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John Aldridge RA(Click on Picture for a larger image)1905 - 1983
An Oxford graduate, Aldridge was a self-taught artist who had a distinguished career, including in 1931 an early association with the Seven and Five Society. He went on to become a noted landscape painter in oils, particularly of Essex (he lived in Great Bardfield from 1932 until his death) and of his garden, which was his passion. He taught for many years at the Slade School of Art and, with Bawden, formed Bardfield Wallpapers, curtailed by the Second World War, but whose designs were continued by Cole & Son in the 1950s.
Besslyn's Pond (Great Bardfield) |
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Oil
c1950
Aldridge's love of the Essex landscape meant that it was frequently featured in his, and Bawden's, submissions to the Royal Academy Summer exhibitions. Besslyn’s Pond was a popular subject for the artists living in the village, and is a further manifestation of the Bardfield artists’ local interest.
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February Afternoon |
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Oil
1958
(Purchased with assistance from the MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund)
Aldridge was a painter and passionate gardener. The creation of the garden at Place House, the subject of this work, was one of his life-long achievements, frequently to feature in his paintings. He lived at Place House from 1933 until his death and, in the words of his executor, “this most remarkable house became one of the mainsprings of his life and work".
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Great Bardfield Village |
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Lithograph
1951
In 1951 Aldridge produced a lithograph of the village as a part of the Festival of Britain celebrations. This preparatory design is executed in reverse so that, when printed, it appears in the correct manner
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Haystacks, The Place Farm |
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Oil
1938
(Purchased with assistance from the MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund)
The Place Farm in Great Bardfield was frequently depicted by Aldridge, and by others in the village.
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Lady with Cat |
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Oil
c1950
(Purchased with assistance from the MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund)
An Oxford Greats scholar, Aldridge was a self-taught painter, an exhibitor in the Venice Biennale in 1934, and Royal Academician in 1963. His marriage to Lucie was dissolved in 1970, but this oil painting shows her in Place House, Great Bardfield at work on a rag rug, an art form she made particularly her own.
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Self-portrait in Oils |
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Oil
1946
An excellent portrait painter, Aldridge’s most notable work in this sphere is that of his friend Robert Graves in the National Portrait Gallery collection.
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The Hyde From Further Moor Hall |
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Oil
1979
(Presented by the executors of the artist's estate)
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