The hunt is on for a monumental painted wall screen by Edward Bawden (1903-1989), exhibited at the Festival of Britain in 1951, then lost by the government a decade later. The artist’s executor, retired art dealer Peyton Skipwith, describes the multi-panel painting, titled country lifeas “among the most important works of British art of the post-war years”.
from Bawden country life was handed over to the government after the festival ended, but in 1961 a Treasury official discussing its future was scathing: “Its decorative value is a matter of opinion, and it is not considered salable to others purposes, nor even as firewood.”
“He was so underrated that he was allowed to vanish into thin air. I can’t help but hope that he must still survive, somewhere.
Jacob Rothschild’s Waddesdon Manor, owned by the National Trust, would like to find country life, as it recently acquired a major mural by John Piper which was also exhibited at the Festival of Britain, as well as two other important frescoes by Bawden. Pippa Shirley, director of Waddesdon, finds it “amazing that country life, that highlight of Bawden’s career, would have been so underrated that it was left to vanish into thin air.” She adds, “I can’t help but hope he still has to survive, somewhere.
watercolor guide
Luckily we have a very good idea of what Bawden Festival is all about country life mural looked like, thanks to a detailed watercolor study now in the collection of the Higgins Museum in Bedford. The huge mural itself was painted on 72 sheets of plywood and arranged in a freestanding concertina screen measuring 47 feet high and 36 feet wide.
country life was commissioned for the festival’s Lion and Unicorn Pavilion on London’s South Bank (near where the Hayward Gallery was later built). The pavilion aimed to reflect “British character and tradition”, and the Bawden covered its entire rear wall as part of the Quirkiness and Humor section.
The upper part of country lifeThe vertical panels of are painted with images of pubs and churches, country houses and cottages, horses and dogs, gardeners and miners, and country folk at work and play. Near the bottom of the panels is a series of still lifes of local products.
The pavilion was controversially demolished shortly after the festival ended. Churchill’s new Conservative government is said to have done so because the festival was so closely associated with the previous Labor government. The Festival of Britain was designed to be a national celebration of successful recovery from the devastation of the Second World War. It centered around a five-month exhibition on London’s South Bank, with a strong artistic element.
The storage fiasco
The Arts Council, then recently created, selected country life as one of the festival artworks that should be kept in public ownership. Its panels were dismantled and stored by the Department of Public Works at its premises in Barry Road in London.
What happened next has been partially pieced together by archivist Ann Chow, based on declassified government documents at the National Archives. These journals note that “prolonged storage caused deterioration”, which is not surprising since the Department of Public Works was hardly the most appropriate institution to store the works of art. Its Barry Road warehouse was due to be demolished in 1961.
“It fell into the hands of a demolition contractor, who sold it to a dance hall”
The filing also says the Treasury then agreed that the Bawden should be offered to the Berkshire Institute of Agriculture, in the village of Burchetts Green, on the condition that they pay the £3 postage. Last month The arts journal contacted what is now the Berkshire College of Agriculture, who said he knew nothing about the signs (at 47 feet tall they would have been hard to miss).
It’s possible that country life never went to agricultural college. Bawden once wrote that the work “fell into the hands of a demolition contractor, who sold it to a dance hall”, adding that “the Arts Council bought it but don’t know what do it”. A Canada Council spokesperson told us it was not part of their collection. Tragically, the Bawden may have simply been bulldozed into the Ministry of Works store. Any reader with information on the fate of country life should contact the manager of Waddesdon Manor.
Ocean luxury
In the meantime, the Rothschild Foundation purchased two more murals from Bawden, both commissioned in the late 1940s for the first class salons of two Orient Line ships that sailed between the UK and Australia. They were commissioned by Colin Anderson, director of Orient Line, modern art collector and former president of the Tate Gallery.
The liner Orkney had Bawden English Garden Delights (1948) and the Oronsay had The English pub (1951), both evoking traditional British life just after the war. Each is nearly 18 feet wide and painted on 11 panels.
The liners were scrapped in the 1970s, victims of competition from air transport, and the works of art were removed and sold. In 1990 The English pub was acquired by now retired London merchant Peter Nahum. He sold it at Christie’s in 2006 for £36,000. It was later purchased by merchant Liss Llewellyn, from whom the Rothschild Foundation recently purchased it. In addition, the Rothschild family had previously acquired English Garden Delights by a different route.
Following its acquisition of John Piper’s The Englishman’s Houseanother major mural commissioned for the 1951 Festival of Britain, the Rothschild Foundation also wants to trace Bawden country life
© John Piper Estate, courtesy of Liss Llewellyn
The best of the festival
Additionally, the Rothschild Foundation recently purchased John Piper’s monumental mural The Englishman’s House (1951). This had also been commissioned for the Festival of Britain, for the Homes and Gardens pavilion, where it was displayed outside. Painted on 42 panels, The Englishman’s House measures 51 feet long and 16 feet high. Among the buildings he depicts are Brighton’s Regency Square, the dome of Castle Howard, near York, and the artist’s mother’s Epsom Villa.
The Piper has also had a checkered history. After the festival it was donated to Harlow, one of the post-war New Towns, and then displayed at Harlow Technical College until 1992 when the building was demolished. It was also later purchased by the Rothschild Foundation from Llewellyn.
Shirley hopes to display the two panels of the Bawden liner and part of the Piper in a special exhibition at Waddesdon Manor, possibly next year. In the meantime, three of the Piper and Bawden pair panels are on display at the Stables cafe in Waddesdon.
Discussions are underway to lend The Englishman’s House for a temporary exhibition at the Museum of London, when it reopens at its new location in Smithfield in 2026. Few places have the space to show this Festival of Britain survivor in all its glory.
