ENTERTAINMENT ALBER T WAINWRIGHT
THE BUY E R S GUIDE
S ECRE T LOVE…. THE WORK OF ALBER T WAINWRIGHT
An important early 20th century archive valued at over £100,000 documenting gay life and love between the wars has been discovered in Lincolnshire. The collection of over 4000 paintings, drawings, sketch books and ceramics by the late Albert Wainwright have been discovered while clearing a property.
The work covers a period dating from 1918 through to the early 1930s and had been safely stored away by the owner’s mother and only found following her recent death as the family went through her home.
The collection of works covers all aspects of Albert Wainwright’s life and loves from his passion for theatre with set and costume designs to endless pages of observational sketches showing people going about their everyday life.
Amongst the reems of beautifully observed studies are also many sketches, poems and plays which show gay men in the inter-war period. There are many beautifully drawn and observed studies of young men at rest and play.
The archive, to date unknown by historians and followers of Wainwright’s work, had belonged to a George Collins who was Albert Wainwright’s partner.
134
Will Farmer is our antiques & collectors expert, he is well known for his resident work on the Antiques Roadshow, he has also written for the popular ‘Miller’s Antique Guide’. Those in the know will have also come across him at ‘Fieldings Auctioneers’. We are delighted that Will writes for Live 24-Seven, he brings with him a wealth of knowledge and expertise.
At a time when gay relations were illegal and the penalties severe, this newly discovered archive shows a level of private and discrete intimacy between young men. Its value in historical terms is significant while the works themselves are beautiful and very much of that inter-war era.
The collection will be offered over a period of time owing to the sheer volume of works.
WHO WAS ALBERT WAINWRIGHT? Albert Wainwright was born in 1898 in Castleford in the borough of Wakefield. The youngest of three children, he had a Methodist religious upbringing and was expected by his father to follow in his footsteps and become an engineer. It was thanks to the help of his perceptive art teacher at Castleford Secondary School, Alice Gostick, who spotted and nurtured Wainwright’s artistic talents, that Albert’s father allowed him to leave the engineering apprenticeship that he hated and attend Leeds School of Art in 1914.
Whilst at Leeds School of Art, Wainwright drew on a wide range of influences including the work of Aubrey Beardsley and Léon Bakst together with the brave new wave of European art created by the Viennese Secessionist art group. The work of Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt captivated and inspired the young Wainwright who was drawn to their exaggerated forms, fluid use of line and dynamic use of colour and pattern within the works.
After serving in the Royal Flying Corps, Wainwright left military service to re-join his family who now lived near Pontefract. Here he transformed a room of the family home in to a studio where he could continue his work as an artist and designer. Around this time he began to attend Saturday morning pottery painting sessions at the local Grammar School with Miss Gostick, his former art teacher, along with his sisters Hilda and Maud. At the same classes was the great sculptor Henry Moore, also a former pupil of Miss Gostick’s. Moore was at this time a close personal friend of Wainwright’s, exchanging many beautifully illustrated letters to each other over their time in service during WW1 however for some unknown reason their friendship abruptly ended around 1920.
LIVE24-SEVEN.COM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148
