Artist Louise Richardson has been invited by the gallery to create a trio of new works that evoke ‘Spirit of Place’, part of our Blickling inspired collection. Her works at first appear to be in a state of glorious decay, mirrors that the world’s leading interior designers crave but closer inspection reveals a semblance of image and layers that has the eye and the mind questioning just what is before them.
Louise has embraced the request to participate in our exhibition with both enthusiasm and research in equal measure:
Investigating the past has revealed the existence of a very special hound, ‘Urian’, that is thought to have belonged to Anne Boleyn and thus his gentle but haunting form looks out from one of the artist’s BLICKLING SEMBLANCE works. Careful scrutiny will reveal more!
The Masque of Anne Boleyn, a pageant performed in 1938 as a theatrical re-enactment of Anne’s life and story, was recorded at the time in grainy black & white photographs. From these images Louise has selected a child ‘fairy’ now imposed onto a christening gown from National Trust’s collection, generations blend and reflect before us.
A painting thought to be an obscure portrait of Anne is now shrouded in shadowy form, casting a silent stare from centuries past to our present – entitled ‘Wraith’
The gallery is delighted to have these BLICKLING SEMBLANCE pieces which cannot fail to garner a response of one kind or another….
Please see note below:
‘Anne Boleyn also had a greyhound. Although it is often said that her greyhound was called Urian and was given to her by Urian Brereton, brother of William Brereton, I have found no evidence of this. In Henry VIII’s Privy Purse Expenses, there is a record of a farmer being paid 10 shillings for a cow which had been killed by two greyhounds, one belonging to Urian Brereton and the other belonging to Anne’