British Interiors
(Catalogue nos. 23-30)
Britain has long been admired for the variety of its historic interiors, from grand eighteenth-century examples to the more intimate ones of later periods. In this series, Trevor captures likenesses of these rooms and infuses each of them with independent personality. Drawing what is arguably the most famous of all yellow rooms, the Yellow Room created by Nancy Lancaster and her business partner, John Fowler, in the former Mayfair showroom of Colefax and Fowler, Trevor captures its timeworn elegance and simultaneously appropriates it, rearranging objects on the table to create depth (cat. no. 24) and subduing the light of the buttercup yellow walls to evoke nostalgia and passing time (cat. no. 23). The stately Palm Room on the ground floor of Spencer House, one of the most splendid private interiors in London, is the subject of another sheet (cat. no. 25). Here Trevor takes a theatrical approach, infusing the room with dramatic lighting and abstracting the sculptural forms.
By contrast the intimate interior at Charleston in Sussex (cat. no. 26) is of a much lived-in sitting room, meeting-place for the Bloomsbury Group. It is preserved by Trevor as it was when he first visited Charleston, rather than as it now is, renovated and tidied. Describing one of the state apartments of Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire (cat. no. 29), Trevor develops his interest in sequences of rooms, suggested with as few lines as possible. Here he includes the abstracting of human form seen in the Louis XIV-inspired bust, with its slightly weary expression. More loosely executed pen and ink drawings of, or inspired by, the sitting room of Madresfield Court in Worcestershire, home of the Lygon family, show Trevor exploring contrasts of diurnal and nocturnal light (cat. nos. 27-28). Trevor spent many hours in the library of Eton College and his lively, sympathetic pen drawing of the double-storied central study room (cat. no. 30) is one of his finest drawings of libraries – which will be the subject of a future exhibition.
By contrast the intimate interior at Charleston in Sussex (cat. no. 26) is of a much lived-in sitting room, meeting-place for the Bloomsbury Group. It is preserved by Trevor as it was when he first visited Charleston, rather than as it now is, renovated and tidied. Describing one of the state apartments of Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire (cat. no. 29), Trevor develops his interest in sequences of rooms, suggested with as few lines as possible. Here he includes the abstracting of human form seen in the Louis XIV-inspired bust, with its slightly weary expression. More loosely executed pen and ink drawings of, or inspired by, the sitting room of Madresfield Court in Worcestershire, home of the Lygon family, show Trevor exploring contrasts of diurnal and nocturnal light (cat. nos. 27-28). Trevor spent many hours in the library of Eton College and his lively, sympathetic pen drawing of the double-storied central study room (cat. no. 30) is one of his finest drawings of libraries – which will be the subject of a future exhibition.