Bourne Hall Guided Walk and Wheel

On the 2nd of September a group of Coalition staff and members took part in the fourth of our Thames Water Funded Engaging with Rivers Project. We returned to Bourne Hall in Ewell and the Hogsmill River. This time we learned about the connection between the river and the pre-Raphaelite artists as we walked and wheeled along the river – we even saw a heron fishing in the river! Then we said goodbye to our guide and returned to Bourne Hall to create our own printed wallpaper. After an exceedingly hot summer we were grateful of a change in the weather and enjoyed a much cooler morning – although we were pleased to be back inside before it started to rain too much!

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB), was a group of young English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James Collinson, Frederic George Stephens and Thomas Woolner. The group wanted to return to the detail, intense colours and complex compositions of Italian art prior to the classical compositions of artists such as Raphael Hence the name “Pre-Raphaelite”. They were inspired by nature and wanted to bring the same detail to the natural backgrounds of their work as they did to the figures in it. Their work was considered controversial at the time with many reviewers considering it to be blasphemous.

William Holman Hunt was connected to Ewell though his aunt and uncle who farmed at Rectory Farm in Church Street. William Hobman and his wife were the rich relations of the Hunts and William was named after William Hobman. Unfortunately, the clerk spelt the name wrong on the baptismal certificate which is why he was called William Holman Hunt. John Everett Millais had Ewell friends, the Lemprieres who lived at one of the largest houses in Ewell the Manor House on Cheam Road. Both men were regular visitors to the area and painted several pieces there. At the end of June 1851, Hunt and Millais came down to Ewell to find backgrounds for two new paintings which they had in mind – Ophelia for Millais, and The Hireling Shepherd for Hunt. The two young men set out down the river Hogsmill to find suitable sites. Hunt chose the meadows looking north towards Ewell Court Farm, while Millais continued downriver towards the slopes beneath Old Malden church.

Both Millais and Hunt spent many months painting and had to build a kind of sentry-box out of hurdles padded with straw in order to keep warm. Millais’ painting, an image of the tragic death of Ophelia as she falls into the stream and drowns, is one of the most well know illustrations from Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. Most of the flowers in Ophelia are included because they are mentioned in the play, or for their symbolism. Because he painted the river scene over a period months, flowers that bloom at different times of the year appear next to each other. The figure of Ophelia (modelled by Lizzie Siddal) was added later; she had to pose floating in a bath, kept warm by candles, and caught a nasty cold.

We returned to Bourne Hall for the second part of our trip. We learnt how early wallpapers developed as a cheaper alternative to the embroidered panels and printed textiles of the aristocracy, as a way for wealthy merchants to decorate their homes. Early wallpapers were often printed floral motifs and so we had a go at creating a simple version of our own! It was great fun exploring our artistic skills whilst we chatted.