's 'Ploughshare and Hayrick: The life and work of Claughton Pellow and Kechie Tennent'.
Production date
1925-01-01 - 1974-01-01
Object name
Material
Associated subject
Associated person/institution
External document
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