Wonder Walls

It’s time to celebrate some rather well known, that would be Gainsborough and Constable, and some less well known Suffolk artists. From now until 28th July 2019 there are 76 works of art displayed in the Wolsey Gallery of Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich. These works are arranged in a salon-style hang, a style first presented to the public by the formidable Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris during the 18th century.

Paintings by Gainsborough (14 May 1727 – 2 August 1788) and Constable (11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) hang with works by less stellar Suffolk artists such as Thomas Churchyard (22 January 1798 – 19 August 1865) Accompanying quote from John Constable, 1821.

This exhibition is perhaps one that Goldilocks would appreciate as it is neither too large nor too small. Several of the museum’s familiar favourites by Gainsborough and Constable are on show amongst paintings that have not been on public display for many years.

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  View Near the Coast – Gainsborough

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  The Millstream – Constable

The earliest work in the exhibition is ‘The Entombment of Christ’ dating from the 15th century.

The Entombment of Christ. East Anglian School circa 1450-60.

The gallery display is loosely chronological as you progress round the room with small groupings by theme, such as portraits or landscapes. For example, below and to the left, the pair of Constable paintings of the East Bergholt area, ‘Golding Constable’s Flower Garden’ and ‘Golding Constable’s Kitchen Garden’ are placed between Suffolk scenes of Woodbridge, Ufford and the River Deben painted by the 19th-century, Woodbridge artist, Thomas Churchyard.

The pair of landscapes on the left are by Constable with the three smaller paintings underneath and the two above are by Churchyard. Accompanying quote Constable, 1821.

Thomas Churchyard was born in Melton near Woodbridge, Suffolk in 1798. He was an artist who also worked as a solicitor in Woodbridge. Although, he was unable to support himself and his family through his creative endeavours during his lifetime, he left a legacy of paintings of local towns and villages and the Suffolk coast that now hang in art galleries around the world.

Fifteen Scenes of Melton and Woodbridge. Thomas Churchyard. Oil on canvas.

Wonder Walls also includes sketches and paintings of Ipswich in the past including a drawing of the beached whale that had lost its way and swam up the River Orwell in 1811. (The skull of this unlucky creature is now hanging from the ceiling in the Geology section of the Ipswich Museum).

‘The Whale at Denham Beach, River Orwell’. George Frost (1745-1821) Pencil.

Not all the art on display has a direct connection to Suffolk. There is a Walter Sickert oil painting of Bath, a Joan Miró lithograph, and, as you finish your circuit of the gallery, a Patrick Caulfield screenprint that brings us, chronologically speaking, almost to the present.

‘Interior Light’ Patrick Caulfield (1936-2005). Screenprint.

But for me this exhibition provided an opportunity to photograph a personal favourite. It normally hangs in a narrow corridor and is easily missed, but now on display in the gallery you can’t fail to notice this captivating yet somehow whistful interpretation of a very English moment.

‘The Felixstowe to Ipswich Coach’ Russell Sidney Reeve (1895-1970) Oil on canvas. C. 1940-50.