Chance finding of star painting
A painting discovered in a storeroom at Chichester High School for Girls in 2005 has become one of the stars of Pallant House Gallery’s current exhibition, Julian Trevelyan: The Artist and his World (until February 10).
The chance discovery of the painting revealed a fascinating story about the Chichester High School for Girl’s wartime history, as gallery spokeswoman Anna Zeuner explains.
“In 2005 pupils from the school were taking part in a workshop at Pallant House Gallery when Phillip Riley, then the school’s head of art, mentioned that a painting by Julian Trevelyan had come to light when the school had moved sites. Nobody knew how the school had come to have such an important artwork, and so Simon Martin, now director of the gallery, was inspired him to embark on some detective work.
“The remarkable painting, entitled The Absentee Pig, was painted by the Surrealist artist in 1943. It depicts a giant pig flying over the farmer and his cottage, from where it has escaped and was created during a dark period in Trevelyan’s life when he was working as a camouflage artist during World War II.
“Trevelyan was particularly influenced by the Russian artist Marc Chagallandhadbeenlooking at some Russian engravings of debtors escaping from creditors through chimneys. In the words of Trevelyan, the idea behind the picture was that ‘a pig in his sty longs for freedom and that is a kind of dream of his.’ Until the discovery it had not been publicly exhibited in over 60 years.” Julian Trevelyan: An Artist and his World runs at Pallant House Gallery until February 10 2019. Trevelyan (1910–1988) was a founding member of the British Surrealist Group and an original participant of the Mass Observation project .