A Bloomsbury House and Garden.
Set in the heart of the Sussex downs, Charleston Farmhouse is the most important remaining example of Bloomsbury decorative style.
When the painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, Vanessa's two children and Duncan's friend David Garnett moved there in 1916, they took on an old house and overgrown garden ripe for transforatmion. Undaunted by the lack of creature comforts, Duncan and Vanessa set about obliterating the conventional wallpaper with paint and stencils and decorating the furniture they bought in junk shops. The result was a series of unique interiors that formed a backdrop for decades of Bloomsbury artistic and literary activity, which only drew to a close with Duncan's death in 1978.
'Charleston: A Bloomsbury House and Garden' celebrates the artistic talents, wit and originality of those who lived at Charleston. The house and garden are portrayed through Alen MacWeeney's atmospheric photographs, featuring entire rooms, specific decorative details, paintings and sculptures. Pictures from Vanessa's family album convey the flavour of the household in its heyday, while some of the many canvases painted there attest to the importance of Charleston as a source of inspiration.
