Lady Ottoline Morel & Other Painters
“I love the people. I married into the people.” Reputed to have been said by Ottoline Morrell in a political speech.
Though Lady Ottoline has been ridiculed by various commentators, included in works of fiction, and generally sent up, she must be complimented for her support of rising talent and gifted persons. In addition to Gertler she patronised (and in some cases had affairs with some of these artists) which in the pre-Bloomsbury days included painters like Charles Conder and Augustus John. Both artists painted her portrait and it was in Conder’s studio in 1906 that she first saw some of John’s pictures. A short time after John was introduced to her by Conder and both were mutually fascinated by the theatricality of each other’s appearance and manner. On a subsequent visit to John’s studio, Ottoline was introduced to Clive and Vanessa Bell who was described as having “the beauty of an early Watts picture, melancholy and dreamy.”[1] Ottoline was ineluctably drawn to artists and intellectuals, most of which resulted in complex entanglements, not exclusively artistic, and usually of an intimate nature. Through Bloomsbury she also met painters like Simon Bussy (above) and Roger Fry, both of whom painted her portrait, though she described Fry’s as painted in “indifferent colours.” Much to his delight, Fry found that the chatelaine of Garsington was well-informed about developments in modern French art which helped their friendship to grow. On a trip to Paris in 1909 Ottoline had visited a post-impressionist exhibition with Dorelia John, and on another occasion had visited Matisse’s studio. In 1911, on the day before Fry embarked for Turkey, friendship turned into an affaire which threw Fry into confusion. Ottoline had probably allowed this to develop secure in the knowledge that Fry was on the point of departure, though he considered delaying his journey. Luckily, Fry remained blissfully ignorant of the fact that at this time Ottoline was seeing both the philosopher Bertrand Russell and the painter Henry Lamb![2]
[1] Quoted in Michael Holroyd, Augustus John, (Chatto and Windus, 19996), 262.
[2] Frances Spaulding, Roger Fry: Art and Life (Black Dog, 1980), 136.
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