The sun is shining, the birds are singing and the washing machine is fixed – so what could be better than a spot of musing on one of my favourite subjects: the decorative arts of Bloomsbury. If I had any skills in that department, my husband would come home to find that I had taken a paintbrush to his suits and carved a cherub on the front door. Because I haven’t, and to maintain our good relations, I limit myself to books about how the Bloomsbury group decorated the space that surrounded them.My latest indulgence is “Omega and after: Bloomsbury and the decorative arts” by Isabelle Anscombe with a foreword by John Lehmann. This book tells the story of the long defunct Omega Studio, interlaced with the extraordinary personal tales of the people who founded and ran it.
In 1913, one year before the outbreak of the Great War, Roger Fry, the enfant terrible of the British art establishment founded the Omega Workshop in London’s Fitzroy Square. He did so with the help of his friend and lover, the artist Vanessa Bell and another artist, who was not yet a lover of either of them; Duncan Grant. The Omega Workshop was set up to provide work for struggling artists. The idea was that they were able to spend a few days per week decorating furniture and fabrics which would then be sold
by Omega. In this was they were afforded a little money and the time to pursue the development of their talents. The style was simple and striking – gone were the days of the lace tablecloth and the covered piano leg.The life of Omega was driven in no small part by the relationships between its founders – relationships which were of Byzantine complexity. At the time of foundation the love affair between Roger Fry, middle aged widower, and Vanessa Bell, young married mother was gradually unfolding. Vanessa was married to the kindly philandering Clive Bell and was drawn to the artistic verve and conversation of Fry. The Omega project was inextricably connected with their feelings for one another. When the Omega Workshop folded 6 years later, that too owed much to the personal. By that time, Vanessa was deeply in love with the homosexual Duncan Grant and the two were engaged in a companionable partnership that was to last for the rest of her life. Six months after the birth of Vanessa and Duncan’s child, the writer Angelica Garnett, the Omega Workshop was closed.
Its death was due in large part to the fact that Vanessa was now tied to the rural home that she shared with Duncan and her children. Whilst the workshop closed and its goods were sold off, Vanessa and Duncan set about decorating what would be the most famous example of their domestic vision: Charleston Farmhouse in Sussex. This is a house, which can be visited today, and where every surface is painted, every corner designed. The lives and loves of the inhabitants and their commitment to their home is writ large on every wall. The style is bold, colourful, arresting and was born in the Omega Workshop. It is a million miles from the austere propriety of the Victorian and Edwardian houses that Roger, Vanessa and Duncan grew up in.
This book is a super contribution to the slightly overcrowded library of Bloomsbury themed books. It tells the story succinctly and is beautifully illustrated. Being a woman who would paint the surface of the dining room table if I could, I was a little disappointed that there was not more on how the Omega and Bloomsbury style has impacted upon later generations. Clearly the style still resonates today and Charleston’s many visitors must have in some small way reproduced its visions in their own homes. It would have been nice to read about this. For the moment I shall have to content myself with pictures. I have included a few of various Charleston wonders.
