On a bedroom wall in our house was a reproduction of Harlequinade. Harlequin and Columbine playing out their pantomime amidst twirls, slapstick, dogs, pursued by Pantaloon and Pierrot
My father also pinned up a picture of Picasso’s Child with a Dove, joking he had painted it.
Two paintings, one of a beautiful child and the other characters from the stage. My curiosity was stirred, how do you create such tenderness and expression, evoking a childhood memory. Picasso’s of pigeons and doves. The other, the tradition of pantomime, performance, entertainment, action and colour
Harlequinade by Clarke Hutton I found out later was a School Print, a series produced in the 1940s.
“Towards the end of the Second World War Brenda Rawnsley and her husband Derek had the idea of bringing contemporary art to young children who would otherwise not have had the opportunity to see ‘good’ work. Within a few years Brenda had set up School Prints Ltd to sell original lithographs to schools and had commissioned several of the most important living artists for her scheme” (Goldmark Art)
The picture disappeared from our lives. This week its memory was returned to me in an old brown envelope from 1955, addressed to the art school where my father taught classes.
The letter inside was signed by Brenda Rawnsley. The principal of the art school was enquiring whether School Prints had small copies of sculptures, specifically Henry Moore, as teaching aids in art classes. My parents probably acquired Harlequinade directly through School Prints
In turn I would go to Torquay Art College which still had access to the art school building on Braddons Hill, where Brenda Rawnsley also sent letters, formerly the School of Science and Art founded by Edward Vivian . Later, my husband’s business backed onto the Art School at Bishop’s Place, the address on the brown envelope.
The Arts and Craft revival waxed and waned in Torbay. My father went on to be a founder member of the Devon Guild of Craftsmen.
And a few years ago I painted Little heartbreakers, little icons of my childhood and adolescence in the style of Milton Head Pottery mosaic tiles. I included Harlequin and Columbine.
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